More Iceland pictures

O.K., it's hard to stop posting pictures of Iceland. Like New Zealand, everywhere we looked was stunning. However, when we arrived on Friday late afternoon, we peered through misty gloom trying to read strange road signs, knowing that the ocean and mountains were somewhere nearby, but not able to see much further than the side of the road. As we walked around looking at sulfur vents and bubbling mud pools, we were cold and getting soaked by that fine driving rain that seems to seep through the seams in raincoats, familiar from Scotland days. I was worried that during our expensive layover, we wouldn't be able to see anything.

Krýsuvík Geothermal Area: Bubbling, Steaming Mud 

We woke up Saturday morning to much better weather. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were the best weather all year, according to the locals, reaching a high of 15 (59 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday and clear enough to see a volcano that is usually shrouded in cloud.

Hekla: the gateway to Hell in the Middle Ages

There are several glaciers, one Vatnajökull, is really an ice cap, a giant ice field with several tongues of glaciers that flow down through the gaps in the mountains. The outflow of all these glaciers creates a bumpy plain of volcanic gravel and rocks with myriad braided streams called a sandur, a flat lava wasteland almost like a desert. Driving along the sandur reminded me a bit of driving through Wyoming with its high treeless plains with snow-capped mountains. Lots of the lava flows were covered with this weird green moss.

Moss growing over lava flow

Reeds on a pond on sandur 

In the visitor center at Skaftafell, we saw dramatic footage of the results of a  

jökulhlaup, when a volcano erupted under the glacier, causing massive melting that eventually broke through the ice dam to flood the glacial plain below. Big ice chunks and boulders smashing bridges to bits. I love the word--sounds like a volcanic-glacier hiccup.

Volcanic cone with Mýrdalsjökull glacier in distance



View of braided streams on the glacial plain with Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) in background

Vik Church

Ruin of Traditional Icelandic House - turf roof, built half underground 

We went to visit the site of the first parliament, the Althing. Every year Icelanders gathered and the law was read from the law rock and justice dispensed. They make a big deal of the beginnings of democracy, but some of the justice wouldn't please us, e.g. throwing women and their out-of-wedlock children off a rock to drown in the waterfall below.

Alþingi=Althing: World's First Parliamentary Site - 930 A.D.

Rock formations behind Althing

Yet another volcanic cone with Langjökull glacier

Evening walk in Rekjavik -town lake

We had a nice sunset walk in Rekjavik from our flat down to the harbor to see the boats. Usually, when I see boats, I wish I could sail, but sailing in Iceland looked formidable. No natural harbors, lots of rocks, cold ocean. Downtown Rekjavik had some pretty houses and a stunning new concert hall right on the harbor, but most of the modern housing is pretty ugly--rectangular grey multi-story apartment blocks cluttering up the gorgeous scenery. If you get to go to Iceland, I would recommend spending your time by waterfalls and glaciers instead.