Gullfoss and Geysir

By the time we got to Gullfoss and then Geysir, it was extremely windy! Gullfoss is a very nice waterfall, which was almost frozen over. Geysir (pronounced geezer) is the original geyser, and is where the English word comes from. We didn't see Geysir erupt, since it only does it about once an hour and we weren't about to stand out in the wind that long, but we did see some of the smaller geysers go off. And then we went to have lunch, hot chocolate and some schnapps inside!

 As you can tell, Gullfoss is already almost frozen over -- and it was only Nov 11!

This is one of the smaller geysers. Notice all the ice on the ground around it. Although the water comes out boiling, it freezes fast.

This is a shot of the geyser field. Iceland is the largest producer of geothermal power in the world, and we frequently saw plumes of steam while driving around this part of Iceland.

I just like this photo because it gives an idea of the wide open spaces that make up Iceland. With only 320,000 people in the country -- about 200,000 of whom live in or near Reykjavik -- there's lots of open land. But it can also be very desolate.  

As you can see, we were rather cold!