Halló, Ísland

I miss being on vacation. But reliving it through photos and blog posts is the next best thing, right?

View of Þingvallavatn, Iceland’s largest lake, in the rain on the way to Þingvellir.

Iceland was not originally part of my travel plans, but it turned out that Icelandair was the cheapest to fly to Europe (by about $200) with a free stopover, so there we were for about 32 hours.

I struggled a little because I do not function so well after an overnight flight and 4 hours of sleep sitting upright in an uncomfortable airplane seat. But we were off right away to visit the sights that we could get to in our limited time there: Þingvellir, Geysir, and Gullfoss.

At Þingvellir. It’s a very bleak and gorgeous landscape.

Next was Geysir, but not before we pulled over to have a 20-minute nap in the car.

Everything was steaming and smelled strongly of sulphur.

Aww, only a baby geyser.

 
Here’s the Great Geysir.

My favourite of the three sights was Gullfoss.

 

It was really cold there though.

 
I’m really bad at getting photos of myself on vacation, but Will got a few of me at Gullfoss, even if I do look a little daft.

Parliament, in Reykjavik. We spent a night in Reykjavik and got to see a little of the town.

The next morning, we drove around the southern coast for a bit.

The continental rift between Europe and North America. Also, see the water? Stand there and look south; there’s no land between there and Antarctica.

Sheep!!

And thus ends my first taste of Iceland. I’d like to go back one day for more than 32 hours.

(Next up: London…)