Visiting Iceland

This week I have visited our old western neighbor country ICELAND (where my oldest ancestor: Torarin Finnvidson Bulibak was born around the year 850 at the north western peninsula "Ønundarfjørdur")
We stayed in the capital Reykjavik but visited many very interesting places which I during the coming days will cover here in my blog.

The first thing you will discover after arriving at Keflavik airport is the Lava-landscape created from the volcano activity during thousands of years. This part of Iceland is the youngest lava area and different from areas erupted before the last Glacial Age

The Geysir area is an interesting experience and on this photo the "Støkkur" is just sending it´s hot water up in the air. (every 5-6 minutes)

Waterfalls can be found many places over the island. This one is probably the most famous and called Gullfoss It is located in the canyon of Hvítá river in the southwestern Iceland.

The waterfalls like those in the canyon at Barnafossar give challenges for visitors with vertigo. Being careful, there is however no problems catching great images of the Hraunfossar. These waterfalls are located close to Reykholt (Snorre Sturlasson´s home) in the Borgarfjørdur area.

The last financial crack in Iceland will not be covered, but the skyline of Reykjavik is an example of what some Icelandic people look back to with anger. This area they call "Madhatten".
The concert hall Harpa is to the right of the image

Traveling around by bus gives many beautiful sceneries of almost untouched nature. This photo also includes a part of the everlasting snow areas at the second largest ice cap Langjøkull

In Iceland many people believe in Elves and Huldu folks They may live in stones like this.

Over the centuries, when Icelanders settled the island, they related to their unseen neighbors with respect. Everyone was aware of the fact that if they was not taken into account "Huldufólkene", who lived in stones and cliffs surrounding farms, it could have fatal consequences. 

The lesson of how huldufólket had their homes passed down between generations and they were raised to deal with caution to such places. Farmers who refused to believe that the hidden people were there, experienced illness, loss and other difficulties when they defied the ban and cut the grass around huldufólkenes homes. Loss of cattle and death could be explained by the fact that it was huldufólket who retaliated.

The last photo in this brief introduction to our visit at Iceland, is the group-photo of pensioners from Det norske Veritas in front of Høfdi building.
Here presidents Ronald Reagan of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics met in 1986. That summit effectively was a step to the end of the Cold War.
Follow me in the days to come where I will blog some more photos from our interesting visit to Iceland; the country where it is said that Norwegians have a dream to visit (after first have seen the rest of the world)