My visit to Reykjavik, Iceland, December 29- January 7, 2007 Click here for full gallery

Agust was my host in Reykjavik, he was a great host, showing me all the sites, and letting me eat his mothers super good cooking. :-)

Here is a wider view of the same area this ship was taken. Yeah, Iceland is pretty gorgeous.

We went to the blue lagoon, a giant geothermal pool, but I didn't have my camera in the water. It's freezing outside, but the water is jacuzzi hot, and I felt like those Japanese snow monkeys. It was a blast, I want to go again during the daylight. I did however get pictures of us riding the Icelandic horses. This is me with my horse, Harti. (male icelandic names end in i)

And this is Agust on his horse, both of us forgot his name.

When we stopped for a break, I spotted some nearby sheap, and decided to grab a shot.

Here is a view from this same spot, but a bit... er... expanded of a view? I love taking panoramics, you get so much of a better idea of what the space was like, than a single photo.

This is the view from his back sun-room. I can't imagine having a view like this to see any day I choose, but he says they rarely use the room! I'd have my after-meal coffee here every day. You can see the active volcano towards the middle of the picture.

Here is a closeup of the volcano. Iceland grows wider in the West-East direction by 2 cm every year, from the active plate shifting. It sits on the edge of the American and European tectonic plates.

On New Years Eve, Iceland celebrates with fireworks. Not a few large places launching an official show, but every individual going out and buying loads of them and setting them off all day and night. Six-hundred tons worth of fireworks to be exact. I'd never seen anything like it, not even if I imagined combining seven Fourth of July's worth of fireworks. It was just awe-inspiring. Imagine this view to ever way you look. It's hard to photograph fireworks, but I think you can see how many were going off across the city, at any point in time, for about eight hours solid.

We set off a few of our own. Sparklers were always my favorite, and they make for great long-exposure pictures.

We also went to a New Years Dance, which was fun. I had to wear a hat for the occasion.

The architecture in Iceland was really amazing, I saw so many buildings that I liked the shape and design of.

This is a church in Iceland. You can go up to the top of it to look out of those dark windows.

And take pictures like this. I really like this building's design.

We visited a water plant. There are four massive resevoirs, and they've built a restaurant on the top of them. This is a view from the observation deck at the top.

A wider panoramic view of the same area.

This one is from the other side.

We also went to explore a really cool area with waterfalls. It was where the first parliment of Iceland met.

I took a few panoramics here as well. (not all the panoramics from this trip are linked on this page, so be sure to check the panoramics picture page for all eleven icelandic panoramas)

While we wandered around, we saw a bird called a Ptarmigan. He had a funny walk, and black tail feathers that showed when he flew.

There were all kinds of footbridges to lead you over the cliff areas.

And we found a crevice filled with water, that people threw money into. This picture doesn't really show you how deep it goes. It's not shallow at all, probably 50 feet down to the bottom. Apparently there are underwater caverns you can explore, and some people scuba dive in this area.

This is lake where women were drowned for punishment in the 17th century.

There was a really awesome waterfall nearby as well. We found a lot of hollow ice layers that we had fun trying to break through and see if they would hold our weight. At first we didn't know if there was water underneath or not, and I warned Agust he would get wet feet if there was, but he wouldn't listen and did break through, but luckily it was dry beneath. That started a contest of seeing who could find areas of ice to hold our weight, then the other would jump next to them to make it break.

Every morning, Agust had to scrape the snow from the car window before we set out.

He tried to get me to do it, but I told him that operating the camera was far more important.

I really enjoyed Iceland, and I can't wait to go back.

There are a lot more pictures in the full gallery, so be sure to check that out. This page is just the highlights.