Walking on Snow Cones

One of the must-dos while traveling in Iceland is getting up close and personal with a glacier. We wanted to get as close as possible, so we opted to do a glacier walk. For us, being inexperienced with equipment needed for walking on ice, it meant joining a guided tour that included crampons, ice picks, and training in how to use both. For our walk, we headed toward the glacier where the ice planet scenes from Interstellar were filmed. While one might expect a glacier to be snowy white, or icy blue, this one was mottled white and brown. As it turns out, a volcano erupted about seven hundred years ago, coating the glacier in a layer of black ash that is stuck visible today.

You're a nobody unless you have a waterfall in your back yard

The title of this post seems to be pretty accurate since we've notice that almost every little farm next to a cliff or downstream from a glacier has a waterfall its back yard. There are so many creeks here that stem from the massive snow pack up in the mountains or the national park's glacier that you can always be close to water.  Many of the properties have to dig moats around their homestead to divert the water around and hopefully prevent flooding.

Another thing we learned is that most people have warm water supplied by the district. It is centrally heated by geothermal means and pumped to most of the homes, where it circulates in all the home's radiators and can be used for showers, etc.  People only pay for the warm water they use.  It's such a stark contrast to California's drought.

Land of monster trucks

While driving around Iceland in a mid-sized SUV, and this being the largest car I have ever driven for more than a day, I thought at the beginning of our adventures that we might be one of the larger cars on the road. Well I was quite far off.  It seems like everyone has to have a gigantic truck here,and I am not talking about a large pickup truck that can haul up a mountain. I am talking about a pretty huge cab with monster truck wheels on it, wheels that could crush a small sheep without even a second thought. While you may think Icelanders just don't care about fuel economy, you should probably be aware that the roads here require that kind of vehicle. They have to be driven over fields of snow, through rivers which are unpredictability high and strong, and of course you'll need something to haul your 4 horses and perhaps 8 weeks of groceries from the store about 50 miles away. They have roads here that even our 4x4 can't deal with. You have to have a "super-jeep" to go there.

Westfjords

I haven't posted about the trip in 2 days so hopefully this covers it.  Most of the trip seemed to be driving, but the scenery is really amazing. The fjords are vast and high and the cliffs drop right into the sea, sometimes with waterfalls right into the ocean. Any humanity seem miniaturized when compared to this scenery.

Some highlights:
We went for a drive in search of a seal colony down some gravel road on the way to Drangsnes. Our plan was to have a little picnic while watching the seals. We found them but they didn't do much of anything exciting. We made our picnic lunch while sitting on a piece of driftwood and were almost blown away by the strong wind.

There was a seal museum where we learned a bit about why seals cry all the time. It's either because the seal you see crying is a transformed woman who had been the wife of a farmer and found a magical seal skin that would let her swim away into the sea. She cried because she missed her family and husband. The other explanation is that they constantly produce mucus to bathe their eyes when out of the water.

We stayed in a sweet little studio apartment guesthouse and had a good evening. We went to the ocean shore where there were 3 hot pots, natural jacuzzis for us to bathe in. We had the powerful and cold wind in our hair, the view of sea birds, and the warm water to relax in.

Today we drove to Isafjordur where we have another little studio airbnb. It's comfortable and we are getting ready for an all day kayaking trip tomorrow morning.

Today, we went to a witchcraft museum to learn about some of the magical practices in Iceland in the 17th century, as well as all the people prosecuted for witchcraft. Some of the stories were fun to hear. They basically boiled down to a systematic way to get rid of someone unpopular in town.  Accusations of witchcraft seemed easy enough to do.  The westfjords have a rich history of persecution and execution compared to the rest of Iceland.

For an afternoon snack, we got waffles for the first time in Iceland. We stopped in an old turf farmhouse where there are 3 ladies cooking up waffles, and that's all they have on the menu. It was pretty scrumptious.

Whale watching

Today we drove from Husavik to a place near Hofsos. 

We started the day early in the morning with a large breakfast and a short drive into Husavik where we caught our tour out to sea for whale watching.  We wore our warmest outfit and that wasn't nearly enough to keep warm.  Luckily they had overalls for everyone to have for the journey into the Arctic wind.  Still, it was a very sunny and relatively warm day. Oir fir stop was puffin island, where 200,000 puffins roost this time of year. They looked like locusts swarmings while we approached the island. It was pretty cool to see so many all over.  The next stop was after a westward sail to see our first whale. The first thing we noticed was that it was gigantic. They called it a hybrid because they couldn't identify whether it was a blue whale or a fin whale, but it was definitely impressive.  We moved on and came across a humpback whale in a feeding pattern which brought him to the surface pretty frequently.  We saw the fluke several times. There was one more whale which appeared at the side of the boat as we motored back go to the dock.

