This is the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. My daughter is visiting the country and I thought I'd share some of the beautiful and interesting things she's seeing. I was surprised to learn that this is a man-made lagoon. The water is warmed by the water from a nearby geothermal plant. Despite that kind of icky fact, the water is mineral rich and considered healthy for bathing. The Blue Lagoon has been used in several movies.
The architecture is simple, but colorful. I love this little village called Seyðisfjörður. (Most of the names I'm seeing are unpronounceable to English-speaking people.)
This is the Vatnajökull Glacier, the largest ice cap in Europe. My daughter and her friends went snowmobiling on it, which they said was great fun. I guess they didn't worry about crevasses opening up in front of them. Meanwhile, there are volcanos under the glacier, which seems weird to me.
The natural wonders of Iceland remind me a bit of Yellowstone National Park in the western US. Here's the Geysir Hot Spring.This has existed for at least 10,000 years. I was happy to see a word I recognized. It turns out that our word geyser (for hot spring) comes from Iceland. The Icelandic verb is 'geysa' meaning, 'to gush'. This geyser erupts randomly.
I had to show you the sheep grazing. Apparently they are common (as are wild horses). I think you can see from the photos that Iceland is not a densely populated country, but it is very beautiful.
Have any of you been to Iceland?
4 comments:
Gorgeous! Some of the pics remind me of Scotland, especially the sheep one. :) I would love to visit Iceland. So glad your daughter is having a great time!
Thanks Vonda. The sheep did remind me of Scotland as well, as did some of the lonely landscapes. It's easy and relatively cheap to visit. One of the people in her party had never left the US so apparently this is as far as he wanted to go. lol
I was in Iceland about two years ago. It's one of my all-time favorite countries. There's something magical about the lighting, and I can understand why they have such a fascination with elves. You can almost believe in them when you're there. But I didn't see any wild horses. Next time.
Hi Allyson, re the lighting, even in May, my daughter said the sun never really set. I hadn't realized Iceland was so far north. There's a very strong Norse tradition there. I'd love to be some place where I could almost believe in elves!
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