Friday 9/9/16

It rained off and on again today, but again it didn't impede our plans.  We went to the Blue Lagoon - a lovely and very big outdoor man-made hot springs.  The water is full of sulphur, calcite and other minerals so the water is opaque.  It is supposed to have a healing effect on your skin, but is harsh on the hair so when you shower beforehand, you put lots of conditioner in your hair and just leave it in.  The water was very warm and felt wonderful on a cool day like today.  We went over to one part of the pool and used a white clay on our faces - it is supposed to make you look younger!  We were laughing about having the face of an 18 year old on the body of an old woman.  We stayed in the water quite a while and then tried out the steam room, which I did not like - too hot!  The sauna was nice, however.  The funniest thing that happened while we were in the pool was that we had a rain shower so our heads were cold while our bodies were hot - a strange sensation.  Our next stop was to Loftur's home.  He had some small bites: smoked lamb, crepes, rye bread with lamb pate, and a drink which is made from mixing orange soda and a malt drink.  This is a traditional drink at Christmas time.  Since it was Dave's birthday, we sang Happy Birthday to him in both Icelandic and English.  Loftur gave Dave a replica of a Viking pot as a present.  It was so very nice of him.  His wife came home on her lunch hour to meet us.  She was very nice and had actually been to Mystic once.  Their home was lovely and they had some beautiful artwork on the walls as well as a large salmon that Loftur had caught and had mounted.  Their son was at school - probably reluctantly as he went to the Justin Bieber concert last night and did not get home until midnight.  We stopped at the Pearl, which is a large dome sitting on top of water storage tanks (in case of emergency for the city of Reykjavik).  We went outside to the observation platform and could see nearly the whole city.  The far distance was obscured by some mist from the rain.  On our drive back into the city we saw several rainbows - one of them a complete arc.  We are back at the hotel now and have just finished straightening out our suitcases as we will be flying home tomorrow.  It is funny that our plane leaves at 5 PM and we get to Boston at 6:35 PM.  Our plan is to stow the luggage after breakfast and go by bus to the Northern Lights Museum.  We are happy to be going home and will be glad to see friends and family, but this has been an amazing trip - many parts of this country are so beautiful and untouched by man's influence.  This is probably the second cleanest country we have been in with Japan being the first.  If you haven't been here, I highly recommend a trip.

Thursday 9/8/16

We left Selfoss just after breakfast and thankfully, Dave is feeling much better today.  We went to visit a local horticulturalist.  He had a series of greenhouses and plants only flowers for cutting: Gerber daisies, roses, lilies, etc.  The whole operation was more complicated than I would have thought.  They are trying to be as green as possible so use geothermal water to heat and sodium lights to extend the days in the winter.  They don't celebrate Valentine's Day here, but Woman's Day.  Mother's Day is another big time for cut flowers along with June for graduations and christenings.  Surprisingly, weddings do not use a lot of flowers, but lilies are used for funerals.  It was quite an operation.  All of the flowers are sold at the local markets - none are exported.  Their competition is from Holland and some roses that are grown in Africa, which was news to me.  They are having great luck with growing the daisies in lava rock - plenty of that here!  Our next adventure was a river raft ride on a category 2+ river.  Ten of the fifteen of us suited up (Dave stayed on the bus, very wisely) in wetsuits, life jackets and helmets.  We drove for a ways up river and then hopped on the raft.  It was raining today (our first soaking rain that we have had here), but as we knew we were going to get wet anyway, it didn't make any difference.  What I didn't count on was how cold we would get, even with silk long underwear under the wetsuits.  The only thing to keep us warm was the paddling and for long stretches we couldn't paddle - we just let the current carry us down river.  Some of the rapids were a bit rough and we had to hold onto the OS (Oh, Shit) line quite often.  We had a lovely Indian guide named Ravi who was very entertaining.  The best part of the trip was when we went through a canyon - very narrow with steep basalt rock sides.  At one point, the basalt formed hexagonal columns, which was very cool.  There was a boatload of young Germans in one of the other rafts (there were three all together) who were pushing each other into the cold water - BRRRR!  We stopped at one point so that those who wished to could jump from a cliff into the water.  Several of the people from their raft did it, but to no one's surprise, none of the "old folks" were interested.  We were quite cold enough without submerging ourselves in the river.  When we got to the landing place (an hour and a half from our start) we had a short bus ride back to our starting point.  I couldn't wait to get out of the rafting gear and into the hot shower and then the sauna.  I was chilled to the bone, but the heat of the water and the sauna helped to raise my body temperature.  We had a late lunch at a bakery - soup and bread.  It was located in a small shopping mall and there were a few shops as well as a post office, grocery store and a library.  We also enjoyed a photo exhibit of the 2008 earthquake in this area.  It was a 6.3 and there was quite a lot of damage.  The display included a wide crack in the floor covered in plexi-glass and lit down below with red LED lights to simulate lava.  One side of the crack was labeled North America and the other side, Europe.  It was really quite interesting reading all the personal accounts of people who lived through the quake.  One woman made a collage of all of her broken china and glassware - quite an interesting piece of art.  Our last stop of the day was to Iceland's largest geothermal energy plant, cleverly named ON.  We had a guide who explained the whole process of generating energy from the thermal waters above the magma layer of a nearby volcano.  We then got to look into the turbine/generator room.  It was all quite interesting that they have been able to harness the natural power that abounds in this country.  We are now back in Reykjavik at our original hotel.  Dinner was on our own tonight so we walked up the street to a local restaurant for a light meal.  Tomorrow is our last full day here.

