ICELAND ~ A PICTORIAL ODYSSEY (Part Three)

Fancy some pastel-colored Krap? Spotted in a mall in Akureyri

Old volcanic crater being quarried for building materials, Note the colorful mix of ores

                       

                  Early model sewing machine, a great treasure in any home

Metal sculpture celebrating jazz near the entrance of The Pearl

Þingvellir National Park in Bláskógabyggð district, southwestern Iceland

    The Dome of The Pearl at the highest point overlooking Reykjavik

Reindeer sighted!

Occasionally a small township interrupts the barren landscape

        Wooden walkway facilitates a quick tour of the area

                   Snow Queens at Dimmuborgir

YOU'VE SEEN THE PICTURES, 

NOW READ THE REPORT!

ICELAND ~ A PICTORIAL ODYSSEY (Part Two)

Dramatic sky over a fjord 

Cavorting clouds above a windswept coastline

Steaming up the camera at a geothermal hotspot

Basalt cliffs at Mýrdalssandur

Karen & Ragna kindly provide a sense of scale

Almost like the New York skyline!

Black sand beach with a fascinating assortment of stones

Basalt sentinels

View from one of the basalt caves

Dead gull by the Jökulsárlón glacier lake

Where a glacier returns to the sea

Polished stone eggs of Merry Bay, Djúpivogur

Each egg represents a different species of migrating bird

Höfn, a fishing town with a great view of the Vatnajökull glacier

The Strokkur geyser erupts every 5-7 minutes

Parliament convened in 930 CE. Speakers used the rockface to amplify their voices

Þingvellir National Park in Bláskógabyggð district

Gay Trolls in a souvenir shop

Asiatic Elves Min & Winnie from Singapore

"Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat" by Magnús Tómasson

View of Reykjavik from The Dome of The Pearl

Stella & Christine do The Pearl

Spiral staircase inside The Pearl

Dragon roofs in the Viking Village

Entrance to the therapeutic geothermal baths visited by thousands

Petrified prehistoric donuts at the Folk Museum

Ouroboros or the Midgard Setpent carved on a stone at the Viking Village

Somewhere in Southeastern Iceland

If only you could hear the rushing waters.

Reminded me of home but I wasn't tempted to take a dip!

Runestone at the Viking Village

Closeup of the local vegetation anticipating summer

Cuddling up for warmth in the bus

Seljalandsfoss, where we found ourselves encircled by a glorious rainbow


PHOTOS BY ANTARES
courtesy of his Huawei Ascend P6

PART THREE

ICELAND ~ A PICTORIAL ODYSSEY (Part One)

The Midgard Serpent drinks from the River of Eternity

Skógafoss in South Iceland is where I spotted the Midgard Serpent

Hraunfossar, a series of waterfalls streaming out from the Hallmundarhraun lava field

... after a volcano erupted below the Langjökull glacier in the Reykholt region

Hvítá River into which the Hraunfossar feeds (hraun is the Icelandic word for lava)

Barnafoss, where two boys drowned while crossing a natural bridge, 
later destroyed in an earthquake

Faxi (Horsemane Falls) or Vatnsleysufoss on the river Tungufljót. 
The island looks like a replica of Iceland 

Goðafoss, Waterfall of the Gods, in the Bárðardalur district of North-Central Iceland 

Hvannadalshnúkur, the highest point of Iceland in the Vatnajökull National Park.
You can see the edge of the Vatna Glacier peeping out between the hills

Atop the steel monument in memory of those who perished in the glacial flood of 1996, when a subterranean volcanic eruption melted part of the glacier, turning it into a massive torrent 
of cold black apocalypse 

This section of twisted steel was salvaged from a bridge destroyed by the glacial flood. 
Note the cosmic serpent graffito

British students Ian Harrison & Tony Prosser went missing on a sunny day in August 
1953 while doing field work on a glacier near Skaftafell. They were caught in a sudden 
blizzard. Despite an intensive search-&-rescue operation, their bodies were never found. 
But 50 years later in 2003, melting ice uncovered their camping gear

Jökulsárlón Glacier Lake & a Grumpy Iceman

Blocks of ice melting on the beach

Where glacier meets the open sea

Rapid meltdown as summer approaches

Clambering around the loose scree of a moraine hill

Kirsten from Austria with a tiny piece of melting glacier

Icicles on the mudguard of our Mercedes mini-bus

The road across the frozen North with Captain Palli at the wheel

Monochrome landscape

Still snowcapped in the first week of May

Snow melting on the lava fields

We saw so many waterfalls I have no idea where this one was & what's it's called!

The Icelandic horse is prized for its gentleness, robustness & steadiness on the gallop

Icelandic winter snack plate of Harðfiskur (dried fish), smoked lamb & rotting shark

PHOTOS BY ANTARES

courtesy of his Huawei Ascend P6

PART TWO