Day 6–The Golden Circle

We finally got out of Akureyri around 9pm yesterday.  Once we were bussed to the airport, there seemed to be way too many people for our one plane.  Indeed, there were three planes waiting to take everyone south.  They had actually closed the airport the night before; a lot of back up.  Our seats were on the third plane out.  Back to the Natura hotel in Reykjavik for the night, then we grabbed a rental car in the morning to head out on the Golden Circle.

This is a loop road south of Reykjavik ideal for tourists and tourist busses.  Since it is in the dead of winter, plenty of people, but nothing like during the summer I am sure.  along the Circle we stopped at a large lake with an interesting shore line.  Over the winter, ice had frozen to about 3 inches thick, then with waves and wind, had broken up and piled up on shore; very dramatic.

Also, very dramatic is Gullfoss Falls.  A very large falls dropping into a very deep and narrow canyon.  What was so breathtaking was the ice and snow that surrounded the falls, the colors and intricacy were amazing.  At the turn of the century plans were made to utilize the falls for hydroelectric power, fortunately those plans were thwarted. 

Lava fields, were of course, everywhere.  Interesting was the moss that grew everywhere as well. Not sure of the ecology, but it must be fairly shallow.     

Continuing on the Circle we came to Strokkur.  Iceland’s Old Faithful.  Well, sorta.  Between periodic earthquakes and people dropping rocks down the geyser to see how far up they would blow, its isn’t as predictable as it used to be.  We were there while it was quiet, (boring picture), then it blew hard and fast and we missed it.

We finished our day at the Blue Lagoon.  Iceland’s most famous and most overrated tourist attraction.  This is my third, and the ladies fourth, hot water spa experience on this vacation.  Although unique, not special.  The silica mush you could  put on your face was unique, but the water wasn’t as hot as you would like, and it was $50 a piece!  But, you can’t visit Iceland without going to the Blue Lagoon.

Day 5–Shortest blog entry

It snowed all night and most of today.  We were expecting a flight south to Reykjavik at 9 AM this morning, high winds have cancelled the flight.  We kept getting updates from the hotel, finally about 30 of us have been in the lobby now for 5 hours.  Oh wait, they just announced our flight will be leaving in about an hour.  So….a day to read and relax and watch the Olympics on either Icelandic TV or the BBC.  We are on the right.

Day 4—Fjord Drive

Gloria, Tom and Kathy drove a nice circle north of Akureyri to tour the peninsula and two adjacent fjords.  I spent another day relaxing due to more stomach challenges.   Below are some nice pictures Gloria took.  Fortunately we hit a home run with Northern Lights pictures last night.  Cloudy today, overcast tonight.

Day 3–On the road to Myvatn Nature Baths

For our final two days in Akureyri we rented a car to visit all the natural wonders of Northern Iceland.  Still very cold, highs around 20F, dropping to 0F as we gain elevation.  Roads are good, all cars have studded tires so even though many roads are icy, travel is routine.  Our first stop is Godafoss, the most spectacular waterfall in Iceland.  Since the geothermal activity is so intense in this part of the island many views are partially obscured by steam, impressive none the less.   Below, a view of Akureyri.

We continue to Namaskard.  Here ground water is heated by an underground magma intrusion.  Smells of sulphur.  Again, you can see where the sun is all day.  It goes up to that level in the morning, stays there all day, then goes down.

Continuing to drive by Hverfjall.  A circular explosion crater; one of the largest in the world.  It is about 500 feet deep and almost a mile in diameter.  One sees why so many movies are filmed here.  Otherwordly.

Our final destination are the hot baths of Myvatn.  As with all of this type of bathing in Iceland, a routine.  You pay your fee to get a locker, then outside of the changing room, you remove your shoes and walk sock-footed to the locker room, you remove your multiple layers of clothes, then, with every one else, a full shower, naked.  You then put on your swimmers and head out to the baths.  The only problem with this routine in Myvatn is that it is 0F and when you walk outside wet you freeze immediately.  Also, when you are sitting in the hot water, whatever isn’t submerged freezes as well.  Gloria’s hair from the steam that freezes on everything.

    

And finally, some great Northern Lights.

Day 2/Day 3–Northern Lights

The bus picks us up at 10pm for a two hour run to find the Northern Lights.  Talk about unpredictable.  As we travelled north of Akureyri the bus driver and our guide kept a sharp eye for any shimmering.  As it appeared, they would stop the bus and we would all pile out to look up.  40 people with 40 cameras fanning out on the tundra to take pictures.  Few had done even a bit of homework on what it took to take a picture of the Northern Lights.  An i-phone doesn’t make it, nor does a pocket camera with flash.  You need a tripod and a 5-10 second exposure.  Even then it was a challenge.  I brought a tripod and tried a few different techniques, results were mixed.

