Thursday, March 18, 2010

Cycling to the station...


...to catch the train to Schiphol Airport...


...to get on the plane to Reykjavik!


Goodby Netherlands, hello Iceland!


On a bus from the airport; landscape looks like another planet!


The Blue Lagoon!


I swam in there! (Pics of me in bathing suit not for publication;)


Like walking on the moon!


All warm and relaxed from swimming in the Blue Lagoon, I'm ready for bed :-)


Friday, March 19, 2010

Breakfast \o/


From the bus; I'm doing the "Golden Circle Tour" today:)


In the distance: a geothermal area.


Hellisheiði Power Plant (Where they capture the geothermal energy)


Steamy;)


I love the design of the drill (I wish they sold jewelry or pins with this)


Next stop: Gullfoss Waterfalls


Tadaah!


The water falls in the 7 km long gorge.


Geysir National Park: Little Geysir, ahw.


What are they all waiting for?


The big one! Strokkur Geysir blows every 8-10 minutes and reaches about 25-35 meters up in the air \o/


Fata (hot spring)


Blesi (hot spring)


Strokkur; I'm waiting for the next eruption...


Woohoo!


That was cool:)


Lunch: Kjötsupa with breadrolls, mmmm.


Statue in front of Hotel Geysir :-D (How could I not?)
(ETA: Photobucket actually removed this picture because it 'violated terms of use'. Uhm, what? Now uploaded on my Blogger account)


View from the bus: Icelandic horses (not ponies!)


So much to see:)


Fissure caused by shifting of Eurasian Continental Plate (Hrafnagja)


Driving through þingvellir National Park with biggest inland lake of Iceland (can't remember the name...)


Mountainview from the bus


Allmannagja gorge on the American Continental Plate


Area where the first (Viking) parlement (Althing) came together in 930 AD and Iceland's indepence was signed in 1944.


More views in the Allmannagja gorge (cont.)


You can almost feel (and see!) the earth move here!


Falls at the end of the Allmannagja gorge.


Rockwalls

Back in town around 6 pm

Wall in Klapparstigur (next to hotel)


I took the citybus to Kringlan mall...


... and went to the Sambíó Kringlunni cinema: Alice In Wonderland 3D (which added nothing but distraction from the marvelous film, next time I would choose the regular edition)


Bibles in hotelrooms make me sigh out of frustration; I contemplated switching them with The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin *grins*


Saturday, March 20, 2010

Took a stroll to the harbour with the beautiful Soltar sculpture (Sun Voyager) by Jon Gunnar Arnason


Me and Soltar:)


My blind date with fellow SPN fan Felis Blanco (who I met on LiveJournal) started with hot chocolate at eleven and ended over three hours later. We fangirled and went to a comicbook/dvd store where we obviously talked about comics and old tv-shows (Parker Lewis Can't Lose!). Felis also showed me around a bit; it was brilliant.

I then took a little tour out of my guidebook on my own:

President's recidence and Frikirkjuvegur


Statue of first Viking in Iceland: Igolfur Arnarson


Supreme Court (Green building on the left) and National Theatre (on the right).


Art, Hverfisgata


Hallgrimskirkja by Guðjon Samuelsson


Me being artsy.


Sideview from Hallgrimskirkja


View from front of Hallgrimskirkja


Statue (St George and the Dragon?) in Hljomskalagarður


Austervöllur square with statue of Jon Sigurðsson (and tulip!)


This troll-viking survived quite a battle from the looks of it :-D


Sculptures in Bankastræti


Standing on Volcanic Tile:)


Went to arthouse Regnboginn for The Good Heart by Icelandic writer/director Dagur Kári (and music by 's cousin!)


Sunday, March 21, 2010
Got up at 04.00 am to get to the airport on time for 07.50 plane back home. Due to a Vulcanic eruption in the South of Iceland there were no flights until further notice. I spent my time at the airport reading, eating, walking around and taking pictures:)

Airport ceiling.


Confirmed flight time of 11.00 turned into 11.30 and finally 12.00.


Plane was ready to go.


And we're off!


Hello Holland Netherlands, so straight and structured:)


How appropriate: plane was named after a vulcano!


Brotherdearest surprised me at the gate and I went home with him to show off my pictures. He got to sit through all 374 of them (consider yourself lucky;)


I took the train back to Z. around 19.00 (7 pm), got home around nine.

The end. :-)