Hillary & János visit Europe 2004
Iceland
Reykjavík & Lake Tjörn
On the left, City Hall is actually built out on the water
Lake Tjörn and the Reykjavík skyline
The grey steeple is Hallgrímskirkja, a love-it-or-hate-it landmark built in 1974
The side of City Hall
A very moody cemetery just up the road from our hotel

Hallgrímskirkja viewed from the cemetery
Hallgrímskirkja
The facade up close
Geothermal valley
Iceland is very volcanically active. Magma heats the groundwater, and here the Icelanders are piping some of that water out to use as a power source

Another view of the same valley. In the distance is Ţingvallavatn, Iceland's largest natural lake.

Ţingvallavatn

The river flowing into Ţingvallavatn

Ţingvellír National Park
Iceland is geologically unique because it is one of only 2 places on earth where a separating tectonic boundary runs over land (the other is the East Africa Rift Valley). The result is a series of parallel rifts.

The trail leads through Almannagjá, the deepest of the rifts

The Alţing
Ţingvellír also happened to be centrally located for Iceland's original Viking settlers. They met here annually to conduct legislation and justice, making it the world's first parliamant. This flagpole marks the actual meeting site, used from AD 930 until 1798, when they relocated to Reykjavík.

More views of Ţingvellír National Park
Gullfoss
The Hvítá river flows out of the interior and drops over a diagonal cascade, then drops into a canyon that cuts across it at another angle and flows out to the lower right.

It's hard to get a sense of scale in pictures of Gullfoss. I've circled the people in the photo.

Hillary and I on the outcrop between the cascades

The Hvítá river downstream from Gullfoss
More photos: England & Scotland