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Sculpture at Keflavik Airport in Iceland.The Icelanders have a sense of humor. This is said to commemorate the birth of the SST. |
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Reykjavik, Iceland Government House where Reagan and Gorbachev met to negotiate and formalize the SALT Treaty. |
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Little Girl in Hand-knitted Sweater and Cap. We shared dinner with this 2-year old charmer and her sisters and parents
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Laxness Farm. Nobel-prize winning author, Halldor lived herewhile writing one of his most famous novels. |
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Laxness Farm.Typical Icelandic horses and (sheep herding) dog. The horses are short but strong, unchanged and not interbred with others since their arrival from Norway over 1,000 years ago. |
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Icelandic Forest in the Making.
A thousand years ago, Iceland was forested, and it is determined to be so again. The aim is to go from 1 % forested to 4% forested by the end of this decade. Joke that Icelanders tell: "What do you do if you're lost in the forests of Iceland?" Answer: "Stand up!" |
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Gunnar Gunnarsson's Home.Another great Icelandic author, his home was designed by the same architect who built Hitler's country retreat in Bavaria--though Gunnarsson was no Nazi sympathizer.
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Archaeologist at Dig at Gunnarsson's House.The dig is of a monastery of about 1440-1450--just before the Protestant Reformation swept Iceland, leaving a population that is over 90% Lutheran to this day. |
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Lutheran Church.Typical of every small village is a plain but lovely church, always Lutheran, but having sometimes altar art going back to the Catholic years over 500 years ago. |
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Icelandic Weather.This photo is taken close to the edge of a large fjord where there is a lighthouse. The fog creates the now-you-see-it; now-you-don't effect, yet you can clearly see the distant mountains. |
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Larkspur.The lupines and larkspur that melt in Baltimore heat thrive in Iceland's short but beautiful summer. |
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Mantel Cloth, Embroidered.The patterns are scandinavian and celtic, as is background of the Icelanders, themselves. |
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Icebergs on a glacial lagoon. Using a duck boat we drove into this icy lagoon and got as close to icebergs as it is possible to do. |
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Glacial Ice. Ice from this lagoon is crystal clear and 6 times more dense that ice from a refrigerator freezer. Great for cocktail parties because it melts very slowly! |
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Waterfall. On of the great waterfalls, moving millions of tons of water every minute, and one of the few not dammed by the Icelanders for hydro-electric power. Note the rainbow. |
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Glacier on the Move. Dramatic and much larger than it seems, for this picture is taken from quite a long distance. |
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Rune Stone.A copy of an original from the 9th century. These were forerunners of the great Skaldic poetry and Sagas of the Icelanders. |
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Manuscript Art. Icelandic design from an early manuscript of a saga story. |
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Imminent Geyser.This is my best photograph--a geyser just about to erupt. Iceland has many geyser fields and hot springs, and even volcanoes hiding within glaciers. |
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Actual Erupting GeyserThis picture was taken a second or two after the preceding one! |
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Iceland's Unique Geology.The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (a large mostly under ocean mountain range) surfaces in Iceland, and the uplifting range is the reason why Iceland has so many volcanoes. This is also the place where the great tectonic plates of Eurasia and North American diverge, making Iceland a little larger each year. This activity has created fissures, plains, and rocky walls |
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Rift. A rift at Parliament Plains, also known as Thinvellir. |
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Rock Walls. This pathway marks the exact demarcation between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. |
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Thingvellir. Probably the most famous sight in Iceland, certainly one of the most significant. This is the site of the Althing, Iceland's Parliament, which began meeting here in the year 930 a.d., making it one of the oldest in the world. In olden days, representatives from all of Iceland met here to hear the laws read and to settle disputes. |
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The Blue Lagoon. Just outside of Reykjavik is this huge blue spa. The color comes from minerals dissolved in the waters, which in term are heated deep in the earth with geothermal power. The waters have healing properties, and the heat helps arthritics, and it's fun, too |
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Hekla Erupting.Though I did not take this picture, I did see Hekla, which is the largest of Iceland's volcanoes. This picture is by Kristian Andre Gallis of Iceland |
