Appendix 2 - Yet more from Reykjavik

As I was looking through the Reykjavik pictures I found a few that I had overlooked because in their raw form they looked very dark and lacking interest.  However when I processed them I discovered that they weren't that bad after all.  The first five were ones taken out of the windows in the tower of the Hallgrimskirkja Church. This first one is looking inland a bit with the mountains in distance.

The second photo is towards the harbour.

This shot is straight across bay.  If you look closely the Sun Voyager statue is below the crane in the centre of the photo.

In this next shot the sun was lighting up the mountain below the clouds and creating golden reflections across the water in the bay.

Looking across to the South we can see the Pearl in the centre of the photo.

This final shot was taken from down near the waterfront and shows the amazing low clouds bubbling over the mountains across the bay.

More soon, probably starting with Geysir.

Appendix 1 - More of Reykjavik

Back from Iceland and I'm going through the thousand plus photos and spending a bit more time on processing them now I have more time available.  In the appendices part of blog I am just going to include ones not appearing previously although I will probably reprocess most of the photos from the original blog too and put the best ones on my website.  There may be more appendices than original posts depending on how it goes but in this first one I am using photos from the first day in Reykjavik.

I'll start with a photo of Hallgrimskirkja Church because it is such an iconic piece of architecture.  For this photo I chose an angle looking across the front face of the building which I haven't seen much on thee internet before but I think it works quite well.  To be honest it's hard to find and uninteresting angle to look at this building, I love the simplicity and the sweeping blockiness of the design.

I also made this photograph because the rear of the church doesn't appear much on the internet. That is a shame because I think the the curves of the almost mosque-like rear makes a strange contrast to the angularity of the rest of the church.

The inside of the church is just as stark and grey as the outside.  There are very few statues or paintings around the walls and aisles within the church.  The one striking item in the church is the array of organ pipes above the entrance to the church.  While we were there there was a young lady playing the organ and filling the church with beautiful music.

We took the lift up the tower of the church which let us out in the area behind the clocks.  Each one had a different set of pictures around but all of them was damaged or had words scraped into it.  This one was the least damaged.  It was quite interesting to see the electric clockwork in the centre.  All very different to the clocks in the big churches and cathedrals in England.

From the clock hall was a few flights of stairs up to the level where there were windows on all sides of the tower.  Out of the windows were some great views over the city and across the bay to the mountains.  Here's a photo across the bay with the mountains lit up by the early evening (1:30 pm) sun and the low clouds obscuring the peaks.

After leaving the church we made our way back down to the harbour where we had parked the car. I was interested in seeing the Imagine Peace Tower which is on an island in the bay but during the day there's not much to see from the city because it isn't lit up.  We had planned to return to Reykjavik in the evening one day to see it.  What we did find next to the harbour was the Sun Voyager statue which is very photogenic, so I took loads of photos from lots of different angles.

After taking a portrait photograph I just have to make a landscape one from a slightly different angle.

One more after undergoing a black and white processing.

In the original blog entry I included a photo including this statue but from a distance so I felt it was OK to use this one in the appendices.

I'll continue to work through processing more of my photos and make another post in a few days.

Day 7 - A last look around

Our last full day in Iceland and following the wet and windy evening it had snowed overnight.  Here's a shot from the rear door of our apartment towards the other two apartment blocks.

We decided to revisit Thingvellir to see how it looked with a covering of snow and also stop a few places on the way there and back to have a look around.  Just outside Laugarvatn there is a picnic area which we have driven past a few times so we decided to stop here first.  In one direction is a view over the lake at Laugarvatn and the other way is this view towards the national park.

A little further there is a turn off onto the original road from Thingvellir to Laugarvatn which is much more windy and heads more into the mountains to the North.  The road was full of potholes and had quite a rough surface but it did mean there was plenty of grip for Vinnys' stud covered tyres.  Here's a view along the towards the mountains with Vinnys' tracks through the ice filled puddle.

Here's another shot showing the cloud covering the higher parts of the mountain.

Further along we had a good view of the mountains in the national park with the yellow sun lighting up the clouds above the mountains.