Another challenge was the temperature!  Probably 10 degrees.  5-6 clothing layers, plus hot tea and chocolate barely got us through the evening.  We made three different stops, the second one is pictured.  It popped up out of nowhere, lasted just a few minutes then was gone.  What is so amazing was to see something so big, move so quickly.  These pictures hardly portray what we saw.

You ask, what are the Northern Lights?  A good description was on my placemat a breakfast:  Northern lights (aurora borealis) are tricky to describe.  They look like a skier’s trail in the winter sky, yet they move and quiver.  They look self-lit, yet transparent.  And just as you spot their pastel colors, they turn back to a glittering white.  The scientific explanation,m however, is that auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, above 80km, from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning to ground state after being excited by a collision of solar wind particles.

We have two more nights in Akureyri, we hope to fine tune our photographs, if, that is, the Northern Lights reappear!  Today we have rented a car.  Northern Iceland has two roads, we drive one today and the other tomorrow.  Got to bed at 2am.

Day 2 Iceland is very hot and very cold

5am wake up call for breakfast and a flight to Akureyri.  The Natura hotel is renowned for its breakfast; we were not disappointed.  After I had three platefuls  and a pot of coffee, time to head to the regional airport for our flight north. Icelanders, always looking at efficiency, put the air traffic control tower on top our our hotel! (we are next to the regional airport).

Again, the most dominate structure in the town is the Lutheran church.  Same architect as the large church in Reykjavik. Very similar.

Flying 40 minutes to the north provided a change from cold and clear to cold and cloudy. And snowy; not coming down, but on everything.  We were told by our Reykjavik taxi driver that they rarely have snow, just cold.  Quite the opposite is Akureyri, lots of snow and coldER!  Gloria, Tom and Kathy spent the day walking around Akureyri, I am suffering from either a bad hot dog, or pickled herring.  I spent most of the day in the hotel sleeping. 

These bookstores/coffee shops are everywhere.  A great, warm place to gather, read and eat.

The afternoon found us in the hot springs across the street from our hotel.  Oh, speaking of the hotels in Iceland.  We feel like we are in a dream and have woken up in a huge Ikea store!  Blonde wood, skinny chrome fixtures and LED lights everywhere.  Nice actually.  Very North European. 

Many of the buildings were built in the late 1800 and early 1900’s, all wood; well preserved (and frozen).  Starting in 1930, all buildings were made from concrete.  No more importing wood from Sweden and Denmark!  No trees grow in this country.

Icelanders have taken hot water to a whole new level.  Gloria and Kathy last night in Reykjavi and all four of us this afternoon in Akureyri hit the hot springs.  Iceland is very active geothermally and the locals have harnessed, channeled and piped the hot water very appropriately.  The water complexes are composed of indoor and outdoor Olympic pools, steam rooms, kiddie pools, water slides and a menu of large hot tubs.  Each with the temperature posted.  They range from too cool to too hot.  Appetizer, main course, then dessert.

One of many hot tubs to be found at a hot springs.

Tonight is



our first shot at the Northern Lights.  The clouds are gone, we are optimistic.  We meet our guide at 10pm.  Report tomorrow.

Day 1-Walking around Reykjavik

Our plane landed around 7:30 in the morning, after picking up our bags and taking the commuter bus to our hotel, we were ready to tackle the capital of Iceland by 9:00.  And, coincidentally, that is when it was light enough to see!  Reykjavik is closer to the Arctic circle than Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.  Indeed as we walked around the city all day, the sun never ascended further then  say 10-15 degrees from the horizon.  About 8-9 hours of daylight in February.Temperature in the high 20’s, I could have dressed warmer.

Visually the highlight of Reykjavik is Hallgrímskirkja, a Lutheran Church.  It was completed in 1986 after 38 years of construction.  The church was designed it to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland's landscape. Our first impressions?  A Catholic cathedral recently completed.  We have seen many of the great European cathedrals built in the Middle Ages.  Not an adequate comparison!

    

 

Another stop was Bæjarins beztu pylsur, known alternately as “best hot dog in the world”,  or “the Icelandic national food”, we discovered that we have shared these hotdogs with Bill Clinton and Metallica, the heavy metal band!  Our conclusion? I finished mine, Tom and Gloria tossed their shared dog out.  Tough comparison to a good Costco hotdog.

 

Another impressive structure is the huge Harpa Music Hall, completed in 2011.  I really enjoyed walking around on the inside, it was warm!

 

One of the several lakes in town, all frozen.  Great for the ducks and geese in the shallows and for humans to skate and stroll on.

On our way back to our hotel, we took the elevator up the spire of the Lutheran church for a panoramic view of Reykjavik.  Beautiful city, and clear sky!  We hope that continues tomorrow when we fly north to Akureyri to view the Northern Lights.