Farming

Farming in the early days of Iceland was probably the occupation of over 70% of the people. Today, it is a very small percentage. Only one percent of Iceland is under arable cultivation, mostly along the coastal lowlands.

99% of cultivated land is used to raise hay or other fodder crops. The other 1% is for potatoes, turnips, carrots, oats, gardening vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers, and flowers. 

Animals are also a big part of farming operations. Sheep account for about 70% followed by cattle and horses with around 11-12% each. They also raise pigs, mink, fox, and chickens. Horses account for a minor export crop.

Below is a good example of where the farming is done. You can see the mountain behind this farm and behind me taking this photo is water. So this is the band of land which they can farm. Hay is the crop that we saw almost always.

This is another good example except this time the water is a river and not the sea or a fjord. The unusual item here is that they are growing some trees. We saw very few trees being grown in Iceland.

All the farming that we saw was done with tractors. We did not see any small operations where they did not use tractors. That's how less than 1% of Icelanders can farm.

This is typical of what I might call a small Icelandic farm. They had a little bit of everything from hay to sheep. Also, if you look at their house on the left and then look at the right side of the house, you will see that their bales of hay are wrapped in pink plastic. That’s part of the Icelandic farmers support of breast cancer awareness. Pink hay bales to fight breast cancer. 

This is a field of barley. I just included it so you could see that they do grow something other than hay.

Erik the Red

Erik the Red (Erik Thorvaldsson) was a Norwegian Viking. He was born in Rogaland Norway in 950. He was banished from Norway for committing manslaughter. He then settled in Hornstrandir in northwest Iceland. But in 982, he murdered a neighbor and was forced into exile. He then settled in Greenland establishing a Norse settlement. Erik the Red named it Greenland in order to attract more settlers, knowing that there was nothing green growing there.

Leif Eiriksson was Erik the Red's son. He was born in this location in Iceland. Leif is considered the first European to discover North America, 500 years before Columbus. He sailed to North America from Greenland probably landing around what is today Newfoundland.

Below was where they lived in Iceland. Our local guide said that Iceland has so few people and such great recorded history that they can pinpoint such places exactly. Erik the Red's home is called Eriksstaoir.

This mowed area is the exact location of Eriksstaoir. If you look to the left side, you can see a mound of grass that is a recent re-creation of this house from historical records. It was rebuilt about the year 2000.

This young woman was our local guide here and told us straight away that she's a Viking. She gave us a very nice tour of the house and lots of information. You might also notice the chimney above and to the left of the door.

This was the sleeping area of the house but it also had to double as many other areas of the house. The fire is about 40% of the distance from one end of the house. Sod is on the outside as you can see in the prior photo. 

They had to be quite self sufficient so tools like looms were probably more common than not.

I’m not sure why someone had to dress up like Erik the Red but I was the unanimous choice from our group. No one was hurt in this re-enactment…

Icelandic Language

Icelandic was not an easy language for us.  Still, we managed just fine on our trip, mostly because most Icelanders also speak English.  They speak Danish as well and all three languages are taught in their schools.

Signs caused us some problems but the longer we were there, the more we began to recognize some words, just by looking into the long words for clues.

This was one of those times early in our trip where I knew we were in a bit of trouble...

But then I would see a sign like this and feel pumped up to keep working at it.

I don't know why it's so complicated. It just says hamburger.

I can find a wine shop in any country.

I put this one in the "Don't ask; Don't tell" category.

Arnarstapi to Hellnar hike

We took a hike along the coast of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula between the villages of Arnarstapi and Hellnar.  These are tiny villages and in fact, Hellnar has less than 10 permanent residents.  Hellnar was an ancient fishing village.  There are some farms in this area but not many.  The coast line is a nature preserve.  The area has a diverse landscape with dramatic features including basalt cliffs, blowholes, arches, geologic formations, and brilliantly blue water.  We enjoyed a great hike along the coastal bluff on a beautiful warm day.

We hiked for a couple of hours.  We took our time, stopped and watched birds and the ocean, sat on the grass at times, and just generally enjoyed ourselves and our surroundings.

I'm not sure that my cohorts realized what they were hiking across, so I didn't tell anyone. But the coastal trail looks a bit dicey from this angle.

If you look at the cliffs on the lower left and inside the cave, you can see the rock is formed in long tube-like shapes. This area was a treat for geologic formations. 