Near the end of the old road it turned into a very rough track which was full of deep holes and a thick layer of snow.  Poor Vinny bumped his underside on the ground a couple of times but easily managed to get us back onto the new road where we continued towards Thingvellir. When we reached the edge of the national park there was a parking place at the edge of the road where I took this photo across Thingvellir lake to the mountains in the distance.

From the same place this is the main road towards Reykjavik which is quite narrow and winding and was covered in snow and ice.

When we reached the car park we walked up the path towards to upper waterfall and passed this little patch of conifers which looked lovely with the sprinkling of snow on them.

Soon after we reached the waterfall the sun broke through the clouds to light up the waterfall and the rock face around it.  Some of the water had a layer of ice on it an the rope fence next to the waterfall had a line of little icicles shining in the sun.

Here's a shot looking down the canyon with the water rushing passed the snow covered rocks.

Here's a fisheye view of the waterfall from the edge of the decking. I love the reflection of the snow and rocks in the water between us and the waterfall.  The sky looked really nice and blue in this direction but there was still quite a lot of thick black cloud behind us which kept giving us snow showers as we walked about. This patch of sun went after a few minutes so I took as many shots as I could in the time it was here.

Here's a shot of the wooden decking with a fresh layer of snow on it.   It looks so different to when we were here the other day.

We were going to head back towards the church to get some new shots of it with snow on and around it.  On the way I stopped to take this shot across to the mountains where you can see low cloud drifting around and obscuring some of the lower hills.

As we headed towards the church some big black clouds came over and from a distance I just managed to get this shot with the orange sky behind the church before it went almost completely dark and started to snow hard.

We decided against walking all the way to the church because it looked like it was going to snow for a while so we headed back to the car park instead.  We set off to go back to the apartment an we took the lakeside road which joins up with the main road towards Laugarvatn.  On the way we stopped near the lake and I took a few shots including this one.

When we got back to the apartment we popped down to the Fontana Spa for a late lunch and a dip in the hot pools and steam rooms.  Around the pools there was snow on the ground and the rocks so it did feel strange sitting in the hot water and it was very cold when moving from place to place.  At one point it started to snow quite hard and we both had a layer of very white snow on our hair.

It snowed quite a bit all through the night and we had to set off to the airport about 8am the next day to go to the airport.  It was a long dark drive in the snow and ice but we made it home safely.  Over the next few days I will be processing more of my photos and will probably post some more different ones.

Day 3 - Vik and More Waterfalls

We set off quite early hoping to get to Vik for around dawn and then visit the waterfalls on the way back.  Some of the roads were quite slippy after the overnight freeze but Vinny (the car) was happier about it than we were.  Our first stop was Dyrhólaey which is just before Vik and we saw the waterfalls on the way because they were just off the main road.

The first car park at Dyrhólaey was at a small headland above the beach.  This first shot is West, towards the larger headland where the second car park is situated.

It was very windy and quick difficult to keep upright and although Vinny told us it was 5 degrees the wind chill factor made it feel about minus 10.

To the East was a long black sand beach with a big rock sticking up out of it.  In the distance is the headland with the three trolls of reynisdrangar, the beach of Vik.

The track to the second car park was very rough, very narrow and very steep in places.  It was even windier up here but looking inland we saw the  Mýrdalsjökull icecap and the Katla volcano.  In front of them is a big lump of rock which we drove past but I couldn't find the name.

At the end of the headland is a cute little lighthouse and this view of the sea arch.  Unfortunately the tide was in so we couldn't get down to the beach and get some closer shots of the arch.  There is a path where you can walk across the top of the arch but because it was so windy we didn't think it would be safe to go that way.

We then went to Vik and down to the beach where there was a German Memorial which is to remember 1,000 German fishermen who lost their lives in Icelandic waters between 1898 and 1952.

We walked along the black sand beach towards the jetty.  It looked really weird with the black sand and the very white surf from the incoming waves.  From here I took this long shot of the famous Vik church on the hill above the town with the mountains behind.

At the jetty I took this shot of the three trolls with the jetty wall and black sand in the foreground.

Then we went to the restaurant at the edge of town where we had a Magistrates Burgers (just because Ginny is a barrister) which contained, a burger, bacon and cheese with a fried egg on top served with chips and some Mediterranean vegetable stuff.  We were pretty stuffed after that but we needed the energy for later.  On the way back to the car we passed this sculpture on top of a big column which had been erected by Hull Council where there is a second sculpture which faces this one.  Fancy coming all the way to Iceland to find something from Yorkshire.

