We had the best weather yet in June. At least for the first three weeks of June. Fortunately, one of those weeks was the week that our son Mike, his wife Sarah and their daughter Kaitlyn were visiting with us. We enjoyed the first sun we had had in a very long time. Following are pictures of our week of exploring Iceland.
The Blue Lagoon
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First adventure - Going to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa
National Geographic named it one of the top 25 Wonders of the World |
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| Fish drying in the sun |
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| Fish racks |
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Bridge Between Continents.
Kaitlyn and I are in Europe and Mike and Sarah are in North America!
Bridge between Europe and North America on Reykjanes Peninsula.
The peninsula lies on one of the world's major plate boundaries, the Mid Atlantic Ridge. |
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| Wow! Holding up that bridge is amazing!!! |
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| Start of our hike to Hot River (better know as Reykjadalur) - this is a 2 mile hike up into the mountains. |
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| Water was almost too hot to put the tired toes in. But they managed it! |
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| Mother and Babies (one white and one black) in the sun - seen on our hike up the mountain. |
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| Parking lot at start of hike. |
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| Parking lot at end of hike |
Going to Snaefellsnes Peninsula
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| Harbor Seals and Gray Seals basking on a wonderful sunny day. |
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| More seals |
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| And even more seals. |
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| Wait!! Here's another one. |
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| A beautiful day to be at the beach! |
The following series of pictures are of our trip to Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
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| Hiking up to Kirkjufellfoss (falls) |
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| Allan with Kirkjufellfoss (falls) and Kirkjufell Mountain behind him. |
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Game of Thrones Territory!
We are at Djúpalónssandur beach. |
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| Black pebble beach. Beautiful and warm. |
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| Kaitlyn enjoying the beach. |
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| Kaitlyn and I are going to brave the ocean! |
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Water was cold and the tiny pebbles hard!
But we had fun waiting for the BIG ONE (wave) to arrive! |
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Mike totally enjoying himself!
That's my boy!!!! |
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| Looking from the ocean toward Snaefellsjokull Glacier |
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Iconic little red roofed house with Lupine and other wild flowers
with Snaefellsjokull Glacier in the background.
Little fishing village of Arnarstapi. |
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Picnicing in the shadow of Snaefellsjokull Glacier.
Village of Arnarstapi.
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| Snaefellsjokull Glacier |
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| Still on peninsula and stopped to admire and feed these darling Icelandic Horses. |
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The view on our drive to Olafsvik where we stayed overnight.
Still on peninsula.
Olafsvik is Iceland’s oldest trading town, established in 1687. |
The following pictures are of the Icelandic coastline - still on peninsula.
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| Sod roofed homes. |
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| Stykkishólmur Village |
Stykkishólmur on top of the mountain.
Photo of Mike taking a photo of Kaitlyn.
This was our day to do the Golden Circle Loop.
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| Walking around the Kerid volcanic cone |
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| Waiting for the geyser to go off! Notice the Lupine on the hills. |
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| There it goes! |
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| Gift shop oddity outside the restrooms. |
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Gullfoss!
This waterfall is approximately 32 meters in height with 2 drops.
Water source is the Hvita River. |
Thingvillir National Park
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| The park lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the mid-atlantic ridge and the boundary between the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates. |
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| Walking along the great rift. We were there on Iceland's Independence Day. |
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These guys are real troopers!
Still smiling and walking and climbing and smiling! |
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| This little beauty was hanging out hoping for some food! |
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| Driving home on the last part of the Golden Circle Loop |
Now we are traveling to Vik. The Southermost village in Iceland
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| Basalt columns. |
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| He's up.....I'm down..... |
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| I'm up.....he's down! |
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| Our first Puffin sightings. |
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| Rocky perch for this Eider couple! |
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"Foss" means falls
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| You can walk behind this waterfall. |
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| Mike was adventurous enough to do it. |
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| Skogafoss |
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| Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach |
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| Solheimajokull ("jokull" means glacier) |
These beautiful sunsets met us at the end of our days of exploring.
The day Mike and family left it turned cold and overcast again and we saw the sun for the first time again yesterday! We had a fun packed week with them. I'm sure they went home to recuperate from all the fun they had. We were in the car a lot and then walking/hiking the other times. We managed to get to all the sights we had hoped to see. Looking forward to Jenn and her husband, Jared, coming for a visit towards the end of July. We are hoping for good weather for their visit!!!
All is well in our part of the world. Missionaries have about 8 baptisms scheduled and we are giving classes on Family Search in our Branch and helping the Reykjavik missionaries with individuals they are teaching who are interested in family history. So, all of this keeps us busy and, mostly, out of trouble!!!
Looking forward to July - Love to all!!!
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| Cruise ships coming to town! |
All those photos make me want to go to Iceland. Fantastic scenery. Good advertisment for the place.
ReplyDeleteNot sure it can compare to New Zealand but some places are pretty amazing. We have spare beds - come on up!
DeleteWow! Beautiful country! You're looking great! So glad you are such vigorous explorers! Wonderful to have your children there.
ReplyDeleteWow! South Africa doesn't have anything over on Iceland. What a beautiful world we live in! Glad you're seeing the country, especially with family. Love love love the photos!
ReplyDeleteTerrific pics and fun! Sorry for your loss of your brother, love you.
ReplyDeleteAny sign of package?