We got into Reykjavik late in the evening of the 13th and checked into our hotel. Unpacked and crashed.

Next morning we were up and exploring Reykjavik It's not a huge city, and many of the buildings look like metal warehouses, even store fronts. But the old section looks more like a European town. Great old buildings, winding streets, and very interesting places.

As you can see it can be quite bleak, and usually is except in some summer months. To counter this some of the streets have colorful paintings on the pavement.

The biggest building in the old section is Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church. You can see the spire from just about anyplace. Beautiful.

One of the tallest structures in Iceland.

It was named for the 17th century poet Hallgrímur Pétursson.

Construction started in 1945 and was done in stages. The crypt was completed in 1948 the steeple and wings in 1974, and finished in 1986.

It wasn't designed to be so tall, but the Lutheran Church leaders wanted it to "outshine" Landakotskirkja (Landakot's Church), which was the cathedral of the Catholic Church in Iceland.

Our first day on the road and our first stop.

This is just one park in what is called The Golden Circle, which is only a few hours from Reykjavik..

This rift is formed by the split between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate

Needless to say it is a bounty of information for scientists and a great opportunity to look back in time, geologically speaking

Next stop was in the Geysir Geothermal Area.

Strokku erupts about every 15 minutes, so you can always catch a show.

There are multiple fumaroles, little bubbling mud pits, and lots of lava formations to entertain in between eruptions.

The eruptions are not long, but I got a few videos of them below.

One of our first large waterfall. Yeah!

Gullfoss means Golden Waterfall in Icelandic. Not sure why.

Walking down from the parking lot gives you a great view. And the closer you get, the better the view.

Another video, just so you can hear the falls roar - well if you can hear them over the Italians who were quite vocal.

This is a beautiful lake inside a caldera.

The water is an amazing hue - unfortunately it does not show up well in our pics - and the rock surrounding it is red lava. I have never seen red lava rock.

Leave it to Iceland to have something so unique

These are 2 great falls, easy to get to, and very unique.

Seljalandsfoss has appeared in a number of films and series, most recently Star Trek Discovery. Besides being a really great waterfall, you can take the path that leads behind it. Can't say that too often.

Once you have enjoyed being behind the falls, follow the path onward to Gljufrabui Falls. Now this is really different.

To see it you must enter a slot in the canyon walls, and tiptoe over rocks (or wade in freezing water) to get inside.You are standing feet from the falls inside the crevasse carved out by the water.

Best to bring something waterproof for you camera because you will need it

Dyrholaey is a promontory of lava rock that juts out into the ocean and has a huge arch in the rock.

Down below the beach is black - not really sand but lava that has started to wear down.

The weather was pretty bad so we did not go down to the beach and explore the rock caves. Bummer

So, we're driving along toward our next point of interest and we see this waterfall. Just amazing.

We take a little detour off the main road just to see it.

A few miles later we realized waterfalls in Iceland are like elk in Yellowstone - prolific. If you tried to stop at every one you would need 3 months to get around the loop.

They do have hikes on the glacier but we did not opt for that on this trip. Maybe next trip - although the way things are melting it may just be a small mound when we come back. So very sad.

Pardon the pun, but this was so cool.

Standing on shore, looking at icebergs. These calve off of Vatnajökull glacier and which used to be along the shore of the Atlantic.

Now it's miles away. Global warming, not good.

You can take a boat tour around the bergs, or kayak.

Since it was low 40s, and we don't have a lot of time, we stayed on shore.

But there were some hardier souls who had a great time flying along in those rubber boats.

We spent the night in Hofn, lovely town and nice hotel.

We are driving along route 1, the ring road, and what do we see sitting on a big rock but a huge red chair.

Now having spent time in Minneapolis, we are drawn to big red chairs so naturally we took the detour to check it out.

Typical Iceland, the chair sits in an area nowhere near buildings and people, and apparently sometimes it is here, sometimes it is gone.

Why is it here? The predominant theory is trolls like to sit in it during the long winter nights and survey the Universe.

This is a rather modest waterfall by Icelandic standards, but it is easy to get to, and the area is very pretty.

Today it is mostly driving from Hofn to Lake Myvatn.

Since we had no particular sites to see, we just stopped along the road as things caught our eye.

Iceland is just full of small, interesting things to see.

This is a eerie and interesting place, and definitely on our list.

Arid desert type terrain soon opens up to this.

Yes it does smell like rotten eggs in places, and it is very, very muddy.

You can spend a huge amount of time just staring at bubbling mud pits and watching fumaroles spew scalding hot vapor, or stupid people try to put their faces in scalding hot vapor.

Pretty neat place. Even have some neat short videos so you can hear them roar

Dettifoss is one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe. Selfoss really isn't that much less intense.

You can view them from either the east or west side of the river. We chose the east because you get an unobstructed view of both this way. The west side is easier to get to but you don't see all of Selfoss. Plus the east side is a 1 hour drive down dirt roads.

A bit of scrambling over rocks and boulders brings you right up to Dettifoss. It really does roar.After a few thousand shots, we moved on over more rocks and boulders to Selfoss.

Both of these are well worth the little effort it takes to see them both in their full glory.

Yes, there is video of these falls as well

We saw several geothermal plants along our drive, so I just thought I would share them.

We also stopped at the Krafla Crater. It is a very lovely, deep crater and a nice stop along our route.

Last stop of the day, Gooafoss Waterfall.

This one actually has roads and a parking lot, unlike many we have seen that just have a gravel path and an informal parking area.

If you did not read about this you certainly would not find it. Off the beaten path, down a long graveled road, and there you are.

We have seen basalt columns before but usually near water. These are not near any water.

Walking along the face gives a really nice view of the rock strata, colors, and cracks.

There is a path, sort of, that you can follow up to the top Grand views

We decided to head to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, just because.

The Bjarnarfoss Falls are visible from the road, and who could pass that by.

The Malarrif Lighthouse is a historic point of interest that has guided fishing fleets for over 100 years.

The lighthouse and farm around used to be extremely isolated until the paved road was put in sometime in the 1980s.

At the tip of Snaefellsnes Peninsula is Djupalonssandur Beach aka Black Lava Pearl Beach.

It has some amazing rock formations, great view of the Snaefellsjokull glacier (well not in our shots) but it is there.

One of the things that draws folks is the wreckage of a British Trawler in 1948. The waves have beaten it to pieces and many are still lying on the beach rusting away.

You can see the glass dome and huge water tanks from most places in Reykjavik, and it does look odd.

Only a creative architect could take some huge hot water storage tanks and think putting a glass dome on top of them is a great idea.

We really did not expect much - ok so it's a glass dome sitting on top of a group of huge water tanks - but we were pleasantly surprised.

The planetarium display of the northern lights, the restaurant under the glass dome, and the exhibits were all well worth seeing.

They even have an ice cave, and yes, it is well below freezing - like a tube inside a glacier.

All the wonders of Iceland in one place - and yes we would go back on our next trip.

We saw sheep everywhere, and they're absolutely adorable.

They have the funniest expressions, they come in a huge variety of colors, and we never grew tired of pulling off the road just to watch them.

I'm putting in a few - showing great restraint actually because I could put in 3 times as many as I am. But sharing sheep is the right thing to do.

We spent the night in Boston and had a few hours to enjoy before we headed to the airport and home.

Our hotel was down by the pier so we could easily walk around some of the older parts of town.