Paula from Lost in Translation hosts this challenge once a month. She chooses five words and matches the words with photos. It’s a fun challenging challenge! See what you can come up with, thinking outside the box helps.
Buoyant Charming Ill-Mannered Perpetual Tubular
Buoyant
As we are in Bali right now, I thought this photo of Lachie on a beanbag is a good one for Buoyant
A Charming cobble-stoned street, Dean Village, Edinburgh
Ill-Mannered
Petitenget Beach, Seminyak, Bali
One thing you can always rely on is the Perpetual tides coming in and out
This week Donna from Windkisses is hosting Lens-Artists Challenge with the theme “Over the Hill”. This phrase is most used for people getting on in life but it can also mean what is over the hill. Is the climb worth it you think standing at the bottom, and so you start to climb and often when you reach the top there is another hill, tantalising you to keep on climbing.
I searched my archives for hills climbed and for hills driven up, the views are incredible and worth every step from my aching legs.
Heimaey is the main island of the Westman Islands, surrounded by 15 other islands. We visited here as part of our Icelandic tour a few years ago. Its population is approximately 4,300 people while all the other islands remain uninhabited. It can be reach by ferry from Vestmannaeyja or from Reykjavik.
It’s a beautiful little island, with abundant wildlife, but mostly famous for the puffins. It also has two volcanoes, Eldfel exploded in 1973 with all the inhabitants having to leave the island for almost six months! The island was left under lava and ash, but with the help of foreigners and other Icelanders, it was cleared to make it habitable again for the Westman Islanders.
The volcanic rocks we passed on the ferry
Before checking into our hotel we did a tour of the island taking in the puffin sanctuary. It was August when we visited, the time when the baby puffins are born. The puffin parents stop feeding their young early so this forces the babies out and into the town looking for food. The lights at night attract the young and they fly down in their hundreds. It is a pastime for the youngsters of Westman Island to rescue these young birds and the next day the children take them to a safe nesting place on the island.
After seeing the puffins we then went onto to walk the volcanic trail around Eldfell Volcano, Anthony decided he would walk to the top later on that afternoon. He mentioned it was tricky to descend because you tended to slide down!
Volcanic ash is very fertile
Eldfel Volcano
Volcanic town of HeimaeyThe new volcanic island formed from volcanic eruptions from 1963 to 1967
We were staying one night at the wonderful Hotel Vestmannaeyjar, where we had a great room overlooking the harbour.
It’s a lovely little town to explore on foot and we had the afternoon and night free to ourselves. Anthony wanted to try the local delicacy of baby puffin, a bit sad after we had just seen them! So he did get his wish after we found a pub for lunch.
Before
After
A puffin and a pint – Verdict: Fishy pigeon
Photos from around the town
View through volcanic rock
Municipal offices
Fabulous murals depicting local life
Open air fish drying
A very fine Oldsmobile
A nightcap in broad daylight!
Before leaving the island the next day our tour driver picked us up to visit the black sand beach, Reynisfjara, very popular with locals during the summer.
Lengthening shadows
I loved the setting of this tiny island and it’s well worth a visit if you ever get to Iceland, a beautiful hidden gem full of colour and history.
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That’s it for W, next should be X but I’m stumped with this. So it will be straight onto Y!
Both Geysir and Gulfoss are located within the Golden Circle in Iceland. These were places we visited a few years ago on an Icelandic Air tour. We first had one night in Reykjavik and the next morning boarded our coach to the next hotel which was Hotel Grimsborgir.
Geysir
This was our first destination outside Reykjavik and we stopped here for around an hour to take a few photos and to see the lively Strokkur which spouts water 100ft into the air every few minutes. You have to be really quick to take a photo as it spurts so rapidly making everyone jump, also there are always so many people standing around waiting. The name Geysir is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa (“to gush”) from Old Norse. (Source: Wikipedia).
It was also quite difficult to get close enough to the exploding spout of water due to the crowds of people there!
After an hour or so here we hopped back onto the coach and headed onto Gulfoss.
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Gulfoss
Gulfoss is one of Iceland’s most famous waterfalls, beautiful and spectacular to see. By the time we arrived the weather was not looking very good. A fine cold drizzle was setting in plus the spray from the waterfall itself. The walk from the carpark took a good 20 minutes for most on the coach, but for some much longer as they were just walking to it when we were on our return! Much to the guide’s frustration as it was eating into his schedule!
From these photos you can see the long thin trail to the waterfalls. Very slippery in parts so it was quite slow going for some.
There didn’t seem to be much safety concern about the wet rocks and not much of a barrier either – at your own peril!
Gulfoss is the biggest waterfall I’ve ever seen and was truly mesmerising.
Once everyone was safely back on the coach we drove to our final destination for that day, the Hotel Grimsborgir, which is described as a luxury hotel. Nestled in the heart of the Golden Circle and sitting on the banks of the River Sogid. Everyone on the tour was commenting how nice it was and what a treat.
That night we had a sumptuous buffet dinner in a very grand restaurant. The only thing that we balked at was the price of drinks. Iceland is well known for how expensive it is but being out in the countryside was even more exorbitant. Anyway what is dinner without a glass of wine so we bit the bullet and bought a bottle of wine.
Hubby looking happy with the room and then very glum at the price of the drinks 😆
The beautifully decorated dining room where we had dinner and breakfast the next day.
Views from outside of our room.
A view of the rooms : Source – Hotel Grimsborgir
And G has gone!
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this post – all comments very welcome 😍
