Höfn is a fishing town that has spent decades staring at a glacier, and the glacier has finally started to answer back. It sits at the mouth of the Hornafjörður on Iceland's southeast coast, a small town of fewer than two thousand people on a low peninsula, with the vast white dome of Vatnajökull, Europe's largest ice cap by volume, filling the northern horizon. On a clear day, the tongues of ice that spill down the mountains look close enough to walk to, and at sunset they glow pink and gold. The name simply means harbour.
The town's pride is langoustine, which locals call lobster, and it appears on every menu in town from grilled skewers to soup. Boats go out for it from the harbour, and the town celebrates with a festival in summer. Behind the harbour the town has a small museum on the region's glaciers and heritage, and a short drive east, across the sands at Stokksnes, the black volcanic dunes in front of the sharp, jagged peak of Vestrahorn make some of the most dramatic photographs in Iceland. The access road is private, and a small fee is charged.
Riding the Ring Road around here is a pleasure, with long straight stretches along the coast, bridges over braided glacial rivers and views of ice and mountain. West of Höfn the road leads along the foot of the ice cap toward the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, about eighty kilometres away, where icebergs drift out to the sea and wash up on a black beach. East the road crosses the Almannaskarð pass, now bypassed by a tunnel, before winding along the Eastfjords. Wind is the major danger, particularly near the sands, where gusts can be violent and the sand can blast paint from the bike. Watch for sheep, and slow for single-lane bridges.
Höfn has a fuel station, a supermarket and a handful of guesthouses and restaurants, and it is the only real town for a long way in either direction, so it is the sensible place to fill up. Summer evenings are long and bright, and the town is quiet. Autumn and winter bring snow and darkness, and some roads close, so check conditions. A walk to the harbour in the late evening, as boats unload and the glacier turns red, is a peaceful way to end the day.