Category: 2020 Iceland Winter

I didn’t expect Iceland in the winter to be as pretty as it was.  The snow covered fields, mountains, and cliffs were truly lovely.  It is quite different from Switzerland in that there are big flat areas (i.e. lava fields and flood plains) that you never see in Switzerland.  The temperature  was about the same as New York.  As long as you dressed in layers it wasn’t too cold.  And of course you have the northern lights which we are lucky enough to see twice.  

Obviously I haven’t been in the summer but the winter, while cold and maybe snowy, is really beautiful.  I heard that it’s much more crowded in the summer.

Historically, Iceland has a unique, rich history which comes through loud and clear.  It’s quite an easy country to navigate (although I didn’t see any plows on the road while it was snowing).  Everyone speaks English so from that perspective it’s very easy.  There is probably a lot more to see because I think we just scratched the surface.  I highly recommend visiting Iceland.

We traveled with Collette and I would say that was just OK.  The guide was excellent but the places we stayed were very basic, the food wasn’t very good, and I thought their customer service was really poor.

We didn’t have any tour activities planned for today so we slept in which was very nice.  After breakfast we went to the Settlement Exhibition, just down the street from our hotel.  The exhibition is based on the archaeological excavation of the ruin of one of the first Viking houses in Iceland and findings from other excavations in the city center.  We looked around the exhibit and then I stayed for a tour while mom went back to the hotel.  I returned to the hotel around noon and we left for the airport at 1.  We had lunch at the airport.  The airline switched planes about an hour before we were supposed to board which caused them to have to change everyone’s seat, delaying the boarding process but other than that it was an uneventful journey home.

It was snowing lightly this morning.  At breakfast we learned that a couple of people went out last night to look for the northern light but there wasn’t much to see and it was very cold and windy so we didn’t miss much.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall was our first stop.  In the warmer weather you can walk behind the falls but it was too icy this time of year.  The falls are 210 ft high and the water originates from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, which caps the volcano that erupted in 2010.

We had a 2 hour ride to the Blue Lagoon, during which Helga provided some more background information on Iceland.

• • Overall Iceland tends to be a good place to live and  a good place to bring up kids.  Many people go abroad for graduate education but they tend to return to Iceland.  Not surprisingly, people tend to stay inside in December and January and be outside most of the summer.
  • Iceland has just one breed of horse, the Icelandic horse.  They tend to be small, strong, and docile. No horse have been brought to the island since the 10th century so all of the horses today descend from the ponies originally brought to Iceland in the Settlement Age.  Sometimes horses are sent to other countries for competition but they don’t come back because the returning horse could bring back disease which could infect the local horse population.  Today the horses are used only for recreation but in early times they were a critical form of transportation.
  • Kids can start school at age 2.  It’s mandatory from 6-16 and these grades are free.  School fees for the nonmandatory grades are minimal, for example college tuition at a public university is about $700/year.  Many people go abroad for graduate school.  Kids start learning english in the 3rd grade and continue to learn it for 7 years.  They are also exposed to it on TV and at movies which are mostly in english with Icelandic subtitles.  They also learn Danish.  The children have weekly swimming lessons in school and must pass a swimming test to graduate from high school.  The school year runs from the end of August until the beginning of June.  Rents are high so kids tend to live with their parents longer after they graduate.
  • The unemployment rate is close to 4%, the highest it’s been in several years.  New employees start with 4 weeks of vacation and eventually it increases to 6 weeks.  Maternity leave is 12 months and the mother typically takes off 9 months and the father typically takes off 3 months.
  • There are many taxes including sales tax, income tax, county tax, property tax, and inheritance tax.  The tax rates are as follows 32% up to a  monthly salary of $3000,  37% on monthly salaries between $3000 and $9000 and 46% for monthly salaries above $9000.  Icelanders pay into a mandatory pension fund and employers match the employees’ contribution.  Many people pay into optional supplemental pension funds.  
  • Health care is socialized.  There is  one main hospital in Reykjavik that services the whole country with clinics in the outer regions.  If you are admitted to the hospital you don’t pay anything but there are minimal charges for outpatient procedures and testing.  For example an x-ray cost around $150.  There is a waiting list for some non-life threating procedures.  All kids have full medical and dental coverage.    
  • They have Costo, Ikea, and H&M as well as many fast food chains but no McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, or Wendy’s.  Gas cost about  $9/gallon.
  • About 20% of power is generated geothermally.  Geothermal power is created by drilling into the ground until they reach superheated water (400F).  The geothermal plants are, by definition, built in volcanically active areas so they are vulnerable to volcanic eruptions.  The pressure of the water coming out of the ground turns turbines which generates the electricity.  The other 80% is hydro generated by Iceland’s two rivers and 80% of the hydro is used for heavy industry, such as aluminum smelting because it is quite cheap.
  • The government dictates a list of first names that people can use to name their kids.  These names fit all the rules of grammar (not sure which rules those are).  Last names are based on the father’s last name with son or dottir appended on the end.  In addition to this last name some people use a family name from their mother’s side.  Icelanders call each other by their first names.  Their language does not have the terms Mr. or Mrs.
  • The sagas are epic stories that were probably told in settlement era and were written in the 13th and 14th centuries.  All Icelanders know the sagas.
  • There are a couple of unique Christmas folklore stories.  This summary is from Wikipedia . . . Icelandic Christmas folklore depicts mountain-dwelling characters and monsters who come to town during Christmas. The stories are directed at children and are used to scare them into good behaviour. The folklore includes both mischievous pranksters who leave gifts during the night and monsters who eat disobedient children.