Journey to the Center of the Earth - Snaefellsjokull Volcano

Snaefellsjokull is the volcano where the entrance was located to start “The Journey to the Center of the Earth” in Jules Verne’s book.  The theoretical journey started in lava tubes.  Snaefellsjokull is a 700,000 year old volcano and the highest point in this area.  It can be seen from Reykjavik which is 75 miles away and in fact, we saw it when we were in Reykjavik.

This area is a National Park and the whole park is 65 square miles.  A glacier sits on the very top of the volcano.  In August 2012, the summit was free of ice for the first time in recorded history.  We were there this August (2016) and the snow and ice are back in place. 

These photos all include Snaefellsjokull volcano and glacier. This will give you an idea of how diverse the landscape is on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.

This is the Fjoruhusid Cafe. We had lunch here with creamy seafood soup, fresh homemade and delicious bread with fresh butter, and fresh berries and yogurt for dessert.

Stykkisholmur

Stykkisholmur is a fishing village where a trading post was founded in 1550.  We spent a couple of nights here, in order to prowl around the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  It’s on the north side of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula which is in western Iceland.  Aside from fishing, this is a good location for tourists as a base to visit places in the area. Places to visit include taking the ferry to Breioafjorour fjord in the Westfjords, the Snaefellsnes glacier and other places in this diverse landscape.

I'm standing here at the base of the harbor which is the main feature in this small fishing village. You can see why this is such a protected harbor for the fishing boats. If you look at the top of the tall hill guarding the harbor and find the red lighthouse, I took the next photo from the lighthouse.

You can see most of the town in this photo. It was a nice quiet village that didn't take us very long to walk it all.

This small subdivision is to the left of the above photo and out of the picture. We saw kids playing and quite a few people riding bicycles around town.

This was the most interesting building in town. It's a church that was right next to our hotel. Our guide told us that the architect had changed professions and said that this design reflected his prior profession. Any guesses?

The architect used to be a dentist. We were told that we were looking at a tooth with a root. I missed that too.

The harbor was where the action was in Stykkisholmur.  Here we watched a fishing boat that had just come into the harbor and was unloading its cargo - a load of mussels. It made me hungry to stand there and watch.

Waterfalls

We must have seen over 100 waterfalls in Iceland.  When you think of all the large glaciers and steep mountains, that should not be a surprise.  Most waterfalls that we saw didn't even have names.  We would see handfuls just driving along.

I never got tired of seeing waterfalls, but I must confess, the thrill was not the same after seeing many dozens.

For that reason, I’ve decided to make one post with some of the most interesting waterfalls that we saw in Iceland.   

Gulfoss (Golden waterfalls) is in the Hvita River canyon in southwest Iceland. It's fed by the Langjokull Glacier.  Water flow this time of the year is almost 5000 cubic feet per second.  Gulfoss is on the Golden Circle tour road.

Gulfoss first goes down a three-step staircase that you see in the upper portion of the photo.  It was actually a pretty nice day but the falls throw up an enormous amount of spray. 

This is the lower portion of Gulfoss waterfalls.  Here, it falls 105 feet in two steps.  You will notice that the crevice or canyon into which it falls is narrow and perpendicular to the flow of the river, which is why so much spray.  This reminds me a lot of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  

Skogafoss (Forest Waterfalls) is on the Skoga River in southern Iceland.  This falls is some 82 feet wide and it drops 200 feet.  I hiked quite a ways up the side but it was very slippery from all the spray.

Seljalandsfoss waterfalls is also in southern Iceland.  It's on the Seljalands River which is fed by the Eyjafjallajakull volcano glacier.  The drop is about 200 feet.  We walked behind the falls.  You can see part of the trail on the right side through the grass.  This also had lots of spray.

Godafoss (Waterfall of the gods) is in north central Iceland. It's on the Skjalfandafljot River. The water drops about 40 feet but is around 100 feet wide. You can see its semi-horseshoe shape.  The name comes from a story around the year 1000 when a minister threw all his pagan idols into the river, after determining that Iceland would be Christian.

Thermal Area

We had barely gotten out of Reykjavik heading northwest when the land started to smoke.  We were entering a thermal area and the signs were obvious.

This photo is from our moving bus at 60 km/hr but you can see that it is easy to determine that you are entering a thermal area.

