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

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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

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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