Kópasker, Iceland Camera

Kópasker is a small village in northeast Iceland, situated on Öxarfjörður. The district between Tjörnes mountains in the west and Jökulsá (Glacier river) in the east is known as Kelduhverfi; Kópasker is the town of the community.

Kópasker

There are many streams, which come up under lava fields and they give the district its name. Keldur means quagmire. Jökulsá runs to the sea in Öxafjörður. It falls into one of the deepest and most terrifying gorges in Iceland, Jökulsárgljúfur.

A geologically young land, Iceland is located on both the Iceland hotspot and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs right through it. This combined location means that geologically the island is extremely active, having many volcanoes, notably Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið and Eldfell. Iceland is one of two places on Earth where a mid-ocean ridge rises above sea level, making it an easily accessible site to study the geology of such a ridge.

Today, Iceland has some of the world’s highest levels of economic and civil freedoms.In 2007, Iceland was ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations’ Human Development Index.

Kalmar, Sweden Webcam

Kalmar is a city in Småland in the south-east of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. From the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, Kalmar was one of Sweden’s most important cities.

Kalmar

The area around Kalmar has been inhabited since ancient times. Diggings have found traces of stone age gravefields. The oldest sources of there being a town are however from the 11th century. According to a medieval folk tale, the Norwegian patron Saint Olav had his ships moved to Kalmar. The oldest city seal of Kalmar is from somewhere between 1255-1267, making it the oldest known city seal in Scandinavia.

Geographically Kalmar is the main route to the island of Öland thanks to the Öland Bridge which can be seen in the background. It became a fortified city, with the still mighty Kalmar Castle as the center.

In the 12th century the first foundations of a castle were established, with the construction of a round tower for guard and lookout. The tower was continuously expanded on in 13th century. In the 1540s, first King Gustav Vasa, and later his sons Erik XIV of Sweden and John III of Sweden would organize a rebuilding of the castle into the magnificent Renaissance castle it is today.