We left Vik and went to see the water fall at Skogarfoss which looks very impressive even from the road on the way passed earlier.  We decided to climb the 400 ish steps to the top of the waterfall where we had this view.

Back at the bottom of the fall Ginny wanted to make sure I got a picture of the little seagull towards the bottom right of the frame.  The falls are about 60m high and 25m across, so very big.

Here at the bottom of the waterfall we, and the camera, were getting very wet from the spray but Ginny insisted on getting an action shot.

We left Skogarfoss for our last stop at Seljalandsfoss and went for another action shot.  Unfortunately the battery on my radio remote was flat, so after several attempts using the timer we ended up asking a passing photographer to take the shot for us.

We climbed the stairs at the side of the waterfall and soon started to get wet again.

The path goes around the back of the waterfall and here we are looking out through the waterfall (still getting quite wet).

Out the other side of the waterfall we can see into where we had been.

There was a signpost  on a path to Gljúfrabúi which said 600m so we headed off to find it and as you approach it you can see the top of the waterfall but is disappears into the rock.  When you reach the noticeboard there is a stream coming out of a little cave where you have to go inside to get to the bottom of the waterfall.  Inside it was very dark, wet and very very loud.  For this picture we had to stand very still for almost 30 seconds getting completely soaked all the time.

Back down to the main waterfall and one last shot from the bridge over the stream.  It was starting to get a little dark by now so we headed off back to the apartment for a light tea and a rest.

The driving in the dark was very tiring with the road conditions very variable on both long journeys.  We have decided not to travel to the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon from the apartment because it twice as far as the journey to Vik.  Had we considered this earlier we should have done the waterfalls on the way to Vik then carried on to near Jokulsarlon for an overnight stop, got up early to look around the  lagoons and then headed back the following day. Next time maybe.

In the evening we went on an aurora hunt but it was too cloudy.  We thought we saw some greenish patches in the sky but nothing spectacular.  Tomorrow we're going to Thingvellir National park where there is the rift valley then on to Reykjavik.  We might stop on the way back to look for the aurora again but the weather forecast is too good for tonight so maybe not.

Day 1 - Manchester to Reykjavik

Sunrise North of Manchester this morning.  Flying at a height of 11 kilometers on the way to Iceland and the best view was as the sun broke through the clouds shortly after levelling out.  Take off, flight and landing were all pretty smooth and we landed 15 minutes earlier then scheduled.  Our car was upgraded from a Suzuki Jimny to a Grand Vitara with studded tyres. Cool.

We drove to Reykjavik and saw some great views on the journey.  At Reykjavik we parked near the bay North of the city and walked up into the centre.  We went to a healthy restaurant for a light bite before heading up the hill to the church.  Our first view of Hallgrimskirkja Church with the sun behind and Leif Erikson to the front.  Quite an impressive piece of architecture and the inside was very minimalistic with a very shiny pipe organ.

Here's a closer view of Leif Erikson in the sunlight.

After we looked around inside the church we bought tickets for the lift up the church tower to see the view over the city.  As the lift doors opened we bumped into a young couple who appeared to have just got engaged at top of the tower (awwwww).  We got to look out of the windows which are just above the clock faces and this is one of the views over the city and across the bay to the mountains.

Here's a shot looking down from the tower at Leif Erikson.

This is a closer look at the view across the bay from the church tower.  It's amazing.

We walked back down from the church to have a closer look across the bay and we spotted this sculpture by the water. Here's Ginny...

... and Colin.

The sky was changing continually and as we walked along the path the view and the reflections were amazing.

Further along was another sculpture with an incredible backdrop of the water mountains, cloud and sky.

After  Rejkyavik we went to the supermarket for supplies and then headed for the apartment at Laugarvatn.  There was some parts of the journey where we had snow and ice on the road so it was a bit scary. The apartment is great and Ginny made a lovely salmon and pasta meal for our supper.  Tomorrow we aren't going to go far, probably just to Geysir, Gulfoss and here abouts.  We've bought tickets for the local spa baths so we'll probably spend sometime there too.