The rest of our day was mostly driving. We did make a stop in Aukuari to see the botanical gardens and to have some coffee and tea with a contact we had through Liz's school. The drive to our hotel tonight was magnificent yet pretty treacherous. They don't believe in shoulders for the roads or guard rails to protect from hurling the car off of all the cliffs here so most people end up driving right down the middle of the road.  Luckily most of the two directional roads do actually have two lanes. There are occasions when they actually only have one lane.  One notable tunnel is about 3 km long and only has 1 lane for all traffic. In it we had to stop at special turnouts to let oncoming traffic go by before pressing forward. 

The guesthouse tonight unfortunately pales in comparison to last night's accommodations. Guess I'll try to get some sleep.

Dettifoss and Lake Myvatn

Today, we drove from Seydisfjordur to a place close to Husavik. It was a pretty long day or driving but there were a couple of very cool parts.  The first was a drive through the barren highlands of Iceland. The mountains appeared to be lime giant dunes of black sand and were surrounded by flat long stretches of lava rock without vegetation. The lack of scenery was the interesting part.

Another highlight was a falls called Dettifoss. This is a gigantic waterfall in northern Iceland where a massive river flows into a V shaped crevice to make a stunning falls. The mist from it rolls all the way the canyon walls to our viewpoint and created some dramatic rainbows around the water. Though this falls is massive, it is really well hidden and is quite a find in an otherwise desolate environment.

The last great place we visited was lake Myvatn, where the earth comes to life again. There were boiling mud pots, steamy fumeroles and a lot of activity around a very large lava flow that covers a large portion of the land around the lake.  One place had 20 meter tall jagged lava formations that we walked around for a while. Another area had a lot of little craters where gas once explosively escaped from the ground. Another section had rolling lava the was broken in sections and covered with white moss.  Liz commented that it looked like those brown flour cookies you make and the powder with sugar when finished.

Tonight's guesthouse is really nice. Brekka is the name of the farm. We have a 4 room cottage to ourselves tonight and are staying up way too late to take advantage of it, and to get some laundry done.

Day 3 - beyond Hella far

Today, we started the day in Fludir with a dip in the local hot springs, called Secret Springs. It was a pool that was filled by a nearby hot spring.  The water comes out of the gound at 99 degrees Celsius and is only cooled a bit on the stream to the pool. The pool is large though so one end of it is very moderate and the other side next go the stream is extremely hot.  The area around the pool had many different springs  and even a geyser. 

After a quick dip, we took off in good spirits from Fludir, where we had spent the night, eaten a gigantic breakfast and met some nice people from San Diego of all places.  The trek was about 75 kilometers. We were very happy to roll through some flat areas and wind around small hills and then the road opened up to a vast plain of farm after farm. As we saw the hills get smaller, the wind picked up and we basically fought a strong headwind for the rest of the way, which was a majority of the leg of our journey. The highway we were on also had quite a few cars on it.  It was basically a grind of a ride and we finally got to the cottage at 9 pm, after 9 hours on the road. We past through this town called Hella and a place called Hvoludir.

Our cottage is great but we decided to give up on our bike ride. Another day like today just isn't worth biking and our ride tomorrow appears longer, also along a heavily trafficked road and in the same direction as today, which probably means the same headwind. 

Settlers of Iceland

We had inflight internet most of the way to Iceland, so naturally we passed most of our time playing our favorite online game, Settlers of Catan. Our other activity (besides trying to get some sleep) was reading the guidebook on Iceland (clearly we love to plan ahead). Eventually we put two and two together, and started to wonder, is Iceland actually Catan? The two bear striking similarities. For example, both are islands with plenty of land available for setting. Additionally, both islands have key resources needed for survival. The question is, are the resources the same? Admittedly, I am far more familiar with Catan, so I began my study in the compare/contrast of Iceland and Catan with the resources of the latter—sheep, ore, wood, grain, and brick. Since our aha moment about the possible connection, we began our quest to find each resource in Iceland.

Sheep – One of the few things we knew about Iceland before landing on Icelandic soil was that they have a lot of sheep (at least relative to the number of people). So, we were sure Iceland and Catan had at least this one extra thing in common. The problem is, sheep alone will not sustain a kingdom unless you have a really good trade deal. When we landed in Reykjavik, our airport shuttle dropped us off at the marina, an active maritime hub. Upon seeing this, we felt confident that Icelanders get the best possible deal on their abundant sheep, receiving any one resource of their choosing for any two sheep (though based on the price of the local wool sweaters I wonder if they actually get two resources for any one sheep).

Ore – On our first day in Iceland we got ourselves oriented in Reykjavik, including a visit to the archaeology museum in the town center. At the museum we learned that Iceland was founded when an outlaw from Norway threw some wooden pillars overboard from his ship and declared he would settle where ever they landed. We also learned that way back in the day (up until NATO sent American and British soldiers to live here after WWII) people lived in huts made of mud and turf. Finally, and most importantly, we learned that early Icelanders also made iron tools from locally mines ore. And so we found the second resource that Iceland and Catan share in common.

