Iceland 1
-
Iceland 1
We visited Iceland in September 2019. The photos in this gallery are from our first four days, which took us from Reykjavik, to the Westmann Islands, then north to see Thingvellir and across the southern part of the Ring Road through Vik.
About transliteration: Icelandic uses some characters not found in the standard Roman alphabet. I've rendered þ as 'th': it occurs only at the beginnings of words. I've rendered the æ ligature as 'ae'. The tricky one is eth (ð): Rather than render it as 'd' (which is common) I've transliterated it as 'dh'. Other special vowels (á, é, í etc.) are rendered without accents. So the town of Búðir is transliterated here as Budhir rather than Budir; Seyðisfjörður becomes Seydhisfjordhur; Glaumbær becomes Glaumbaer. -
Our first destination was Heimaey, the main island in the Vestmanneyjar (Westmann Islands) archipelago. This involved a one-hour ferry ride. -
Church in Heimaey (Vestmanneyjar) -
Icelandic Horse
On Heimaey. -
-
-
Vestmannaeyjar
-
-
South coast of Iceland as seen from Vestmannaeyjar. Taken as we waited for ferry that would take us back to mainland. -
After a day in the Westmann Islands, we ferried back to the mainland and drove north to visit the national park at Thingvellir, Gullfoss (one of Iceland's many spectacular waterfalls). Then we got back on the "Ring Road" and headed east along the southern coast.
-
Gullfoss
Our first spectacular waterfall in Iceland. There were many, many more. -
-
-
Thingvellir
Birthplace of the Icelandic nation a thousand years ago and so truly sacred ground to Icelanders. -
Oxararfoss at Thingvellir
-
Thingvellir: Where continents meet
This gap -- growing at about 1 cm per year -- is where Europe (on the left) meets North America (on the right). You can literally stand on two continents at once and so we did. -
-
-
Scogafoss
This couple from Houston, Texas, just got married in Iceland and were having their wedding portrait taken here at Scogafoss. What a spectacular backdrop! Blessings on the couple. -
Solheimajokull
The Solheimajokull glacier. It's beautiful and ugly at the same time. Remember, this thing is moving and in a sense, alive -- in fact, there were warnings that the glacier is "calving", that is, that parts of it are breaking off, which can be very dangerous if you're nearby. -
-
-
More glaciers in the southwest region. -
-
Vik
-
Jökulsárlón
A glacial lake. We saw a seal swimming here. -
To continue to Iceland 2 (the next four days), click here.