We had lunch in Grindavik and then went to the blue lagoon.  The blue lagoon is the result of geothermal water pumped into a lava field.  The silica from the geothermal water plugged the holes in the lava rock and prevented the water from draining. The water’s milky blue shade is due to its high silica content. The silica forms soft white mud on the bottom of the lake which bathers rub on themselves.The water is also rich in salts and algae. The water temperature in the bathing and swimming area of the lagoon averages 99–102 °F.

Shortly after the opening of the geothermal power plant in 1976, the runoff water had made pools. In 1981, a psoriasis patient bathed in the water and noted that the water alleviated his symptoms and the lagoon subsequently became popular. Bathing facilities opened in 1987 and in 1992 the Blue Lagoon company was established.  Studies made in the ’90s confirmed that the lagoon had a beneficial effect on the skin disease psoriasis.

We went into the changing rooms and showered before going into the lagoon.  The lagoon was nice and warm and the water was about up to my neck.  It was fun to have the snow landing on our face but our bodies were nice and warm in the lagoon.  Very relaxing experience.  We got a silica mask and a drink.  I spent about 1/2 hour in the lagoon and then got out showered and went to find mom.  I couldn’t take my camera into the lagoon so here is a picture from the deck.

We continued on to Reykjavik and got checked into the hotel.  That evening we had our farewell dinner at a local restaurant.

 

 

 

Today we drove along the southern coast to Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive but it was worth it.  Much of the landscape along the way was a large lava field and flat flood plain.

During the sunrise we drove through the largest lava field in the world. It covers 218 square miles.  In 1783 fissures opened up and lava poured out.  It created clouds of ash and poisonous gas which traveled around the world, killing people and livestock and causing famine and drought as far away as southern India.  In fact the results of it contributed to the dissatisfaction that trigged to the French revolution in 1789.  Surprisingly after almost 350 year the only plants growing on the lava are moss and lichen.  

The flood plains are near Katla.  Katla is a volcano which is under a glacier.  It typically erupts every 50-60 years and the last time it erupted was in 1918 so it is overdue however there are no signs of current activity.  It’s a big problem when it erupts because it melts the glacier above it, creating a massive flood.  The floods are very powerful, bending steel and taking out roads and bridges.  We crossed the flood plains which were very flat and sandy.  When it is windy the wind picks up the sand and whips it around. The government has planted lupine as a ground cover to try anchor the sand.  In the spring the flood plains are purple from the flowers.

We continued to drive towards Vatnajökull glacier, the biggest glacier in Europe.  It covers 8% of Iceland (all the glaciers combined cover 10% of island) and it has a maximum thickness of almost a kilometer, over 1/2 mile.  Vatnajokull  has many outlet glaciers, a term I had never heard. It is definited as a tongue of ice that extends radially from an ice dome.  This picture of an information sign shows it well.

We went to Jokulsarlon glacier, an outlet glacier, which terminates in a lagoon which runs into the sea.  At 650 ft, the lagoon is the deepest lake in Iceland.   Icebergs calf from the glacier and float to the sea.  Ice was amazing, most of it was blue because it is so cold but some was black due to volcanic ash.  I have never seen anything like it.  Here are some pictures.

After exploring the lagoon we drove over to the beach where the lagoon exits into the ocean.  The waves can pitch the ice onto the beach so it is littered with big chucks of ice.  Sometime there are seals in this area because it is rich in sea life without any seal predators but I didn’t see any seals.

