Blogs from South, Iceland, Europe - page 13

We went to a place with puffins. Lots of puffins. There were these straight things. We went to a waterfall and it was fun and pretty. We got a little wet. We went behind a waterfall. It looked like sugar. We got wet but it was still fun. The end. Iceland and Greenland. My favorite things on this trip: waterparks, fishing, snowmobiling, whale watching, helicopter, waterfalls, ice beach, car boat, long boat rid to icebergs, and playing with Maddie. - Sofia Journal Aug 17 and favorite list. It was time for our last full day in Iceland. We had a great night staying in the Vik hostel. The town of Vik is very small with around 300 people living there. It is the southernmost town of Iceland, which is still north of most places I have ... read more

After a short back track on the Ring Road we left the Eldhraun lava plain and headed north toward Laki. We passed through an area of faux cones created by the Laki eruption of 1783 - 1784. Nearing the Lakagiger lava plain we made a stop at another waterfall whose name I did not record and cannot find on the map. Enjoy the photos. Most of the day was spent hiking on and around Laki. We had periods of fog on the mountain and very short light rain and sleet showers. Upon our return to Kirkjubaejarklauster we heard from the staff that they had had heavy rain. The waterfall behind the farm that we could not find yesterday was now flowing.... read more

The day began with a stop at the Vatnajokull National Park western offices and museum for a talk by the director of the park's western region. Vatnajokull is the glaicer in the southeastern part of the country that covers roughly 1/8 of Iceland. As we found later in the day it is also the name of a local beer that uses indigenous thyme for a slight floral taste. In addition to the mid-Atlantic ridge, Iceland is over a hotspot in Earth's crust centered under Vatnajokull. The are 10 volcanoes in the park, 7 of which are under the ice cap so there is a long history of interplay between fire and ice. One unique feature is the hyaloclastic brown rift rock that is formed under glaciers when lava interacts with ice and water. It is rarely ... read more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HAal8pqE7s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg49khqfs2s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqglmwqeBls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMAcyg55yYA The next day we were up around 5 to ensure that we had time to see all the sites on the journey from Reykjavik to Höfn, travelling from South West to South East Iceland. On the way we passed a number of gorgeous waterfalls at Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, the former is popular as you can walk behind it, due to the time of the visit we had it all to ourselves. Sandwiched in between these fall was the infamous Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was the cause of the ash cloud over most of Europe in 2010. After nearly 5 hours of driving we arrived at the Vatnajokull glacier for our glacier walk. Due to lack of time we couldn’t do the longer 4 hour walk and ha... read more

Holiday! Now and then you need to relax where no tourists are around, just nature and the singing birds, streams and your family. This was our opportunity, no requests for tours this week-end. This has been a lovely holiday with good weather. We planted a lot of trees, Alaska aspens that grow fast and straight. Look at our photos! At midnight the sun is still so beautifully bright in the sky that you just like to stay awake and enjoy it "sleep in the winter" my dad used to say.... read more