Blogs from Selfoss, Southwest, Iceland, Europe

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Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss June 30th 2022

Nachdem wir 3 Wochen mit dem Wohnmobil die Insel umrundet haben, haben wir jetzt das Wohnmobil gegen einen geländegängigen Dacia Duster eingetauscht. Damit können wir auch mal Abstecher in das Hochland machen. Unser Hauptquartier haben wir nun in Selfoss, da man von dort aus die Highlights des Golden Circle und das Hochland gut erreichen kann. Also erst mal ab zum Geysir. Der große Geysir, der der Namensgeber für alle Geysire weltweit ist, ist leider in den Ruhestand getreten, aber auch der Strokkur, sein kleiner Bruder, kann recht schöne Wasserfontänen nach oben schießen. Und der mächtige Wasserfall Gullfoss ist einfach beeindruckend. Das Hochland mit seinen Allradpisten hat dagegen einen ganz anderen Reiz. Es ist im Wesentlichen Steinwüste, und so ähnlich stelle ich mir auch den Mond vor. Auf den Pisten ist die Steinlandschaft lediglich etwas plattgewalzter, und ... read more
Die bunten Berge von Landmannalaugar ...
Strokkur, der kleine Bruder des großen Geysir
Westmännerinseln: Blick zum Eyafjalljökull

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss May 30th 2022

The "Golden Circle" is the popular name for a tour of Iceland's most popular tourist destinations: Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir hot springs and Thingvellir National Park. (Baedeker in 1910 didn't call them that, but did list them as the top places to visit in Iceland!) They can all be visited in a day tour out of Reykjavik. Our Globus circle tour of Iceland began with these destinations. Driving out of Reykjavik, the lava and moss landscape was similar to the drive in from Keflavik Airport. The landscape of Iceland proved to be a great contrast with that of Greenland, despite similar latitudes. There are trees and open fields in Iceland with farms, villages and wildlife, albeit punctuated with the every present lava fields covered in moss. (Visitors are reminded not to step on the moss. Trails and ... read more
Kristnitökuhraun Lava Field
Vífilsfell
Hellisheiđi Geothermal Power Station Visitor Center

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss September 5th 2018

På vejen fra Stykkishólmur hvor vi havde overnattet 2 nætter gik ture videre til Þingvellir for se stedet for amerikanske og europæiske kontinenter skilles ad. Ind da stoppede vi på vejen for at se et lille fint vandfald Skuggafoss. I revnen som dannes af de to kontinenter vælter et meget flot vandfald som løber ud over det amerikanske kontinent. Målet for ture var at komme frem til Geysir hvor en var kilde springer op. Stedet har givet navn til fænomenet en geyser. Geysir springer ikke længere den stoppede efter et jordskælv omkring 2005. Nu er det Strokkur som springer. Stedet er hele dagen stedet fyldt med turister, det er umuligt at få et godt billede uden mennesker. Så næste morgen var jeg oppe kl. 6 for at se solopgang og springende vand. Næste turistmål var Gullfoss, ... read more
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Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss July 3rd 2018

On day three in Iceland we hit the road. With several maps and directions from Thor we decided to take on parts of what is known as the Golden Circle road tour. We started with the geothermal power plant about 45 km to the east of Reykjavik. Drawing from he large amount of geothermal activity where the North American and European plates come together, Iceland is powered mostly by hot water from deep in the earth. At the plant they draw water that is 300 degrees centigrade (to covert to F you roughly multiply by 2 and add 32...you can just forget the extra 32 here). They use the steam from the water to drive two huge turbines that power the generators that create 30% of Iceland's electricity. The water is cooled and then piped to ... read more
Geysir
Keep out of the water!
Seculed pool

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss June 23rd 2018

First impression - there are sheep everywhere in this country. Everywhere. Also horses - beautiful short, fat little horses. Second, from the minute I got off the plane it's been raining. It's really pretty...but really gray. Third, I'm a morning person in Iceland (who knew?). This is because there's not really any darkness... the first day my flight landed at 6am, and I hadn't really slept, so I fell asleep really early that night...and discovered mornings are less crowded so decided to stick with my 4-5am wake up hour. Fourth, in fantastic news, there are geothermically heated pools and hot tubs everywhere here that are very common to swim in - yippee. The Golden Circle itself is mainly three sites -the Gulfoss Waterfall (which is beautiful), the fields around Geysir (the original geyser which all other ... read more
Watching the World Cup game against Nigeria, with what I think is the whole town of Selfoss. Lesson learned - my life needs more Viking chants in it.
View from my apartment
One night these guys appeared outside my window

