Driving in Iceland

In August (and again in December, under much different circumstances) I was in Iceland. I rented a car with my friend Brian who was traveling with me, and with it we were able to see a fair bit of the country. Iceland is a bit in vogue as the darling of the tourist industry at the moment, but I can certainly see why after traveling there: it is unlike any other earthly place I can think of. One of the great pleasures of traveling through the country is the vast expanses of nothingness one encounters for much of the ride.

Toward Fjallsárlón glacier

Wide expanse of volcanic rock covered in lichens in southern Iceland

Driving toward Grundarfjorður on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula

Between Seltún and Reykjavík

North of Akranes

Also north of Akranes

On the Snæfellsnes Peninsula

The north face of Snæfellsjökull, one of Iceland's largest volcanoes

The road across Snæfellsjökull

Negotiating right-of-way

Our Nissan Note on Mars or Snæfellsjökull

We thought it imprudent to go too much further up this road

Heading toward Skaftafell in southeast Iceland

Southern Iceland in the afternoon mists

It is all the more astonishing in my view to think that this land has been inhabited by people continuously since the 900s AD. Our American minds tend to associate pristine scenery with our own myth of the wild west - an uncivilized uninhabited region awaiting our Manifest Destiny. Though Iceland was a cultural backwater for most of its history, it was still inhabited. I just finished reading Iceland's Bell by Icelandic author and Nobel Laureate Halldór Laxness (his Independent People was arguably my favorite book of 2014, perhaps narrowly edging out Les Mis and Kristin Lavransdatter). In events of the novel take place during the 17th Century, when the Danes had a political and economic death grip on Iceland. It was a challenge in reading the book to imagine these descendants of Vikings struggling mightily against the Danish Crown for some scrap of honor against the backdrop of such noble wonders of creation.