This is not a tourist stop but just an area right off the highway. This house had several steaming areas near it.

This pond is literally just a few yards off the highway. You can see the steam. The hot water bubbles up near Vicky and is way too hot for a bath. But on the other side of this small pond, the water temperature was perfect for a bath.

We saw greenhouses near all the thermal areas. The farmers take advantage of the cheap water heating to make growing plants a profitable venture.  You can notice steam in front. 

You can see tomatoes growing in the greenhouse. What amazed me was that the tomato plants were so tall. They look more like bushes or small trees.

Reykjavik's Hot Water

Our guide told us that the only thing that is cheap in Iceland is hot water.  So we’ll take a look at Reykjavik’s hot water situation. It is one of their outstanding features.  

Reykjavik heats all their homes and businesses with hot water, even in their long cold winters.  They also heat the streets with hot water in the main business and shopping areas to keep them accessible in the winter time.  It’s all done very cheaply as well.  So they are very outstanding both environmentally and fiscally when it comes to heat, energy, and water.

Our guide said that we could take as long and as hot of showers as we wanted to, no problems.  The water also tasted excellent. 

What you can't tell from the first photo is that the hill on the right side is the outer rim of a volcano. They don't expect it to erupt for another 3000 years. They sunk 65 wells down into scorching hot water. The steam rises to produce power and the hot water is used to heat a different layer of water which is then sent into town for use heating the whole town.

This is where the water comes up from the wells and flows into the geothermal power plant. This plant and two others like it provide 30% of Iceland's electricity. The water starts at about 176 degrees Fahrenheit and is piped 27 miles to town. It only loses 2 degrees of heat during shipping to Reykjavik.

The geothermal hot water system is not as simple as just pumping water out of the ground and putting it in the pipes. The water has to be treated since it has high sulfur and other minerals that can corrode the pipes.  The conversion to energy is also complex, but comparatively cheap. 

This is Perlan. It is a hot water storage unit for the water from the geothermal plant. Hot water is piped into Reykjavik and into these tanks for storage and distribution. It has two restaurants on top. We had lunch up there. It also houses a museum, artificial geysers, and a gift shop. It overlooks the whole of Reykjavik.

The unit below was right across the street from our hotel. It is a small local bore-hole into the underground thermal water used to supplement the main hot water system. You can see some steam coming out of the pipe on the right side.

Reykjavik - Off the Beaten Path

We did our share of wandering around Reykjavik just following our noses and had some fun doing it.  

We found the Asmundur Sculpture Garden on our first night in town.  The next day, our tour guide took our group there. Our guide told us that one highly unusual thing about Asmundur, the sculptor, was that he encouraged the children to climb on his sculptures - which was unheard of in the day. At that point, a woman in our group said, "Have you noticed that every sculpture has breasts?"

We visited the Botanical Gardens below.  It is not a great garden but it did have some very nice plantings.

We found an old cemetery just across the street from the National Museum.  Most of it was not kept up nearly as nice as this grave but it was interesting, quiet, and another of the few places with lots of trees in Iceland.

We wandered around Reykjavik walking about 11 miles on this day.  At one point, we wanted to get something to eat. As we were looking for a restaurant, I saw the event below and another like it across the street, down a side street from where we were walking. We went down to check it out and they gave us waffles and coffee and sent us to the backyard.

We ate the waffles and drank the coffee (lower right) but they would not take any money. It turned out that this weekend was their annual 'Birth of Reykjavik' celebration. The Mayor announced that he was making waffles and giving them away at his house in honor of the festivities. Evidently, several other townspeople decided to copy the mayor's lead. We just wandered down the right street. I again tried to pay them some money as we left but they would not take it.

Reykjavik Landmarks

Reykjavik did not impress me architecturally.  Most buildings and houses seemed simple and efficient.  Of course, having said that, there were exceptions.

I’ll point out the two buildings that most impressed me: the Harpa, their Concert Hall, and Hallgrimskirkja, which is a huge concrete Lutheran church.

The Harpa is Reykjavik's Concert Hall and conference center. It has a steel framework and geometric glass panels of different colors.  The Harpa was completed in 2011 and is located right on the ocean front. 

This gives a better look at the geometric glass panels with the different colors of glass.

The main hall seats about 1800 people and can be entered from different floors.  The Harpa also has dining facilities and conference facilities seating hundreds of people.

