Iceland - September 2014

Iceland was cold, rainy and windy when we arrived, in fact the plane had 2 attempts at landing due to the wind. We did 

'The Golden Circle Classic tour' with Grayline Iceland Excursions which took about 8 hours.  Photo 1 - Nesjavellir 

Geothermal Field, photos 2 and 3 - Site where the tectonic plates of Europe and North America meet. Photo 4 - Jonathan is where Icelanders created a parliament in 930AD this is the same area as in photos 2 and 3.  Photo 5 - Jonathan wants one of these vehicles.  Photo 6 - Gullfoss waterfalls which are spectacular, we went down to the big rock area on the left for a closer view. It was impossible to stay dry.

Me at the falls. Photo 2 - The Strokkur hot pool that erupts every 5 to 7 minutes.  Photo 3 - Skalholt 

medieval church.  Photos 4 to 6 - we had a wander around Reykjavik - the capital of Iceland.

Further wandering around Reykjavik, Photos 1 and 2 - Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church, the church organ was huge. Photos 3 and 4 are a couple of the city streets.  Photo 5 - view from a water tower of Reykjavik.  Photo 6 - The light house at Grotta.

Our next excursion was 'a geothermal adventure' with Reykjavik Helicopters.  We encountered more rain but there were 

enough gaps of fine weather for some photos and a wander around Mount Hengill.

We did another day tour, this time with Iceland Horizon Tours going to Snaefellsness Peninsula north of Reykjavik.

Another rainy cloudy day, with enough breaks in the weather to do some exploring.  Photo 2 - basalt columns which is the

end of an old lava flow.  Photo 3 - Jonathan walking through the lava to get to a beach. Photos 4 and 5 - the beach.

Photo 6 - lava fields that make Iceland so rugged.

Photos 1 and 2 - The coastline,  near Arnarstapi.  Photo 3 - Pieces of Greenland shark hanging to dry, the meat is hung for 7 weeks after being cut up, then buried for 7 months otherwise it is toxic to humans.  We tried a very small piece of shark, it did not taste the best.  Photos 4 to 6 - A museum at Bjarnarhofn which was pretty interesting, the greenland shark meat is processed  near the museum.