Iceland Part Two

Part two of my Iceland trip, the north.  We spent about half our trip in the south and half in the north.  We probably did a little less technically in the north because a decent part of it was spent at the amazing family reunion.  We still saw quite a lot though, but some things had to be missed.

Goðafoss, where the pagan idols were thrown away during 

Iceland's conversion to Christianity.

Dimmuborgir, this amazing lava formation park.

(For any Game of Thrones fans, the Wildling camp was shot here.)

Akureyrikirkja.

Puffins!  We went to Grimsey, to the Arctic Circle and there

are puffins everywhere!  I've seen puffins before,

but they're never not awesome.

Arctic Circle marker on Grimsey.

Laufás, where I worked for a few weeks in 2007.

It's a turf house that is run as a museum.

Looking down into the fjord that Akureyri sits on.

Icelandic horses at the family farm.

Munkaþverá.  The reunion was for descendants of people buried

at this church - my great-great grandparents.

Grund, where other's of the family are buried.

The magnificent sunset (around 11pm) outside of where the reunion was held.

There's my trip in a very small nutshell.  I could've shared so many other photos, but didn't want to 1) share too much of our trip and 2) get even further away from what this blog is supposed to be.

Next week I'll be back to having historical entries!  Like I said before my trip, they'll probably be Iceland related for a bit. :) 

Iceland Part One

I meant to have a post last week, but with getting back from Iceland and getting back into work, it didn't happen.  But!  I'll have two posts with my photos, and then we'll get back to regularly scheduled, historical blog posts.  Anything else will (hopefully) be supplementary, not taking the place of posts like it's become much much too often.

Here's from the first part of the trip, Reykjavik and various other places in the south.  Part 2 will be in the north.

The famous Viking boat sculpture in the Reykjavik harbor.

Statue of Jón Sigurðsson, across from the Alþing.

Hallgrimskirkja from the back/side.  The main church in Reykjavik.

In the sculpture garden at the Einar Jónsson Museum, with Hallgrimskirkja in the background.

This museum was wonderful.  I went to the sculpture garden last time, but didn't go in;

this time we went in and it was really worth it.

Waterfall in Þingvellir, where the first parliament was held and where the

North American and European plates are separating.

Þingvellirvatn.

Strokkur.  This is at the same location as Geysir, the first geyser,

but Geysir doesn't go off anymore and Strokkur does regularly.

Gullfoss.

A random waterfall we found on the way to Snæfellsnes.

Icelandic horses.  I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but Icelandic

horses are shorter than other horses.  They're a special breed that is kept isolated.

They also have their own gait that no other horse breed has.

A random beach on Snæfellsnes.

Snæfellsjökull (glacier).

Just some cool rocks and fog on the way north.

I tried to pick a variety of pictures that show how varied Iceland can look.  It's such a gorgeous country.  Next week - the north!

Vacation time!

Wednesday I leave for vacation/a family reunion for almost two weeks.  The family reunion is for descendants of my great-great-grandparents in Akureyri, Iceland.  I've been lucky enough to have been once before and to be in a position to go again.  I won't have posts for the next couple weeks and after I return there will be at least one post about Iceland.  After that, I will try and get back to the historical topics, maybe with an Icelandic focus... :)  So, farewell for a few weeks and Happy Fourth of July!