Wood – Some of our research in preparation for our trip warned us that we should not expect to come upon expansive forests in the country, which made us wonder if the island lacked wood as a resource. As a result, we were gratified on the second day of the trip when we passed a stand of pine trees on our ride out of Reykjavik as we embarked on our three plus day bike tour of the country side near the capitol city. Clearly Iceland has wood, just not very much of it.

Grain – After our first full day of riding through the bucolic Icelandic countryside, with stops which included the original meeting point of the country's thousand year old parliament and a rift formed by the spreading of the North American and European tectonic plates, we found ourselves in a tiny lakeside town known for its upscale locavore cuisine. My dinner included a savory pilaf of local barely. We found Icelandic grain! Four resources down, one to go.

Brick – We have been keeping a keen eye out for brick ever since we realized it was the last resource we needed to find. At this point we have circled half the country (the pace of traveling picked up significantly when we traded our bikes for a car on the fifth day) and have not been gratified to find even a single brick structure. Given that the principal employment of brick is in the laying of roads, and the high number of gravel lanes we have found ourselves traversing, it makes sense that Icelandic brick is rare indeed.

Despite the galling challenge of finding brick, I am confident that Iceland and Catan are indeed one and the same.

Day 2 - to Fludir

Our journey today started in Laudervatn and took us to 2 very wonderful places. 

Our first stop on the journey was Geysir, a geothermal field with many geysers.  There is one called Strokker that erupts every 5 to 8 minutes and sometimes can shoot up a hundred feet in the air.  You can actually get very close to this geyser and be very surprised when it erupts. There are rocks on the downwind side which are soaked with water, but inevitably, there are people there who get a shower of geyser water with each eruption. I guess that it is mostly mist or has had time in the air to cool because noone gets burned.  The area is a lot of fun to hike around and was a great stop on this leg. 

The second stop about 15 km down the road was a magnificent waterfall called Gullfoss.  The signs there said that it outdid Niagara Falls in the US. I wouldn't really know since I haven't been to Niagara  but this one was pretty spectacular. There is a misty trail to get up close and personal with the waterfall so I got some excellent pictures. 

Getting to Fludir was a hard road with a steep climb up a mountain. At each horizon mark in the road that we passed, we were dismayed by another hill in the distance to hurdle.  The road was very pretty though so the haul was worthwhile. Finally we made it to Fludir ravished our dinners and went to bed. 

Day 1 - leaving Reykjavik

Today, we started our journey on a 4 day bike ride around the golden circle. We had a good breakfast at the laundromat cafe where you can eat and get your clothes clean,and the headed out.  It was exciting to find our way out of Reykjavik with nothing but some water, snacks, and our bikes. Biking in and around Reykjavik is really beautiful. There are many bike paths and enjoyable scenery only accessible along these pathways.

After getting off the main highway, we were able to breathe in the countryside. There wasn't too much traffic and all the cars passing us gave us a ton of room on the road.

The highlight of the leg was stopping by a heritage site which was an ancient meeting spot for parliament. We learned a bit of the history of ancient viking government and saw the ruins of the old town.

We stopped in Laudervatn for the night, had a fancy dinner and tried out the famous hot tubs which are naturally heated from the ground around the area.  Strangely, there are always new steam vents popping up around town. . Sometimes they just appear under houses or in people's back yards. All of Iceland seems to have access to geothermally heated water.

A day in Reykjavik

After getting off of the airplane, we made our way to Reykjavik's center to meet up with our contact who was going to rent us the bikes and tell us about our 4 day journey around the golden circle in Iceland.  It took us a long time to get settled in, but after we had the bikes, we were free to bike around Reykjavik.  Luckily, since it gets dark at never, we had plenty of daylight to see some of the city.  The highlights were:

• Going to a museum where the oldest settlement in Iceland was actually uncovered.  Iceland is one of the few places originally discovered by Europeans, and therefore had a shorter anthropological history than the rest of the places I have traveled. 
• Meeting up with some friends from my Turkey trip about 4 years ago.  We met some Icelanders back then and managed to stay in touch over the years (or rather recently catch up).  So, we met up with them had some dinner, which was very nice. 
• Riding to the nearby lighthouse and seeing the late night sun from the end of the peninsula.  

By the time we went to bed, we had been up for over 30 hrs.

 

Off to Iceland

We are now in the midst of our long set of plane flights to Iceland, and I am really excited about the trip.  We are planning to do a four day bike ride to start off the trip. It will take us around the Golden Circle and is about 40 to 50 miles a day. Then the plan is to drive around the ring road in our 4x4 and see waterfalls, animals such as reindeer, puffins, and whales, and walk on glaciers.

Today is the summer solstice and hopefully I can stay awake long enough to see the sunset at midnight in Reykjavik.