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss June 13th 2017

Our final full day in Iceland. Wow, what an action packed week. With darkness never coming, there are no visual cues or time pressure to get activities done before dark. We have missed dinner at the local restaurant or shown up right before closing every night we've been here. Today was no exception. Didn't even check into our hotel til midnight. Yep, we're those people... After a late breakfast we headed back towards Reykjavik wth a few stops in mind. There is an old WW2 bomber that crashed on the southern beach just west of Vik. It was a long cold walk to get there, but it was an interesting thing to see. As the pictures show, much of the plane was still intact. Unfortunately, it hasn't escaped dumb ass tourists and graffiti idiots as well ... read more
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Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss June 9th 2017

After a great nights sleep I think we are dialed into this time zone. Never seeing darkness is still a little strange though. Took a couple hour drive up the coast then inland to the Golden Circle. Drove through lava fields that looked like Martian landscape. I could count the number of trees we saw today in one hand (slight exaggeration). Lava rocks aplenty combined with logging and erosion turned a once vibrant birch forest into grassy open fields. Amazing how far you can see. First stop was Kerik - a large crater lake left from a long ago volcano. Very cool. From here we headed North towards the town of Geysir - the town where the western word for geyser came from. Along the way Geneva noticed what looked like low lying clouds on the ... read more
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Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss June 8th 2017

Das wichtigste zuerst: Das Wetter war heute sehr schön bei nur leichter Bewölkung. Ich habe gut geschlafen, was bei einer fast permanent hellen Nacht ja keine Selbstverständlichkeit ist. Das kenne ich ja schon vom Norden Finnlands und Schwedens im letzten Jahr. Die Vorhänge hier sind sehr dunkel aber lassen doch immer etwas Licht durch. Nach dem Frühstück sind wir um etwa 08:30 vom Hotel zum nahegelegenen Wasserfall Skogafoss. Der war ganz nett und ich bin neben dem Wasserfall wie einige andere Mitreisende nach oben gestiegen. Danach sind wir zu einem nahegelegenen Heimatmuseum. Das war auch ganz interessant. Wie auf den Färöerinseln gab es hier kleine Steinhäuser mit Grasdächern. Im Anschluss daran sind wir weiter zu einem Haus oder kleinem Privatkino gefahren, in dem ein Film über den Ausbruch des Vulkans Eyjafjallajökull gezeigt wurde. Insgesamt hat Island ... read more
Im Heimatmuseum bei Skogar.
Der Skogafoss.
An der Küste.

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss June 29th 2015

Nous sommes en Islande! Commençons par la mauvaise nouvelle : Michèle prend maintenant des photos avec sa tablette! Et vraiment beaucoup! Qu'est-ce qu'on fait avec ça? La prochaine étape est le selfie-stick... Donc, moi et JS avons rejoins Michèle et Richard qui étaient déjà en Europe. Richard agissait en tant que GO pour une croisière en Norvège. Nous avons volé via Halifax avec Porter et Icelandair. Porter servent leurs breuvages dans des verres en vitre! On ne voit pu ça de nos jours à cette époque de terrorisme. Nous avons atteri à l'aéroport de Keflavik à 5h15 am. Première chose en sortant de l'avion : passer dans le détecteur de métal et examen des bagages à main au rayon X. Il parait que les procédures de sécurité nord-américaines ne sont pas assez sévères pour les Islandais ... read more
Petite église
"Bridge between two continents"
Falaise

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Selfoss May 19th 2015

Fri May 15 Day 1 Reykjavik Adventure and Meeting the Team I’ll be honest, this whole experience has been overwhelming but once I’m outside spending time with the dogs, all doubt wash away in a sea of blissful happiness.I landed in an airport 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik and took a bus to the main station near the big city. While sitting in the bus station, prepared to wait 5 hours for my ride to come pick me up, I FaceTimed my sister, Kate and she suggested I use that time to explore downtown Reykjavik and maybe get some lunch. I was hesitant at first, or maybe I was just content to sit at the bus station with free wifi but instead, I made the journey into the damp, grey Iceland air. With a map in ... read more




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