THE LAND OF FIRE AND ICE — Most of us have been to a beach or two in our day. And they usually share similar characteristics. You have sand, shells and water. Throw in some seabirds, and you've got yourself a classic beach.
Sometimes you might encounter variations on this theme. A rocky beach. A marshy beach. A pebbly beach.
Iceland's Diamond Beach (I think the locals call it Breiðamerkursandur) is renowned for taking things in a totally unique direction. The sand is black, which makes it special right out of the gate. But the beach doesn't stop there. It adds chunks of glacier ice that look like sparkling diamonds. Catch a quick peek of the beach in this video.
As you can see, this is no ordinary day at the beach. The volcanic sand creates such a beautifully stark backdrop for the ice chunks from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. It's an ever-changing array of shapes and contrasts.
Diamond Beach is about a five-hour drive from Reykjavik. It's accessible year-round, but the most magnificent ice is usually visible from November to March.
Have You Seen This?
Kids explain curling
In this video, children explain the rules of curling while some Canadian curlers act out those rules. The kids get things mostly right, as far as I can tell.