Wednesday 9/7/16

Dave woke up not feeling real well this morning and in retrospect, he probably should have stayed behind in the hotel because we had a very busy day today.  Our first stop was at a wonderful waterfall at Seljalandsfoss.  Kelly and I climbed up some stairs (most of the way) to walk behind the falls.  It was very loud and as someone said, we got "mystified".  It was a good thing we were wearing raincoats.  The way down was a bit of a scramble over wet and slippery rocks, but we made it down eventually.  It was lovely to stand behind the falls and see the huge volume of water that was coming down.  Our next stop was to Eyja falls Jokull.  This is the site of the 2010 volcanic eruption that stopped air traffic worldwide.  The little museum showed a short film featuring the farm across the road that sits directly under the glacier of the volcano.  It was quite amazing that no one was killed.  The whole family was able to evacuate with the help of large vehicles that were sent by the authorities.  The plumes of ash ballooned into the air showering the whole area with tons of black ash.  When the danger was over, the community came together to help each other with the massive clean-up operation.  It was a very powerful film.  We then stopped at Skogar waterfall, which was also lovely.  We were traveling in the south of Iceland today.  They get 270 days/year of rain - we have been so lucky with the weather while we have been here.  We stopped at Dyraolaey (the southernmost tip of the island) and took some wonderful pictures of standing stones and arches in the water.  The long and broad beach here has black sand - awesome!  If you were to head due south from here, you would not hit land until you reached Antarctica.  We had a delicious lunch (char, potatoes, leeks with red pepper, wonderful homemade bread, and chocolate cake) at the Volcano Hotel.  It was formerly the elementary school for this small town, but the school aged population declined so they sold the school and the children go to the next town - and even combining the two, there are only 58 students in total.  Dave stayed on the bus for all of our stops except for lunch.  He managed to eat a little of it.  Our next adventure was to take a Super Jeep tour (think 16 passenger van on huge tires).  We went off road, fact, we drove on the shore (again black sand) before taking a rough path up into the valley between the mountains.  Our destination was Kotlujokull glacier.  When we got close, we got out of the jeep and walked right up to the face of the glacier.  Our local guide, Johann - the 29th generation descendant of one of the original Viking settlers, explained the different types of rocks that are formed when an eruption occurs.  He then put on his crampons and walked up the face of the glacier to throw down some ice from an upper layer.  The ice is full of bubbles and at one point I could see a small rainbow in the area that he chipped with his ice ax.  The glacier is quite dirty, but he assured us that the snows will turn it white again.  We finished our tour back where we started.  Loftur, meanwhile, had managed to get some drugs back in Selfoss for Dave.  He is fairly certain that it is bronchitis that has hit him - he is so prone to getting it.  We rode the bus back to our hotel and Loftur went with me to the pharmacy to pick up the Zithromax.  On the was back, we stopped to take a picture of some circles that were caused by exploding gas bubbles from an earlier eruption.  Once I have got Dave dosed up and into bed, John and I went across to the hot dog stand to get take-out for dinner.  Loftur has been raving about the Icelandic hot dogs so we had to try one.  Lana and Kelly were headed to a nearby restaurant for salmon.  The hot dogs were good, but the ones we serve at the library fair are just as good.  We will have an early night tonight and hope that Dave feels better after a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow we (Dave will stay on the bus) will go on a rafting trip before going back to Reykjavik.

