Iceland 22/6 - 29/6 2005

Perlan

Perlan is a restaurant in a dome above the tanks which store the geothermal hot water for Reykjavik. It's rather cool as it is situated high above Reykjavik and the restaurant rotates, so over the course of your meal you have panoramic views over the whole of the city and surrounding area.

Note: The above photos were taken at almost mid-night.

Above: Perlan at midnight.

Above: Views from Perlan at midnight.

Blue Lagoon

Geothermally heated water - high in sulphur and salts - supposed to be good for the skin and really, really bad for the hair. Didn't worry me too much!! Water temperature is about 40 degress centigrade.

Misc Scenery (and Lisa!)

Random shots from travels!

Above. 1am

Zoo

Reykjavik

Above: mid-night at Reykjavik

Hallgrimskirkja Church

The major (with Perlan) landmark above Reykjavik. Built over 40 years by a father and son team, it's huge and impressive. Also, the bells are REALLY loud.....especially if you are standing in the bell tower at the time and didn't realise the time!!

Rift Valley

This is where the American and European plates meet. It's not obvious from the photos, but on the ground its quite impressive, as the ground is moving apart over the years.

Geysir

Geysir itself (300-odd feet tall) became inactive in the 1960's after being bunged up with rocks, etc, thrown in by tourists trying to set it off. Hence the only active one is Strokkur, which helpfully goes off every 10 minutes or so.

Gulfoss

Rather impressive waterfall!

Random Church

Ok, we were on a coach trip, its a bit random.

Volcano Crater

Skogafoss

Was seriously good. 200ft high, and really impressive. The mist all around meant that there were rainbows everywhere you looked, including, on one occasion, in a 10ft circle starting and ending at my feet.

A video (4mb) of the waterfall is Here

Vik

The goth beach! Miles of black sand. Rather cool!

Seljalandsfoss

Beautiful. Really, beautiful. Its not huge in comparison to Gulfoss or Skogafoss, but you can walk behind it, and its really nice.

Whale Watching

One of the coolest bits of the whole holiday was a Minke whale leaping out of the water in front of the boat. Not a chance of a photo - it was all over in seconds - but still one of the highlights of the trip.