The clouds began to lift little by little as we drove up through the fjords of east Iceland.
Finally beginning to see the mountains silhouetted against the fjords.
We were enchanted by the fishing village of Stöðvarfjörður.
(I had to cut and paste that word!!!)
The little fishing boats all lined up on clear, reflective waters.
I finally saw a puffin!!! ..in this lovely mural
(way on the right)
Another stunning church view.
In a rather colorless landscape, I love how they paint their churches to liven up the scenery!
Finally, an absolutely gorgeous day!!
Now we began driving across the north-eastern "tundra". Very barren landscape. Much of it volcanic rock. But still beautiful.
Absolutely no trees but the grass and brush has an autumn tinge to it.
We kept seeing these stone cairns at exact intervals across the landscape. These old stone cairns acted as beacons for people travelling in Iceland, a kind of a GPS system of the olden days. Pretty amazing to see in such a barren place. Unfortunately, tourists want to build their own and it's quite a problem over there. Some of these date back to the Vikings!!
Then it got more colorless and volcanic. This was the path to the largest (volume of water-wise) waterfall in Europe
And suddenly..this!!! Detifoss!
It plummets 45 meters, the approx height of the Statue of Liberty!
And then..a rainbow!!
So there were a few things I really wanted to see in Iceland:
-a rainbow by a waterfall (check)
-a puffin (too late)
-northern light (too early)
-Icelandic horses (coming up soon)
-glaciers (check)
I got my rainbow!!
You can't even fathom the amount of water pouring over the edge!
And you really can't see the bottom due to all the water spraying up
We hiked up a bit to get this view
Then, you walk upstream over volcanic rock and see a peek of Detifoss's younger sister Selfoss.
It is a horse shoe shaped waterfall, quite beautiful
Appears to be a whole row of small waterfalls with the main flow in the rear.
Stunning.
The craggy basalt chunks and columns lining the edge are quite beautiful in their own right.
What a day! Your mind can hardly take it all in. So much beauty.
So beautiful!!!
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