Tuesday 9/6/16

We left the hotel at 7:45 to drive to the local airport.  We boarded the plane with our carry-ons and it seemed quite strange to not have to go through security - we just had to show our passports.  Apparently, this is how all domestic flights are in this country.  Our guide pointed out the Minister of Finance - he was taking the same flight.  Our bus driver picked us up when we arrived after our 45 minute flight (it took him 5 hours to drive the bus back last night) and we headed off to visit some of the highlights of the Golden Circle.  Our first stop was Pingvellir National Park where we got to see the Rift Valley between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasioan one.  They are moving apart at the rate of 2 cm. per year.  We saw some brave souls who were suited up in wet suits and scuba gear - they were going to see the separation of the plates underwater.  This is also the site of the settlement era parliament meetings: 36 chieftans would meet here to decide the laws.  You can see why they picked this spot.  There were towering rock walls and sloping fields in front of them down to the river.  The walls were used in the TV series, Game of Thrones.  This meant little to us as we don't watch the show.  We walked a little further and found the execution pool - here women were put in bags and drowned if they had committed adultery.  The men were beheaded for the same crime.  As we were walking toward the bus, we passed a lava field all covered in a thick bed of moss.  Our guide lay down on the moss to show how soft it was.  I felt it with my hand and it was quite thick and soft.  We then drove to Gullfoss waterfall - a wonderful two-tiered waterfall.  It was a wonderful sight and again we were lucky enough to see a rainbow in the spray.  We went back to the Geyser area (apparently the word geyser comes from the name of this area.  There were several small water and steam vents, but the main geyser shot up 100 feet about every 4 minutes - quite impressive.  We stopped at another waterfall on the way to Selfoss, which is were we will stay for two nights.  We took a little walk around the downtown area after being reunited with our luggage.  We found a wonderful handcraft shop just across the street from the hotel and we enjoyed looking into the local supermarket.  Much of their salad produce is grown in greenhouses taking advantage of all the geothermal energy in the area.  We had dinner in the hotel and I have just come back in from taking some pictures of a church beside the hotel in the beautiful sunset.

Monday 9/5/16

Another beautiful day in paradise!  Today we went on a whale watch.  We drove close to the end of the fjord and almost immediately after leaving the dock, we saw dolphins.  The dolphins here are black and white.  Some of them came quite close to the boat.  When we got out a little farther we started seeing the spray from blowholes of the humpback whales.  We saw quite a few - some from a distance and some close to the boat.  It was a great day - blue skies, sunshine and the water was very smooth.  After, the boat stopped and we had a chance to fish.  My first catch was the line of the person standing next to me.  I think he came too close to me as he was reeling in his fish.  The second time, I caught a cod - 15 to 18 inches long.  One of the crew filleted the 15 fish that we caught and when we got back to shore, cooked in on the grill.  We had collectively caught pollock, haddock, mackerel and cod.  What a treat!  You couldn't ask for fresher fish - The samplers were delicious.  We then walked to a buffet, which was located in the library (very small).  The lunch was quite good, but I tried to eat sparingly as we have been having too many large meals.  The owner and chef of this restaurant has started a festival in the town.  All of the local fishermen and restaurants have one day in which they serve a sampling of free fish - soup, grilled, fried, etc.  It draws a huge crowd from the surrounding towns and everyone has a wonderful time - similar to the Taste of Mystic, but free!  When we got back to the hotel, we had to pack up our larger suitcases as the bus driver will be taking them back to the south of Iceland.  We will fly out tomorrow after breakfast to meet him.  Lana, John, and I took a walk (down a long steep hill) to the shopping area, while Dave took a nap and Kelly got ready for her special trip to go horseback riding on an Icelandic horse.  The four of us (minus Kelly - she will get dinner at the hotel when she returns) will walk down the hill again to go to dinner in an hour or so.  I have to say that the walk up the hill was not as bad as I envisioned it.  It is about the same steepness as Clift Street and ten times longer, but it does have a few curves in it so it doesn't seems so bad.  I hope everyone at home had a relaxing Labor Day.

