Have an Ice day!

All right folks, now for glacial Iceland…

Now, Iceland’s glaciers aren’t the biggest in the world, but all the same, the grand glacial vistas, the glacial lakes with icebergs, and the phenomenon of natural might… in sum it’s all fairly spellbinding.

We checked out two glaciers while on the island. First up: Langjökull (here).

It was here I had a go on a snowmobile for the first time! Have to say, I was expecting an easy, comfortable glide across the snow… Turns out snowmobiling at 50+ km/h on wet and powdery snow – neither comfortable nor easy.

There are two highland tracks in Langjökull, but we used none of them. We drove snowmobiles!

Langjökull is the second largest ice cap in Iceland after Vatnajökull
Langjökull in Icelandic means 'long glacier'. Confirmed
Langjökull is 195 km³ and the ice is up to 580m (1,900ft) thick. The highest point is about 1450m (4,760ft) above sea level
Under Langjökull there are two or more volcanic systems. I love volcanisms!

We snowmobiled past a curious touristic feature that looked like it was worth the visit; it was: an ice tunnel and caves inside a glacier. It reminded me of the Permafrost Kingdom underground caves in Yakutia – including the vodka shots on your way in and out.

Yes, this is a man–made ice cave

You can work out if it really is worth going in there by checking out reviews on Trip Advisor

The cave's construction was begun in 2010 by a team led by Baldvin Einarsson and Hallgrimur Örn Arngrímsson
I don't know this dog's name. But it ate our shark meat!
Into the Glacier, Europe’s largest man-made ice cave and tunnel was officially opened on June 1, 2015
The cave is lit by hundreds of LEDs inside the ice walls
This multi-purpose ice cave room is also available for "weddings, parties, meetings and other events". Wow!
The cave stretches 550m into solid glacier ice at 30 meters below the surface
There are only two ways to get to the cave: either in a special vehicle like this one or in a chopper

Next up – Vatnajökull.

Here we checked out its two glacial lakes: Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón. Here.

The former lake emerges as a ‘tongue’ from the outlet glacier called Breiðamerkurjökull that emerges from Vatnajökull.

Vatnajökull in Icelandic means 'Glacier of Lakes'. I see why
Vatnajökull is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and one of the largest in area in Europe
Vatnajökull covers more than eight percent of Iceland!
Vatnajökull's average ice thickness is 400m (1,300ft), with a maximum thickness of 1000m
Iceland's highest peak, Hvannadalshnúkur (2110m (6922ft)), is located in the southern periphery of Vatnajökull
Vatnajökull has around 30 outlet glaciers flowing from the ice cap
Vatnajökull was used as the setting for the opening sequence of the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill
Vatnajökull was also used as a shooting location for the second season of the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones
During the last ice age, numerous volcanic eruptions occurred under Vatnajökull, creating many subglacial eruptions