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Saga of Stephanie and Frank:
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Reykjavík
A sidewalk cafe in Reykjavík A charming house of corrugated steel (top of page)
Another house
In front of our favorite coffee house
Geothermal plant outside of Reykjavík
Cowboy and Icelandic horses
Geysir
Mountains outside of Reykjavík
The river at Þingveller (top of page)
The lake at Þingveller
The falls at Þingveller (top of page)
The drowning pool
Strolling between the continental plates |
Reykjavík is the capital city of Iceland. It is by far the largest city in the country, with about 150,000 people. In Iceland, the summer sun sets about 10:30 pm and twilight remains all night. Many bars and restaurants staying open past midnight. They have good coffee in Reykjavík and throughout Iceland. The preferred building materials are concrete and corrugated sheet metal, with the latter painted in many bright colors. There is a geothermal plant miles outside of town where hot water from under ground is piped into Reykjavik. With geothermal greenhouses they can grow lush tropical plants a stone's throw from the Arctic Circle. The English word "geyser" comes from the Icelandic name of a famous one: Geysir. At a site called Þingveller, by a huge lake there is the site of the Alpingi, or parliament. The Icelanders set up the first modern European parliament there in 970 AD. They had annual gatherings to settle legal disputes and to punish criminals at the drowning pool. Þingveller is situated between two plates of the earth's crust. A huge crack in the rocks marks the geological division between the continents. |
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