Waiting for departure

First morning view from the hotel window

The Icelandic Health Hotel is not in a very picturesque part of the country, but the flat volcanic landscape has a certain charm.

Outside the car rental office

Outside the Viking World Museum

Giant stone head outside the Viking World Museum

Nineteenth-century farmstead

The original tenancy of this farmstead prohibited livestock; the residents had to make their living from the sea. Now it's part of an open-air museum.

Old boat at farmstead

Stone wall at farmstead

Viking World Museum

It's mostly about the ship. It's a replica Viking ship that was sailed to New York.

Dress-up for adults!

Did the Vikings wear pink boots? And what do those runes say?

Well, the shield has a fierce expression...

Prow, with teeth

Viking ship (replica)

The lines that hold up the mast when it is upright end in these bights attached to wooden pegs that fit in holes in the hull.

Hull, shields, and sail

Outside the Viking World Museum

Hallgrímskirjka, Reykjavik

Portal, Hallgrímskirjka, Reykjavik

View from Hallgrímskirjka, Reykjavik

Reykjavik mural art

Viking ship conceived as a set of forks

No cairn building

You can see why they put up this sign in this photo from my August 2012 photo taken at the same site: https://brianogilvie.smugmug.com/Europe/Iceland-2012/i-fGzWmcc/A

Þingvellir: the Almannagjá, the most prominent fault in the valley

This is one of the places where the European and North American tectonic plates are separating, at a combined speed of around 7 mm per year—i.e., over 7 meters (22 feet) since Iceland was settled.

Almannagjá

Þingvellir landscape

Þingvellir landscape

Þingvellir lava

Skálholt chapel

Skálholt was the site of the first episcopal see in Iceland. It was transferred to Reykjavik in the eighteenth century but re-established as a satellite in the twentieth. This modern chapel was built using traditional methods: a dry laid stone foundation, a wooden superstructure, and then a turf exterior (see below).

Skálholt chapel: exterior with turf cover

Skálholt chapel and church

Elf door on the Skálholt chapel

Skálholt: tunnel from the church to the site of the school

The old school is now an archaeological dig.

Memento mori on a Skálholt tomb

Gullfoss

The largest waterfall in Europe, in terms of volume, though not the tallest.

Gullfoss

In the rain at Gullfoss

Reykjavik graffiti

Klyfjahestur, sculpture by Sigurjón Ólafsson

The new opera house in Reykjavik

Mural seen on a bike ride around Reykjavik

Reykjavik water fountain

Lighthouse, Seltjarnarnes peninsula, Reykjavik

Lighthouse, Seltjarnarnes peninsula, Reykjavik

Mural, public library, Reykjavik

No need to bring a copy

I brought my rather hefty copy of the Penguin selected "Sagas of Icelanders" on the trip. Had I forgotten it, I would have found plenty of opportunities to replace it. As it turns out, I've had precious little time to read it.

Reykjavik graffiti

At dinner at Aalto Bistro, Reykjavik

Sticker shock

Visitors to the National Museum get a sticker showing that they have bought a ticket. Apparently, many of them leave the stickers on this post after they have left the museum.