Iceland / Island |
Walter and Susan's 40th anniversary trip to Iceland, Sweden and Denmark Last Updated November 6, 2011 Click REFRESH on your browser if pages seem unchanged. We hope you enjoy them! Just hit BACK on your browser to return to this index page once you view the picture. To capture any picture to your computer, just RIGHT CLICK with your mouse on top of an image to save it. CLICK HERE to go back to the starting page!
|
 |
Welcome to Reykjavik! (and watch that spelling!) |
When you fly to Reykjavik, you ACTUALLY fly to Keflavik (KEF), which used to be a cold war military airbase, now highly modernized, and you have to drive through about a half hour of lava fields to reach the city proper. The Main airlines are Iceland Air (which we used) and Iceland Express. We rented a small apartment for a few days while we stayed there. Interestingly, though not so easily visible, most buildings and roofs are built of painted corrugated iron sheets, as there is so little local wood in Iceland. Our apartment was not, but you can see the blue building next to it and those across the street have the corrugated sheets. 
There is a very famous and popular outdoor wear company in Iceland called 66 Degrees North, but sadly nothing fit me well enough to buy, the sizes are all quite small across the shoulders. As you might imagine, good outerwear is a full time obsession of Icelanders, and equally famous are the hand knitted Icelandic Wool Sweaters. |
Waterfalls Everywhere Foss |
The landscape of Iceland is full of melting snowpacks, glaciers and ice, the runoff from these creates huge waterfalls of every type. The icelandic word for waterfall is Foss. It is difficult to appreciate the size of some of these falls from the pictures, but most of them are huge in size.Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Falls CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
 |
Geysers Primal Geothermal Energy |
Geothermal energy is everywhere in Iceland. natural geysers have been used for centuries here to mine sulphur, and making gunpowder was a major industry around them. Geysers in this area were very regular, erupting every five minutes. The smell is ghastly, like deeply rotten eggs from the sulphur and other residues. The pools actually contain sulphuric acid, which eats the rock channels away. Surface water is around 80C. Most hot water in the cities is directly from geothermal wells.Erupting Geyser CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Geysers CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Geysers CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Geysers CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Geysers CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Geysers CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
 |
Puffins The most elusive of birds! |
Frankly, we figured Puffins were a total hoax, as in Newfoundland, where everybody has Puffin Boat Tours, but nobody ever sees any. We actually ate some smoked Puffin in Iceland, and YES, we saw them for real, so they are really out there...but honestly, there are way more toy ones in shop windows than live ones out in the sea! They are every bit as goofy and un-aerodynamic as they appear, and Puffin Island actually is covered in Seagulls.Puffin Island (only Seagulls) CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Actual Puffins CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Three Puffins! CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Three Puffins! CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Puffin by the Island CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
In Search of the Puffin! CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
 |
Snowmobiling on a glacier on top of a volcano Pretty much everything in Iceland is an adventure |
Christian, our guide, arranged for us to travel up on top of a currently dormant volcano to snowmobile on top of the glacier that had formed there. There is a lodge built there to equip those that want to travel out onto the glacier, and we arrived there in the middle of a snowstorm with near white-out conditions. The local guide used GPS to take us out over the glacier, which was quite a hoot, but our visibility was often no farther than two snowmobiles away. At the end of the trip, he sketched out the appearance of the glacier in the snowpack, since we couldn't see it through the falling snow.Christian and one of our local guides CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Getting geared up CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Susan in the whiteout CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Off we go... CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Halfway Point CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Glacier Lessons CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
 |
The Blue Lagoon One of Iceland's Cultural Icons |
The Blue Lagoon is a natually geothermal heated mineral pond about 50km from Reykjavik, famous for it's color, and health-giving properties. An entire industry and health spa has grown up around this natural lagoon, and it has been dramatically built up and tourist-ized to make it convenient to take a dip in the hot pools. Fortunately it's NOT filled with sulphuric acid, like the geysers. The Main Pools CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
The outlflow areas CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
The Hype CLICK to VISIT! |
 |
Outside the City An amazingly beautiful country |
The landscape outside the city is almost prehistoric. It's volcanic, often barren, but filled with many sudden surprises you just don't expect. The lack of trees, and often even grass is a constant surprise. Lichen and moss are the most often seen growing things, because there is so little topsoil. Birch trees are native to iceland, but were cut almost to extinction by early settlers. They are slowly re-growing, but are rarely over 5 feet tall. Pines are being introduced to help create wind breaks and re-establish forests, but they are not native.The Rugged Coastline CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Jagged Rocks CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Lava Beaches CLICK to VISIT! |
Lava Flows Still Visible CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Very Tough Plants CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Beautiful Blue Ocean CLICK to VISIT! |
Turn of the Century Electrical CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Old Earthen House CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Early House CLICK to VISIT! |
Early House CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Icelandic Horses CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Susan, Icelandic Cowgirl CLICK to VISIT! |
Out for a Ride CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Horses Just Want To Have Fun CLICK to VISIT! |
Geothermal Power Wellhead CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
 |
Thingvellir At Þingvellir, the Alþing or general assembly started in 930AD |
Now one of Iceland's three main National Parks, Thingvellir is the heart of all Icelandic history, the meeting place of the country. The Allthing (Alþing in Icelandic) met here from 930 until 1798, and set the course of Iceland's history. In icelandic the character Þ is pronounced as our 'th'.View of Lake Þingvallavatn CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
The New Pine Forest CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Over the Meeting Valley CLICK to VISIT! |
Hiking Down To The Bottom CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Balancing Rocks CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
The Valley Floor CLICK to VISIT! |
Valley Streams CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Old Church CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
The Valley Side CLICK to VISIT! |
Typical Icelandic 'Forest' CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Overgrown Lava CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
Blue Streams CLICK to VISIT! |
Coins In the Stream CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
The Stream's Start CLICK for a BIGGER PIC! |
How We Got Here (Superjeep) CLICK to VISIT! |
| Iceland / Island Iceland, CLICK to See! 
|
Sweden / Sverige Sweden, CLICK to See! 
|
Denmark / Danmark Denmark, CLICK to See! 
|