Reykjavik's largest landmark is called Hallgrimskirkja which is a Lutheran parish church.  It's about 245 feet tall.  This church opened in 1986 after 41 years of construction.

Hallgrimskirkja is very spartan inside with very little outside of its white walls.  But it does have a huge pipe organ with 5,275 pipes.  The church was crowded with a long line of people waiting to go to the top observation deck.

Reykjavik

We are now on the mainland of Iceland, at Reykjavik.  Reykjavik (pronounced: Rake’ – a – vick) is the capital city of Iceland and its largest city.  Reykjavik has about 120,000 people which is one-third of Iceland’s population.  It is the northernmost capital city in the world.  Reykjavik is also one of the cleanest, greenest, and safest cities in the world.

Settlement was established at the site of Reykjavik in 874 AD but it was founded as a city in 1786.  It’s a big city but we walked our way around quite a bit of it.

The pictures below are not necessarily typical of Reykjavik but I will explain each of them.

This was just a street we passed on our walk. It was full of activity with people eating, drinking, and shopping.  This is in the main shopping area of the city.

The buildings on this street are more typical of the city. It is not a great architectural city. Of course, I took this photo for one of the city's main landmarks, the church.

This was a nice scene on a nice day. This is probably more trees in one place than we saw anywhere else in Iceland.

This is the Prime Minister's office.  It is one of the oldest buildings in Reykjavik.  Our guide said that people enjoy telling visitors that their Prime Minister's office was originally a prison...which has a certain irony to it.

This is the Icelandic Parliament building, also one of the oldest buildings in town.

Heimaey Miscellaneous

This posting will be some miscellaneous items from our time on Heimaey in the Westman Islands.

Puffin meat is part of the national diet of Iceland, though today a much smaller part.  They have hunted puffins for decades.  They use puffins for their meat, eggs, and feathers. To get puffin eggs, they lower themselves over the side of the cliffs on long ropes.  Once they are hanging from the rope, they swing themselves back and forth across the rocks to get the eggs, only taking about one of every three eggs. Below, I was practicing rope swinging but rest assured, no puffin eggs were injured in the process.

This was at the Aquarium in town.  The aquarium also had animals, rocks, minerals and other things.  They also do some animal rescue work, such as this young puffin.  Vicky communicated with the puffin quite well.

Alto cooked us a home-hosted dinner in his house.  Then, he and his wife, Helga, entertained us with songs from the 1960's: Graham Nash, Jim Croce, and the Beatles.  Dinner was excellent with the main course being fresh cod. Helga's family lived in this house in 1973 and they survived the volcano and had great stories to tell and many thanks for the Americans who sent them the pumps to turn the lava flows.

This is Helga, from our home-hosted dinner, the next day at their bakery.  We ate lunch here and it was very good.

Icelandic Marketing.  Yes, of course it worked.  

Puffin Coastal Walk

On this morning we took a walk along the southern coast of Heimaey.  Our main purpose was to see the Puffins.  Our guide said that this area was the windiest area in all of Europe.  We bundled up in layers but we could have done the walk in t-shirts it was so nice.  We took our time, sat in the grass in places and just watched the birds and sheep.  We learned other things about the Westman islands and life here over the centuries.  It was a great morning walk.

We did see Puffins and in fact, saw thousands of them, maybe even tens of thousands.  It was impossible to count but we saw plenty.  Iceland has three varieties of puffins.  There are some 10 million puffins in Iceland and about 4 million in the Westman Islands.  Puffins are pelagic seabirds but they nest on either rock crevices on the island’s cliffs or in burrows in the grass.  We saw both nesting locations.  The puffin's beaks are also notably brighter during breeding season.  After breeding, puffins spend the winter at sea.  For that reason, our guide told us they might have left already, but that was not the case.

Puffins are an interesting bird.  They are actually a bit “puffy” or stocky for a bird.  They have relatively short wings and for all the flapping they do, they don’t fly all that well.  They do dive into the water quite well and we were told that puffins can dive down 200 feet to catch fish.  Puffins have been photographed with as many as 14 fish in their mouths on surfacing from a dive in the ocean.  Puffins can live up to 36 years.

Join me for a walk along the southern coast of Heimaey.

Vicky is walking along the coast where we are high above the ocean. Over the edge is the same as what you see on the other islands in the photo. Many puffins nest on the sides of these cliffs.  There is a house on each island that is used by hunters who catch puffins in nets to eat as well as get eggs.