Sunday 9/4/16

It was another beautiful sunny day today.  I hope our luck can continue through tomorrow as we are going on a whale watch.  Our first stop this morning was to see the Godafoss waterfall.  It was a smaller version of Niagara Falls - about 42 feet high and 100 feet wide.  It was pretty spectacular and to top it off, there was a rainbow in the spray.  We also went to the hot springs and saw boiling mud and fumaroles.  We went to see Dimmuborgir which is similar to Bryce in a way, but instead of eroding sandstone, this was volcanic rock formations - very interesting and it was fun to use your imagination to find witches, ogres, etc. in the formations.  We went for lunch in a restaurant next to Lake Myvatn and then walked across the street to hike among the pseudo craters - formed by hot lava meeting water underground.  The landscape here was covered in them.  On the way back to Akureyri, we stopped at the botanical gardens and had a lovely walk.  My favorite part was the fall flowers section - lots of purples and yellows.  We came back to the hotel for a little down time and then boarded the bus again to go to our home-hosted dinner.  The group was split into two and our group, 7 of us, were hosted by a family of six.  The three older boys were not at home, but the 13 year old daughter was.  The mom is an occupational therapist and the dad teaches English at the university.  She is Icelandic and he is a Palestinian from Israel.  They met in England at the university.  The meal was wonderful.  She served cod, potatoes, pasta, salad and lots of small dishes of different raw veggies.  The dessert was rhubarb crumble.  I asked her for the recipe as it was the best I have ever had.  I just hope she remembers to email it to me.  We had just returned and I will stay up for a while to see the Northern Lights.  Tonight it is cloudy, but sometimes that is when you get the most movement.

Saturday 9/3/16

What a disappointment!  I had no luck getting any of my photos to download to the iPad - I think it's time for a new camera.  I got Dave's downloaded, but I couldn't get them up on the blog - bummer!  The pictures of this beautiful country will have to come after we get home.

On a positive note, I went outside last night and saw the Northern Lights again.  This time it was a clear and starry night, but honestly, I thought the show was better with the cloud layer.  Last night was mostly a green glow on the horizon with a few weak flares.  The night before, there was a lot more "dancing" of the green lights.

This morning we left the hotel and worked our way east and north.  We are now in the town of Akureyri.  On the way here, we stopped at a replica sod house of Eric the Red.  The local owner of the "museum" was wonderful - very funny and informative.  John was chosen to be the Viking mannequin.  He donned a very heavy metal helmet and a Russian wolf collar (it was the pelt of the whole wolf) and sported a sword and large round shield.  We sat inside the sod house while he regaled us with stories about Eric and his son Leif.  On the way to our next stop, we saw a man on a quad cycle herding sheep in a field - the sheep were running and it was quite amusing.  We got to the sheep round-up and had a wonderful time talking to the locals.  Two days ago, the sheep up in the mountains were herded down (on horseback) to this central area where they were divided by farm ownership.  People who live on farms farther way came with trucks and loaded their sheep for the trip home.  Those who live nearby get the older sheep started for home and the rest will follow as they know the way.  All of the lambs born on the high meadows were tagged - they are identified by which mothers they go to.  One man estimated that there were 3000 to 4000 sheep that had been rounded up this time.  They will go out one or two more times to make sure that they gather them all before real winter sets in.  In the worse weather, the sheep will be in barns and fed grass.  One bale of grass will feed 60 sheep for 3 or 4 days.  All of the lambs will be sold for meat.  Our next stop was to an Icelandic horse farm.  We had a delicious lunch: pumpkin soup, salad bar and rhubarb cake for dessert.  After lunch, we went outside to watch the horses go through their paces.  These horses are shorter than the ones we see at home:  14 hands is the average height and 900 pounds.  They also have very shaggy manes which are never cut.  They are very cute.  They were brought to Iceland by the Vikings and no other horses are allowed on the island.  They have 5 paces: walk, pace, gallop, tolt (pronounced tuff), and fast tolt.  During the tolt, the rider can carry a full glass of beer and never spill a drop - a very smooth ride!  Our last stop of the day was a folk museum, a collection of peat houses used in the 18th century up until after World War II.  They had dirt floors and very small windows.  Some of the furniture was wonderfully carved.  We got here after a long day of being on the bus and then had dinner downstairs at the hotel.  We will look for the Northern Lights again tonight.  This is the farthest north we will be on this trip so I hope that they will be more brilliant.

