June 11, 2017: A sunny day in Iceland

We took a daylong bus tour. The first stop was at Thingvellir National Park where you can walk through the rift valley between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate. They are moving away from each other.

We went from there to see Gullfost waterfall.

 It's possible to get pretty close to it.

There are no forests in Iceland, which was deforested in the Middle Ages. Their absence adds to the starkness of the landscape.

Next we went to the town of Geysir where there is an ancient geyser of that name which is the source of the English word.

The tour guide took risqué delight in mentioning that the old guy was not spurting regularly anymore but that job had been taken over by another geyser named Strokkur.

Here is that geyser in action.

Iceland, June 2017

The first day that Madam Le Chef and I were in Reykjavik, capital and only city in Iceland, we were supposed to join a tour by a church, Hallgrimskirkja. When we asked directions everyone said that we would see it. They were right. It's one of the tallest buildings in Iceland and it's on the tallest hill in Reykjavik.

You can see it from everywhere.

We revisited it the next day and took the elevator to the top. This is the view from the top looking North.

The weather in Iceland is very changeable.

On our last night in Reykjavik, we discovered that an artist had made an iron frame so that you could get just the right angle on the church. I'm convinced that he/she chose the view because it made the church look like a tall squid.