From there we drove to lunch and then continued on to Vatnajokull National Park, the largest national park in Europe,  in Skaftafell.  Here we walked to the base of another outlet glacier which was also very blue.

Then we drove back to the hotel.  That evening we had drinks with glacier ice.  The forecast didn’t look good for northern lights so I stayed in and worked on the blog.

Here is a map of our travels.

 

 

 

Today we got to sleep in which was good because we have been up late the last two night looking for the northern lights.  We left the hotel at 9:30 and our first stop was to take pictures of the sunrise and the glaciers.  I like that you don’t have to get up early to see the sunrise.  Magnificent!

Then we proceeded on to Skogafoss falls.  The Eyjafjallajökull (don’t ask me how to say it) glacier is the water source for these falls.

From there we went to Skogar Folk Museum where we learned about how the Icelanders lived.  People lived very simply until well into the 20th century.  At that time they started to discard all their stuff because they felt it was old fashion. Þórður Tómasson collected the stuff because he thought it was important to keep a history of how life was.  He accumulated enough stuff to create the Skogar Folk Museum.  Today he is 98 years old, still collecting, and writing books.

From when people arrived on the island until the mid 19th century, the main source of wood was drift wood which floated to shore, primarily from sunken ships so many of the houses were built into the side of a hill to reduce amount of wood needed. Remember there are not many trees here.

Settlers burned cod liver oil, which is quite smelly and smoky, for fuel and light.  Because of the smoke and the odor their kitchen was in separate building.  Also typically in the evening they burned just one cod liver oil lamp in the house so it was quite dark.  They typically didn’t heat their homes. Therefore they all lived in one room with beds along the wall. The beds became their sofas and dining room chairs during the day.  They slept two to a bed and slept sitting up because they were superstitious and thought they would die if they slept lying down.  The other reason they slept sitting up was it took up less room.

They used a covered wooden bowl to eat with the lid doubling as a plate.  They didn’t have metal to make eating utensils, rather they fashioned a spoon from a ram’s horn.  They only problem was if the spoon got too hot they would melt.  They let the dog lick the bowls clean rather than wash the dishes.  In the winter they fished to supplement their food and used the fish skin to make shoes which wouldn’t last very long.  They would describe a distance by how many pairs of shoes it took to get there.

After our tour of the museum we went outside to see examples of their houses.  Here are some pictures.

We had lunch at the museum and then had a photo stop at Dyrholaey Promontory.  Here are some pictures.

Next stop, Reynisfjara, a black beach.  Not surprising the sand was black since it was volcanic.  Most of the beaches on Iceland are black.  We had to be careful because the beach has what they call sneaker waves.  Every 6 or 7 waves the wave comes into the beach on an angle.  These sneaker waves can knock you down and you can have trouble getting up .  The land drops off sharply just a little way out and the current is very strong.  Of course the water is also very cold.  Even in the summer Icelanders don’t go swimming in the ocean.

Helga, our guide, told us about beach erosion.  The ocean starts eroding the rock by cutting a cave into the rock and eventually this turns into an arch.  Then with more pounding from the ocean eventually the roof caves in and just a pillar of rock is left.

Icelanders say the pillars are trolls which did not get back into hiding before the sun came up.  The troll turns into stone if they are out in daylight. Very superstitious people!  To this day many Icelanders also believe in the hidden people who inhibit a parallel universe.  The hidden people can see us but we can’t see them unless they want us to see them.  For the most part they leave us along but if we disturb them they can make our lives very difficult.

This beach had basalt columns.  Basalt columns form from lava that is cooled at the end of the columns.  The hexagon shape is a result of the crystal structure of the rock.

We went into Vik which is a very small town to do a little shopping but before the shopping we made a photo stop.  The sun was setting and it made a beautiful picture of some stone trolls and a stone ship.

At the store they had lovely sweaters and blankets but I only got two skeins of yarn to make my own souvenir.

We had a beautiful sunset this evening.

Before dinner we had fermented Greenland shark.  This shark has no kidneys and essentially pees out its skin therefore the meat is very poisonous.  However if you press and ferment the meat, the urine is extracted and it can be eaten.  Our guide told us it is quite smelly and will stink up the refrigerator unless stored in a tightly closed container.  People eat it because it is very high in protein.  I tried it (it was cut up into very small pieces) and it wasn’t too bad.  Then we chased it with aquavit.  Actually, I thought the shark was better than the aquavit.

