Jökulsárlón: The Glacier Lagoon

Ok, so when you hear the word 'Iceland', naturally, you think of ice.

NOPE - sorry, that's all in Greenland. And even more ironically, all the green is in Iceland.

Fear not! We found the ice!

Just off the main highway, in the country's south-east lies Jökulsárlón, a large glacial lake. It began to form in 1934 when the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier (Europe's largest glacier) began to melt. Now, just over 80 years on, it is the deepest lake in Iceland. Spectactular for us, but also a testament to the increasing global warming levels that threaten these beautiful environments. Our guide told us that recently Breiðamerkurjökull has been retreating at rates of around 100m each year.

And speaking of guides, we booked ourselves a spot on one of the Zodiac Tours (http://icelagoon.is/) where we got up close and personal to the glacier itself. The trip cost around €50 and took us straight across the 12km lagoon to the glacier. After that, we wound our way back through the icebergs, getting plenty of time for some killer shots along the way.

And we did a bit of seal spotting too. But seals weren't the only thing to get excited about. A number of Hollywood heavyweights have also taken advantage of the spectacular scenery. We discovered that the glacier and lagoon have played a part in 2 seperate James Bond movies; A View To Kill, and Die Another Day, as well as Beowulf and Grendel, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Batman Begins (in which Iceland plays the role of Tibet).

And if we weren't cold enough already, just across from the lagoon, chunks from the glacier washed up on the black sand beach, creating a frozen playground for us... Just in case Iceland hadn't proved it was a magical enough place for us already.