On a side note, you will see a small island to the right of the large island behind Vicky.  This small island is Surtsey. It is one of the world's youngest islands. Surtsey rose from the depths of the sea between 1963 and 1967.  It is held strictly for scientific research and experimentation.  Still, it bothers me to learn that I am older than an island...

This is as close as I could get to photograph the puffins.

This area was sort of a cross between the coastal rocky cliffs and the grass areas.  You can see that they breed quite close to each other. 

You won't really be able to see all the birds in this photo, but you are looking at Vicky and many thousands of her closest puffin friends. They cover the whole hillside in close quarters. Every speck of black or white that you see is a puffin.

Our guide said that sheep and puffins have developed a symbiotic type relationship. Puffins like to nest where the sheep eat down the grass because it takes less work for them to build their nests.  The sheep like the grass where the puffins nest because all the nutrients make the grass better. 

On a side note, I tried to interview this sheep to get his opinion on his relationship with the puffins. He evidently expected a gratuity for this and when he saw none, he ended my interview and left.  In my own opinion, the relationship is working well based on the size of his girth.

Eldfell's Presence Today in Heimaey

You can’t get away from the results of the Eldfell volcanic eruption.  It’s visible all over the island.  Most of our time walking around Heimaey, we were noticing the presence of the volcanic eruptions. 

But first, a note about the eruptions and their fight to save the town and harbor.  One Icelandic scientist came up with an idea that they could stop the flow of lava from the harbor and houses by spraying the lava flows with ice cold sea water.  The scientific world thought he was crazy but the Icelandic government gave him a thumbs up.  They wanted to save the harbor which is the best fishing port in Iceland. Anyway, the United States gave them something like 100 large pumps to pump the seawater on the flowing lava - and it worked.  I have a friend, Tom Jenzen, who was in the Air Force at that time and remembered flying those pumps to Iceland in early 1973 on a C-141.  US soldiers, returning from Vietnam, also helped in the efforts.  Small world.

Join me on a walk around Heimaey.

This photo is from the lower portion of the volcano. The lava flowed right over some 300 to 400 houses which are now buried below here where I am standing to take this photo.

You can see that this house was right on the edge of where the lava stopped flowing.  Their old neighbors houses are under the lava.

This is at the very bottom of the lava flow but it is still quite high. We are standing on top of the houses that were in this part of the island.

This house is the white house on the lower right in the photo above. This sign is in front of the house.  You can also see this house in the photo on the sign and see that it was covered with ash during the eruptions, clear to the top of the house, but it survived.

Vicky is standing across the street from our hotel. You can see the Eldfell volcano cone in the background. The pole next to Vicky represents how high the volcanic ash was at this location. This ash was not like what we call ash. It was hard and chunky and had to be hauled away in dump trucks. The town used the ash to extend the airport runway and for the foundation for 200 new houses.

Eldfell Volcanic Eruption on Heimaey

At 1:00am on January 23, 1973, the Eldfell volcano erupted on the Icelandic island of Heimaey without any warning.  There were small earthquakes and then the earth opened up along over 5,000 feet of fissures.  The volcano spewed lava high into the air.  The entire town of 5,000 people evacuated the island in the middle of the night.  By chance, the weather had been bad and their entire fishing fleet had stayed in the harbor that night and so the fishing boats were used to evacuate the town.

While this happened over 40 years ago, it is still a major part of the town’s history and their present day life.  The results of the volcano still exist at many places on the island.  No one died that night but the lava eventually buried about a third of the town.  Many people never returned but the island has made population gains until today it has 4,500 people.

We toured the Eldheimar Museum which is built right in the lava flow.  We also walked most of the island where the lava flowed including hiking up to the volcanic cone.

Below is a photo of a photo of the island of Heimaey.  You can see the Eldfell Volcano and all the lava flows from it.  You can also see the rest of the town with the harbor on the right side.  Heimaey is the best fishing port in Iceland. The lava flows expanded the size of the island on the lower side.

Below is another photo of a photo in the museum.  The church is still standing today and we visited it.  

Below is another museum photo of a photo.  Most of these houses are still here today and the residents have lots of stories to tell.  We heard a few of their stories.

Vicky is hiking up the volcano's rim.  She is in the center of the photo.  You can see the remaining town down below. The harbor is on the right side.

