The Road to Laugarvatn
[Written 3 September 2013 – Happy Birthday Nökkvi!]
Google Street View has finally made it to Iceland, which may or may not have inspired me to take photos of the landscape as we drove (yet again) the hour-long drive to Laugarvatn for a four-night stay at the summer house. Most of these were taken out the window, and thus needed color correction, which I attempted.
Here are some examples (46 images total).
The route to Laugarvatn.
Leaving the capital area, saying goodbye to Mount Esja (this is just a tiny bit of it, it’s massive).
More Mt. Esja, seen from Mosfellsbær. We’re about to turn to the right and drive inland.
Random steep hillside.
Looking inland at the Mosfell Valley.
Driving along the valley. This portion of it has a 70 km/hr speed limit. It goes up to 90 km/hr once one clears civilization.
There are lots of tiny little churches all over Iceland. This one (far left) has a fancy slanted design.
I’m pretty sure those lightly colored peaks in the background are called Botnssúlur (Bottom Pillars).
The last house before the speed limit goes up. It’s called Gljúfrasteinn and is famous for being the former home of Iceland’s only Nobel prize winner, Halldór Laxness.
Heading up onto the highish flatland.
Grass and distant peaks.
Icelanders have big cars.
Grazing sheep.
See the sheep?
I always marvel at the guts of bikers biking in Iceland. There is no hard shoulder to speak of.
Þingvellir Lake visible from a distance.
Apparently tourists stop there and make little stone mounds. I don’t know why.
More lake visible. There are summer houses around it. They mostly belong to the ‘fancy’ families of Iceland.
Run sheep, run!
The sheep gate before entering the Þingvellir National Park.
The Þingvellir road shop visible in the distance.
A crack in the ground. Thank you plate tectonics.
Fancy stone pillars.
Looking back towards the crack. We saw the Game of Thrones filming season 4 scenes on that ledge the weekend before.
A rest stop. We kept going.
The road through the national park is wrinkly, and the speed limit is 50 km/hr.
Mossy landscape.
Maybe this year we’ll make it there when the autumn colors show up. The dark line is the crack corresponding to the other crack. The whole area is sinking, hence the lake.
Kids in a car. We’ve now settled into a routine where they get cookies every 15-20 minutes if they behave.
Looking back over the lake to where we came from.
Looking south-ish.
Random tiny structure. Looks like the houses of old.
Exiting the national park. The road becomes straight again.
Miðfell?
More flats. More sheep. More peaks in the distance.
Peaks with some extra coloring.
Erosion is a pretty big problem in Iceland. Our soils is delicate, and the sheep like to eat the new stuff.
Mt. Hekla visible in the distance, as well as some modern technology stuff.
About to head to lower ground.
Laugarvatn (Laugar=Pool, Vatn=Water). It’s the name of the lake and the town next to the lake.
The University of Iceland’s sport division is housed there, as well as some other boarding schools. In the summers they become hotels.
Approaching the entrance into town. Take a left at the round-about and enter town, take a right and head elsewhere. We take a right.
The summer house is not actually in Laugarvatn, it’s a little ways away.
Mt. Hekla again. It erupts pretty frequently.
The mountain that ‘sits’ over Laugarvatn.
Almost at the summer house, but not quite. Nice horse-themed gates.
