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Legend has it that these sea stacks called Reynisdrangar off the coast of Vík were trolls that were turned to stone

Iceland—August, 2013

There was a line in a Monty Python sketch that went through my mind before this trip. "Iceland is a cold, dark, wet, miserable place." At least during our trip, it certainly wasn't dark, and while it was cold and wet, it certainly wasn't miserable. The scenery (when we could see it) was spectacular, the geology and culture were fascinating, the food was delicious, and the people were wonderful.

Since Iceland is a geothermic powerhouse, hot water is often delivered direct to you from the ground. Thus, showers are often accompanied by a strong smell of sulfur, which we got used to and even miss. The cold drinking water, on the other hand, is clean and pure. Hydroelectric provides the balance of Iceland's power.

At breakfast, we were introduced to the Icelandic version of the continental breakfast. Hard-boiled eggs, meats, and cheeses accompany bread and rolls along with yogurt and muesli. The coffee is good and plentiful. In addition, the Icelandic version adds smoked salmon, sardines, and herring, as well as shots of fish oil (to supply us with vitamin D in the absence of sunlight), tomatoes, and cucumbers.

The dinners usually came in three courses and were also consistently good. Since Höfn is the lobster capital of Iceland, our first meal consisted of lobster. We had lamb often. Like New Zealand, there are a lot of sheep in Iceland.

After enjoying the captions in the pages below, you can view larger versions of the photos by clicking on them. You can see even larger versions of the photos by viewing the slideshow in full screen (F11). You can also view the photos on a map, or download the GPX or even KML tracks of the hikes to fly through our hikes with Google Earth.