This photo was taken from the same place as the prior photo, only in the opposite direction. Most of the land to the left of Vicky was newly created by the volcano.  The land has not changed much in 43 years.

Einsi Kaldi Restaurant

In all my travel blog postings, I have never lead off a trip with a food posting.  I’m making an exception because the food here was so good. 

We started our trip to Iceland just off the southern coast of the mainland with an excursion to the Westman Islands and the island of Heimaey.  We stayed at the Vestmannaeyjar Hotel.  On the first floor of our hotel was this restaurant that is attached to the hotel, while still being an independent restaurant.  As we sat in the waiting area for all of our group to come down from their rooms, the restaurant’s chef/owner stopped by to chat with us.  His name was Einer Bjorn Arnason.  He chatted about Heimaey and asked us where we were from and eventually asked us if we had heard about the recent success of the Iceland soccer team.  He was pleased that we had heard about them and told us that he had a personal stake in the team since he was the team chef.

We had our first dinner in this restaurant and our first lunch the next day.  Einer came to our table at some point during each course of both meals.  Sometimes he served us a dish and other times he came by during or after a course and each time, he engaged us about the food and other things.  These two meals were a great start to our Iceland adventure.

Our first course for dinner was lobster soup.  It was not a bisque or chowder but lobster soup.  To steal a line from Rene Zellweger, "He had me at the first spoonful of soup".  It was absolutely delicious.  We asked the waitress what was in it and she said it was a secret, but she did tell us that the whitish stuff floating on top was white chocolate.  I avoided the chocolate on my first sip and the only ingredient I could determine was some nutmeg.  WOW!  It was excellent!

It annoys me to hear people say things like their meat "melted in their mouth". But honestly, the lamb served as our main course for dinner came pretty darn close to melting in our mouths.  It was really excellent.  We also had beef with mushrooms, potatoes, kale, carrots, and onions.

Dessert was lava cake and vanilla ice cream.  It was an excellent finish to a great meal...and the lava cake is a perfect dessert for Heimaey, as you will learn soon enough.

Chef Einar Bjorn Arnason delivered my lunch entre personally.  He told us about the cod and how he prepared it. I asked for a photo and started to get up but he said to stay seated and he got down for this photo.

My lunch entre was fresh cod over mashed potatoes with bacon crumbles on top and rye bread crumbles around the bottom.

After eating two meals in his restaurant, it doesn’t surprise me that their soccer team did so well at the recent Euro Soccer Championships.

Are you ready to go to Iceland?

Vicky, my wife, and I were in Iceland and Greenland near the end of summer, from about mid-August to early September, 2016.  It won’t always be obvious that it was summer from the photos, especially in Greenland. (another blog)

This trip was full of activities including hiking through lots of volcanic areas, over, under, and around waterfalls, riding horses, arctic rafting, whale watching and fishing, rope swinging, glacier hiking, and lots more.

We also enjoyed lots of excellent food, sat in the Blue Lagoon hot springs, saw over 100 waterfalls, and spent enough time around icebergs to hear a couple of them split apart.  This blog will miss the sounds of Iceland.

We traveled by plane, ferry, helicopter, super jeep, and busses of various sizes.  We also did a fair bit of hiking, across all sorts of interesting terrain.

So get ready for an exciting adventure.  Iceland is a unique country with more geothermal activity than anyplace else on earth.  You might say it's a hotbed of activity and we saw as much as we could on our trip.

We took our regular number of photos but I’ve received photos from several people on our trip, most notably from Karen Gries who took really great photos including several things that we didn’t photograph, such as rafting and the northern lights. 

I'm including some photos in this first post to give you a taste of what's to come on our trip to Iceland.

Puffins - which are the most iconic bird in Iceland.

This is Snaefellsjokull, a stratovolcano on the west end of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula where the Journey to the Center of the Earth started, according to Jules Verne.

We rode Icelandic horses through pastures and gorse, along fjords, and across rivers.  Just be sure to never call them Icelandic "ponies".  They are all horses.

Arctic rafting on the Hvita glacial river.  We are sitting in the front right of the boat, looking at this photo.

Enjoying the Blue Lagoon and the silica mud.  Our guide said that the only thing that is cheap in Iceland is hot water - but not at the Blue Lagoon.

Bill Bosworth