Iceland Day 7 - Solstice Day above Skogafoss

After breakfast we moved onto Skogafoss waterfall, we got there before loads of tourists arrived, as today was the Summer Solstice, so lots of people go out to celebrate. This is another truly magnificent waterfall on an epic scale, especially when viewed with people standing close to the bottom of it. When you are there you can really feel the power, but it is very wet!

We climbed to the top of the waterfall and made our way along the river above it photographing the different waterfalls and rapids in the river gorge above the waterfall. As it was Solstice Day, lots of people come out to the country for walks, and there was a particularly large organised walk passed through the valley while we were on the top.

Todays blip is of some of the detail of one of the upper waterfalls. I particularly liked how the water seemed to be rushing into a hole, and how the grasses framed the front of the waterfall.This has been created with my 10 stop filter to achieve the long shutter speed to smooth out the water.

After Skogafoss we then set off back towards Reykjavik, calling to look at some Icelandic Horses (and feed them some bread). They were very nice looking horses, with great manes, almost like a 1980's power ballad's band. We lunched by the river in Hella, and then drove back to Reykjavik through a Geo-thermally active area and we saw vents and a couple of power stations.

After we checked into the hotel we then went for a walk around the town centre and to the large church, Hallgrimskirja, which can be seen for miles around and dominates the city, although our guide told us that it wasn't actually the cathedral, but an ordinary church. Above the main door is a magnificent organ and it was being played rather well by an Organist from Austria.

Kristian took us out in the evening to a bar for a drink. He is a very sharp dresser in Yellow cords, checked shirt and jacket and grey tweed overcoat. Sounds unusual, but it worked (at least to my eye) and it was a bit of a shock to see him like this after only ever seeing him in his outdoors gear.

We then headed to Kopar Restaurant near the waterfront for our final evening meal in Iceland. We had a 9 course dinner which was shared by everybody at the table, which consisted of 3 starters (including crunchy pickles,and Cod Tongues), 3 main courses (cat fish, red fish and shoulder of beef) and then 3 puddings! Kristian then bade us farewell as he was departing with another group of photographers and artists on a trip first thing in the morning.