Iceland
Had a wonderful trip to Iceland -- a photography workshop led by Richard Bernabe and Joe Rossbach. Richard and Joe are fantastic photographers, teachers, and also did a great job of taking our group to all sorts of beautiful spots. Especially waterfalls, which I love, and which are spectacular in Iceland. Their workshops are highly recommended!
Many of my Iceland photos -- and others -- are also on my photography site, stevesickels.com.
Arrived in Iceland at 6:30 am. A few of us who arrived at the same time met up and walked from our hotel in Reykjavik to the Botanical Garden. Explored Reykjavik a bit, and visited Reykjavik 871±2, an exhibition on the settlement of Reykjavik. Walked along the harbor, and photographed swooping and diving terns, which I always enjoy.
And the Viking Boat Sculpture.
Met the full workshop group at our hotel, and then a walk together -- along the harbor and back into the old section of Reykjavik and dinner at Icelandic Fish & Chips.
We drove to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Stopped at two beautiful waterfalls along the way. The first, Prándarstadirfoss, flowed into a stream that flows into Botnsvogur (a cove).
And the second was Grundarfoss, on the north side of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, a bit east of the town of Grundarfjörður.
Dinner at Kaffi 59, in Grundarfjörður. Good food (slow service!).
Then on to a beautiful set of falls at Kirkjufell, west of Grundarfjörður.
Then sunset on the coast, on the drive back to Reykjavik. At 11:30 pm!
And back to the hotel in Reykjavik.
Drove east from Reykjavik to see some Icelandic horses -- beautiful animals!
Then on to Þingvellir National Park. And Oxararfoss, a waterfall that flows into Almannagjá, a fault scarp on the western edge of the Þingvellir rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (Almannagjá is on the North American Plate; there's a similar scarp on the eastern side of the rift valley, on the Eurasian Plate.) A moody and beautiful place!
Looking south along Almannagjá.
Then back out and north a ways along the coast for some sunset views. (No "keeper" photos, though.) And back to the hotel in Reykjavik.
To Gullfoss. An amazing and powerful waterfall. It was rainy, but a treat nonetheless.
Checked into our hotel, and then off to the very-hard-to-find Brúarárfoss, which was far-and-away my favorite waterfall. The ice blue color of the water was amazing, and like nothing else we saw on the trip.
We stopped briefly at a beautiful waterfall along Fossálar River.
On to Geysir.
Lunch in Hella at Kanslarinn. Simple place -- tasty food.
On to Vik, with its picturesque church. Then up to the Dyrhólaey promontory, overlooking a black beach, with puffins nesting just out of view below the cliff tops -- and swooping around. This one was nice enough to stop above the cliff and to "pose" for us. So cute!
The a few kilometers east (as the crow flies) to Reynisfjara beach, with its sea stack and basalt cliffs.
The another few kilometers east to see more of the Reynisdrangur (sea stacks) in the distance beyond a black beach.
Then back to our hotel.
To Jökulsárlón lagoon, with its beautiful floating ice.
Some of the ice flows out of the lagoon and into the ocean. And a few of these "growlers" wash back up on the black beach, for sparkling effects.
And saw this puffin, diving.
Checked in to our hotel, and then back to Jökulsárlón for sunset. (Photos later.)
An old barn next to our hotel.
West to Höfn.
A great lunch at Kaffi Hornið. I had the traditional Icelandic soup -- very tasty. Others had big and delicious-looking sandwiches.
Stopped along the way for some photos of Icelandic horses we saw from the road. They cautiously approached us, then were quite friendly. Then, it was their time to go!
A rainy day, though, so not much else to see. Back to the hotel for relaxed discussions and fun with Lightroom (a fantastic program!) and Photoshop.
Then out to dinner at Humarhofnin, in Hofn. Very tasy grilled langoustine.
Reindeer in the rain -- on the drive back west.
Then on to Svartifoss, with amazing columnar basalt formations.
Then further east to our hotel, which was 300 meters (across a sheep pasture) from Skógafoss. The "tiny" person in the photo gives some sense of the scale of the falls; it's huge!
Back to Skógafoss in the morning for more photos. This time from a trail up the hill beside the falls.
On to Seljalandsfoss, yet another beautiful falls. We thought perhaps the light might be good at sunset, but we needed to check into our hotel in Reykjavik. (And sunset is late in Iceland in the summer!) So on to Reykjavik for check-in and dinner, and then back to Seljalandsfoss for sunset. It's about a 1.5 hour drive each way, but it was well worth it to see the evening colors at the falls.
A bit more time with the workshop group at the hotel -- and a tasty sushi lunch with a few new friends.
Then home after a great vacation!