That night we went out again to look for the northern lights.  This time we just went behind the hotel.  They were out and dancing around.  It was really lovely.  I still haven’t figured out how to take a picture of them but here are some pictures from other tour buddies.

Here’s a map of our travels.

 

 

 

We had another beautiful sunny day.  Our guide told us that they have very few sunny days and even fewer sunny days in a row.

We left Reykjavík and drove along the Golden Circle on our way to Vik, the site of our next hotel.   The Golden Circle is Iceland’s classic day trip from Reykjavík.  Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park, the meeting point of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.  These plates are moving apart and the earth’s crust is literally being torn apart.  Also Thingvellir was the meeting site of the Chieftains starting in 930.  They met annually to deal with government business.

We stopped on the North American side and walked along the edge of this tectonic plate.  You could see many fissures which were the result of the plates pulling apart.  The sun was rising and the light on the rocks along the rifts as well as the landscape in general was beautiful.  I have included a lot of pictures because so you can see the general landscape of Iceland.

We continued on to Gullfoss Waterfall or Golden falls.   The waterfall has two stages: a rocky upper cascade with a drop of about 35 feet, and a lower fall where the water drops about 70 feet straight down into a narrow gorge.  About a 100 years ago they were going to use the falls to generate electricity but luckily the project was never started.

Our last stop on the Golden Circle was Geysir Geothermal Field.  Before going out to see the Geysir we had lunch at the caferia.  Once fed, we went to the geothermal field.  We passed an area with steam venting out of the ground and pools of boiling water on our way to the Strokkur geyser.  The word geyser comes from this site.  Until the 20th century the Geysir geyser erupted regularly but now it is mostly dormant.    The Strokkir geyser erupts about every 6 minutes and the water shoots about 50 ft in the air.

Next stop, the Lava Center which was very interesting and focused on volcanos, eruptions, and, you guessed it, lava.  Then we drove to the hotel and got checked in.  Here is the view from our hotel.

After dinner some of the group boarded the bus and we went to site where they thought we might see the northern lights.  It was a very clear night but no northern lights.  Just a bunch of cold people standing around looking at the sky.

Here is a map of our travels today.

Mom slept well but I did not 🙁  We had another beautiful, clear, sunny, but cold day.

Today our tour offered a walking tour of Reykjavik.  We learned that Reykjavik is made from the words Vik meaning harbor and Reykja meaning smoking.  Legend has it that in 874 Ingolfur Arnarson killed two men in Norway so rather than face the death penalty he opted to pack up his house and set sail.  When he reached Iceland he decided he would throw the supports from his Norwegian home into the water and he would build his house where ever they landed.  They landed in a smoking bay, later called Reykjavik.  This “statue” commemorate that event.

We also learned that when the first settlers arrived in Iceland, there were a lot more trees so they built their houses out of wood.  Then wood got scarcer and scarcer so starting in the 1800s they would build the houses out of wood and then put a sheet metal wrap around the house.  They used sawdust between the wood and the sheet metal to insulate the house.  However in 1915 a fire started in a bakery (from a wedding cake) and it quickly spread through Reykjavik via the sawdust.  After that all homes had to be built out of concrete.  You can estimate how old a house is by the building materials.   Also because they don’t have many trees, today, citizens must plant two trees for every tree they cut down.

We saw the city hall which had a topographical map.  Our guide told us that the fault between the two tectonic plates goes diagonally right though the center of the island.  She said Iceland is the only country on two tectonic plates but I’m not sure that is true.  The edges of the island are no longer volcanically active.  She also told us that Iceland splits the gulf stream.  The weather here is moderated by the gulf stream and it is the gulf stream that makes the island inhabitable.

Iceland has the world’s oldest parliament, because in 930 they started having an annual island wide assembly, but Rick Steves says this claim is an exaggeration.

We learned that Icelandic is very close to the traditional Old Norse language.  It has 32 letters, 14 vowels and 18 constantants.  Our guide tried to teach us hello but I said it and promptly forgot it.

Our guide also took us to see the church and the concert hall that we saw yesterday.  Here are some pictures from our walk.

Here are some other random things she told us.

• • All the houses are heated geothermally.  All the hot water is supplied from geothermal sources and smells slightly of sulfur.  The cold water is very clean because it is purified as it percolates through the lava rock.  The sidewalks have pipes through them and house owners are supposed to hook up the hot water as it exits the house to the pipes in the sidewalk. The warm water will melt the snow and eliminate the need to shovel.  You can tell who has hooked up and who hasn’t based on the condition of their sidewalk.
  • The Icelanic flag is a red cross representing the Lutheran church (2/3 of the population is Lutheran).  The red cross is outlined in white representing snow.  The background is blue representing the mountains.
  • Kids start public school at age 2.  Other than a modest registration fee public universities are free. Bernie Sanders would love it!

