Iceland 2009: November 2009

Parked By The Sea-Iceland, Akranes

After driving away from Reykjavik to Akranes, I lock the rental car and capture a happy sap of me :) More to come…

Good Morning Iceland

Mid-vacation, waking up to Iceland to go exploring!

From our hotel room, you could see the John Lennon Peace Tower. Ice was chosen as the location as it has no National Army and it has Green energy through its geothermic active. (It might be hard to see in the picture-if you double click the photo, it will display larger)

F&B-Iceland

After 12+ hours of hiking/driving, we treated ourselves to a pint and a pizza. The pizza had jalapeños and bananas… It was really good!

Gullfoss Waterfall-Iceland

October, 2009. Deafening sounds from the double falls at Gullfoss, Iceland. As we arrived, cold, rainy, wet. As we departed, we were alone with the golden falls and sunshine! Oh Happy Day!

Sigriour Tomasdottir

A stone near the parking area remembers Sigriour Tomasdottir. A farmer’s daughter who lived on the near by farm Brattholt. Private plans had been drawn up to damn the Hvita river at Gullfoss for hydroelectric project, but Sigriour walked to Reykjavik to protest to the government and even announced that she would fling herself into the falls if construction went ahead. The government instead bought the falls and made them a nation monument.

Playing poker with Sigriour would not have been profitable…

Wendita @ Gullfoss-Iceland

Visiting Gullfoss waterfall is a dramatic experience, with the huge volume of water producing a deafening roar audible from miles away.

Gullfoss

Cold, cold, cold. My face was frozen!

Wendita & Jeffito at Gullfoss Iceland

October, 2009, Iceland, Gullfoss.

Over the edge at Gullfoss

Iceland, driving the golden circle, Gullfoss. Cold and wet, but spectacular, 10.2009.

Gullfoss - Golden Falls

Iceland 10.2009, Gullfoss, the greatest waterfall. Windy & wet, but as we were leaveing, the clouds parted, and once again, we we the only ones there to enjoy the views.

Geysir Iceland

10.2009. The land of boiling water – Geysir.

Wendita took some good video of Strokkur, (picture here) a reliable geyser which shoots every five minutes 66 feet in the air. Strokkur translates to “the churn”

The pictures speak to the weather, we knew we were in Iceland :)

The whole area is geothermically active. Walking trails are marked out among steaming vents and glistening, multicolored mud formations,

Wendita & Sheep

Iceland,10/2009. Wendy and the sheep/rams. The pictures of the landscape really do not show how awesome the mountains were.

Drekkingarhylur

Iceland, October 2009. Crossing the Oxara river, Drekkingarhylur, the famed “drowning pool” that came into use in the 16th century. Men condemned to death were beheaded, but women who committed adultery, infanticide or perjury were tied up in a sack and flung into the pool-more deeper and more turbulent than it is today.

Wendy on the steps leading up to Oxararfoss waterfall. This the last picture I took as it was it was FREEZING, WINDY, and WET! Pictured in the car was a Jeffito popsicle after our hike.

Absolutely a beautiful place.