Lýðveldið Ísland (Iceland)

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Iceland has a lot of scenic places. The houses in general are very neat and clean. The history goes back a long way. Iceland uses a lot of geothermal energy, it is a very volcanic island.

All pictures are © Dr. Günther Eichhorn, unless otherwise noted.

The People

A small settlement on the Látrabjarg peninsula. (575k)

A small town, Reykjalið on the north side of Mývatn. (862k)

Vík Í Mýrdal, a small village on the south shore of Iceland. Often the churches are set a little separate from the village. (754k)

Seyðisfjörður, a picturesque village in the East Fjords. (504k)

Many of the beautiful wooden houses in Seyðisfjörður were brought here from Norway in the 19^th century. (528k)

One of the wooden houses in Seyðisfjörður. (737k)

A characteristic farmstead. Houses are mostly with white walls and brightly colored roofs. (633k)

This farmstead has red roofs. All the houses in a farm stead are usually painted the same. (506k)

An abandoned farm stead. (817k)

Ruins of a former farm stead. (572k)

Houses used to be covered with live grass sods. (765k)

This was a particularly beautiful grass covered house. (686k)

This was a utility shack in a field, partly covered with grass. (1231k)

A small settlement with the slightly separated church and graveyard. (641k)

A solitary church and graveyard. (496k)

The beautiful church in Seyðisfjörður. (604k)

The church in Þingvellir. (660k)

A red-roofed church. (577k)

Nicely colored church. (742k)

Simply white colored church. (471k)

The cathedral in Hólar. (820k)

Church Ingjaldshóll Hellisandur-rif First

The church in Ingjaldshóll, near Hellisandur-Rif, the first concrete church in Iceland. (402k)

A small church without steeple. (770k)

A tiny grass covered church. (665k)

A tiny church next to an abandoned farm house in a remove fjord in the East Fjord region. (679k)

Landsmannalauga, a small settlement near some hot springs. (785k)

This is one of the smaller hotels I stayed in, a very pleasant place in Flókalundur, a little village in Vatnsfjörður, on the south coast of the West Fjord area. The car is the Suzuki Jimmy that got me all around Iceland. (759k)

A lighthouse on the south shore. There are quite a few lighthouses around Iceland. (442k)

This is an emergency hut. There were emergency huts all over Iceland, mostly on mountain passes. Some of them were quite big, like this one, others were smaller. They have emergency supplies. You can use them in an emergency, but you are supposed to let the authorities know if you do use them, so they can be restocked. (864k)

A small hydro-electric power station on the south shore of Iceland. (959k)

The steam power plant at Kröflustöð, which uses steam from 17 boreholes. (524k)

Not only large power stations use natural steam. This is a local farm stead using natural steam to heat their houses and provide warm water. In the background a field with the hay "marshmallows". (957k)

A hay field where the farmer is rolling up bales of hay and wrapping them in white plastic foil to create these hay "marshmallows". (684k)

Close-up of the tractor with the mechanism to wrap the hay bales. (744k)

A farm stead with piles of the hay "marshmallows". (637k)

Close-up of a few of the hay "marshmallows". (521k)

A fish farm. The little fishing boat is hooked up to the floating circles that hold the fish or shrimp that are cultivated. (683k)

Fishing harbor with boats used for whale watching from Húsavík. (665k)

One of the whale watching boats in Húsavík. (576k)

A fishing boat. Notice birds waiting for some scraps. (585k)

This is an old fishing boat, given an honorable place. (631k)

This is an old fishing boat as well with a less than honorable place. (703k)

Remains of an old US Navy plane. This was nowhere near an airport. (759k)

Reminder of WW II in Seyðisfjörður. (602k)

History

Helgafell, holy mountain of the Norse God Þor (Thor). It was here that the first Þing was held. (485k)

Þingvellir, the location of the Alþing, starting in 930 CE. The Þingvellier National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (586k)

The death penalty by drowning was executed in this water hole next to the location of the Alþing. (754k)

Driving

This was one of the sunnier occasions on a good paved road driving up one of the valleys. The valleys all have the characteristic U shape, carved by glaciers. (694k)

Even the good roads had bad parts. Here the road was washed out and then repaired. (794k)

These warning signs were very frequent, warning of a ridge where you can't see on-coming traffic. Most drivers drive in the middle of the road, unless there is traffic on-coming. (880k)

In some cases they solved this problem of hidden on-coming traffic by putting a sign in the middle of the road, forcibly separating traffic. (537k)

Almost all bridges on the unpaved roads are single lane bridges. (1024k)

The tunnels are single lane as well with passing bays at regular intervals. (348k)

This was the steepest road that was signed. I was on considerably steeper tracks where there were now signs in some remote fjord. (638k)

The summits of mountain passes were often marked with such stone piles. (618k)

Road in the interior. It is just a track in the sand. (584k)

When there are potholes in the track, people just drive around them, so the track gets ever wider. (520k)

Another part of a road in the interior, this time more rocks than sand. (701k)

Washboard surface of a road in the interior. This surface is the worst of all. It is teeth rattling to drive these kinds of roads. (977k)

Rain filled potholes make driving challenging. You can't see how deep the potholes are, and some of them are very deep, they can give you quite a jolt when you drive through them too fast. (889k)

Lower lying parts of the road generally fill up with water (it rains frequently, in case I hadn't mentioned that ). You need to watch out for what is under the murky surface. (789k)

Sometimes the brooks run down the roads, here on Snæfellsjökull. (745k)

Sometimes the brook is the road (or vice versa). (827k)

A view from about at one of the river fords that I drove through. This was an easy one. (875k)

These signs warn of river fords that can only be negotiated with 4 wheel drive vehicles. (417k)

This is one of these fords. (811k)

The deeper ones have more elaborate warning signs that make it abundantly clear that you better be careful. (541k)

Another car going though one of the medium deep rivers. (750k)

This was the deepest river I drove through. (973k)

Here is my Jimmy after the deepest ford. I had water coming over the hood, hitting the windshield. The water reached the horizontal indentation in the middle of the door. (855k)

Parked 4WD vehicles at one of the waterfalls. Mine is the dirty one, having been driven all over Iceland. (638k)

Some of the pedestrian experiences were noteworthy as well. This is a precarious little foot bridge over the river flowing out of Vatnajökull at Kverkfjöll. I am afraid of heights, and negotiating such a flimsy contraption makes me very uncomfortable. (836k)