After the tour, Mom and I went to a Parisan cafe and had hot chocolate to warm up and of course a sweet snack accompanied the drink.  Once warmed we briefly returned to the hotel to regroup. As a side note, the day was cold, the temperatures were probably in the high 20s, and it was very clear.   We walked to a museum called the Settlement which contains the remains of a 10th century longhouse from an original Reykjavik farmstead but it was closed.  We deicded to go Natural Museum of Iceland instead.  It had many artifacts found on the island.

We walked back from the museum (we are getting our steps in today) and relaxed for about an hour and half before meeting our group in the lobby and heading to a restuarant for our welcomde dinner.  The dinner was a buffet will had many local favorites, lots of salmon and seafood.  I stuck to the lamb and turkey.

The evening was clear so we went on a boat ride with the hopes of seeing the northern lights.  The boat took us out into the harbor, away from the lights of Reykjavik, and we could see them!  They started out as a thin arch across the sky and then got better and better.  The boat staff said it was one of the best “shows” they had even seen.

To the naked eye it just looks like a light ban.  The colors show up in photographs.  They gave us setting for our cameras in order to take pictures but I couldn’t get it to work for me.  Here are pictures that the boat staff took.

For those of you who don’t know I am in Iceland with my mother for a week.

It’s a short flight, just 5 hours, from Boston to Reykjavik.  Unfortunately neither of us were able to sleep, even though the plane was practically empty and we each had a row to ourselves.  While on the plane I read Rick Steves’ Iceland guidebook and learned some interesting facts:

• • •  Iceland was formed by approximately 130 volcanos between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.  It is located where the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans met, just below the Arctic Circle.   About 30 of the volcanos are still active today.
    • Iceland is about the size of Maine. More than half of the country is uninhabited tundra.  Almost all of its 360,000 residents live near the coastline, and 2/3 of Icelanders live in the capital region of Reykjavik.

We are going on a tour and our tour operator met us at the airport and delivered us to the hotel in downtown Reykjavik.  We couldn’t see much of the landscape during the drive from the airport to the hotel because it was dark at 7:30am.  In fact the sun didn’t rise until 10:18am and it will set tonight at 5:03pm, less than 7 hours of daylight.  After checking in early at the hotel we had some breakfast and then returned to our room for a nap.  Actually I napped but mom couldn’t sleep.  We set an alarm so that we didn’t sleep too long.  By 11:30 we were ready to tackle Reykjavik!

Once the sun finally rose it was a beautiful sunny day.  Someone told us they haven’t had a day like this for weeks.  Although it was sunny, it was pretty cold. Based on the weather we decided to go to Hallgrimskirkja Church which has a tower that offers panoramic views of the city.   We walked about 3/4 mile from our hotel to the church.  We passed lots of restaurants, souvenir shops and brightly painted houses.

In 1929 Reykjavik’s Catholic minority built their church atop the hill and the Lutheran state church leaders felt they needed to keep up with the “Jones.” Hallgrimskirkja is the result. It was designed in the 1930’s, started in 1945, and finished in the 1980’s.  The facade recalls Iceland’s volcanic origins. 

The inside is pretty plain other than some amazing organ pipes.

We took the elevator up to the top of the tower for great views of Reykjavik.

We walked along the harbor, looking across the water at beautiful snow covered mountains just across the Reykjavik harbor.  We also passed the Sun Voyager Sculpture which commemorate Iceland’s early Viking settlers.

Alittle further along we arrived at relatively new Harpa concert hall.  It was started in 2007 and was almost derailed by 2008’s economic crash but ultimately was completed in 2011.  On a sunny day like today, the geometric glass façade reflects beautifully on the interior black walls which are a reminder of the island’s petrified lava.

The walls inside the concert hall are magma red.

Our guide showed us how they tune the hall for each performance by adjusting echo chambers.  It was a great tour which really explained the architecture and acoustics.

After our tour we walked back to the hotel for a little down time before dinner.  We went to a local restaurant for burgers.

The evening was clear so after dinner we walked to the harbor to look for northern lights.  We couldn’t see any, maybe they just weren’t there or maybe it was too light.  We walked by the concert hall which was lite up with changing colors.  Here’s a picture.