To help see the size of these falls, just look at people lined up along the edge to view it. The tour guide from the bus provides additional information about the falls and its history -- and how it was saved from becoming a hydroelectric power plant by Iceland's first female environmentalist, Sigríður Tómasdóttir*.

*An interesting note: People living in Iceland don't have traditional 'last' names as we do almost everywhere else. Instead, a person takes the name of a parent -- so if your father was Tomas, a girl born here named Sally might be "Sally Tomasdottir" (daughter of Tomas). But her brother would be "Tom Tomasson" (a common practice here -- so if I had a son in Iceland, he would be "Dan Danielson" ). Due to this -- Iclandic children have different last names from their parents, and from their siblings (which must be a genealogist's nightmare). To make it even more confusing, you can be named after either parent, so the daughter of Tomas and Helga could be either "Sally Tomasdottir" or "Sally Helgasdottir".

Icelandic women don't change their name when married, so parents with a son & daughter would be a family of 4 -- with 4 different last names. As with many countries (other than the U.S., with its unique freedoms), the Icelandic government provides a list of legal first names for newborns -- so don't break the law by going off-list and naming your baby "Rocket" or "Brownie". Your baby-naming permit would be rejected. Only authorized names specific to male and female babies are legally allowed.