Friday 9/2/16

We saw the Northern Lights last night.  We left a wake-up call at the front desk and the phone rang at 11:30.  We went out into the parking lot and saw them.  Unfortunately, there was a cloud cover so the color was muted, but they danced across the sky and we watched them for about an hour - so beautiful. My camera did not capture them as there was not enough light, but one of the group has a really fancy camera and he thinks he got some shots and is willing to share and John thinks he picked some up on a video that he took.  The memory will stay with me forever - it was a lovely display.  After breakfast this morning, we took a tour around the Snaefellsnes peninsula.  Our first stop was an unexpected one as our bus driver is local to this area and knew about a hidden waterfall - it was lovely.  Our next stop was at Sandy Beach to look at harbor and grey seals.  We saw both kinds fishing just off shore.  We also saw what we thought was a cormorant drying his wings on a rock, but apparently it was a shag, which I have never heard of.  We then went for a walk along the cliffs ear the ocean.  Most of the birds have migrated already, but we did see kittiwakes and Arctic terns.  Some of the group left us partway along as the second half of the walk was over lava fields.  I stayed with the walking on group and at one point I looked out over the water and saw a fin.  At first I thought it was a porpoise, but realized that the dorsal fin was way too big.  I then realized it was an orca (killer whale) and there were two of them.  I looked back and saw that Kelly had also spotted them so I let  out a great shout and everyone up ahead got to enjoy the view - quite exciting!  Our hike ended at a tiny restaurant, where the others had gone by bus.  It was quite warm so we were able to sit out on the deck and enjoy seafood chowder and lovely homemade bread.  Dessert was skyr with loganberry sauce - yum.  Our next stop was a National Park.  They had a small exhibit in the ranger station - all about the sea life in the area and the fishing industry.  We took pictures of a nearby lighthouse and then saw some sheep grazing on a sand spit - they seemed to be enjoying the dried seaweed.  Our next stop was to a farm, where besides normal farm animals, this family is famous for its Hakari.  This is a shark that can get up to 23 feet long and live for 400 years.  They get the sharks from accidental catches in the fishermens' nets - some years they get 20 and other years, 100.  They get the meat off the shark and let it putrify in closed boxes for 3 weeks.  Then they hang it and dry it for 3 to 4 months.  When it is dry, they skin it and eat it as a delicacy.  This process has been known since the 1400's and this particular family has been doing it for 400 years.  They had cut small cubes of it for a tasting (which Dave and I did not participate in).  You get a cube on a toothpick and dip it into a shot glass of "Black Death", a type of alcholic drink for 5 to 10 seconds, eat and then follow with a Black Death chaser.  The smell was enough to put me off, but those who tried it, including Kelly, said that it wasn't bad - in fact, she had seconds.  This particular shark pumps urine into its flesh to maintain its osmotic balance and apparently you could die if you ate the fresh meat.  This is why they putrify and dry it.  Not my cup of tea.  The young lady who showed the film and gave the presentation, was from Italy.  She is over here for the season.  She was charming and gave a great explanation of the whole process.  We walked out to the drying shed, which had a stronger smell of shark to see the hanging pieces and then helped to feed the ducks and chickens.  There were 3 baby ducks and they were very cute.  They also had quite a few of the Islandic horses on the property.  We went back to the hotel and the five of us, Lana, John, Kelly, Dave, and I walked down to the harbor for dinner.  Kelly had steamed mussels and the rest of us had fish sandwiches on squid ink rolls.  Everything was very good.  If I wake up in the middle of the night, I may look out to see the Northern Lights again as it is not as cloudy today.

Thursday 9/1/16

Wow!  We were really tired last night!  I had set the alarm  for 5:30, but was so fuzzy-headed last night that I didn't notice it was for PM not AM.  We woke up at 20 after six and jumped in the shower and hurried down to breakfast.  We really had plenty of time, but I hate feeling as if we are behind.  The bus ride was lovely.  We have moved north and west and are staying for the next two nights in a small town of Stykkisholmur.  Our first stop this morning was at the Borgarfjordur, a lovely fjord with a beautiful waterfall and a river that was very glacial.  We then stopped to see the town where a famous writer, Snorri, lived in the 13th century.  He wrote down all of the folk legends and sagas about Iceland, but instead of writing them in Latin, he wrote them in the Icelandic language.   Just a bit down the road we stopped at the Deildartunguhver thermal area.  The pipeline that runs from this area to surrounding towns is 74 km long and the 100 degree (212 F) water runs at 50 gallon per second!  We had a beautiful day again today - about 50 degrees and bright sunshine.  We saw many mountains, glaciers, and lava fields on on ride along the peninsula.  We stopped for lunch in a small town and had a vegetarian buffet and then went into a museum that explained about the early settlement of Iceland via audio tape.  It was very well done.  We boarded the bus again and stopped by a river where many people come to go salmon fishing.  In high season, permits for fly fishing of salmon run from 1500 to 4000 dollars per day!  At this time, the rate is a (mere) $300/day.  Kevin Cosner and Quentin Tarintino have both fished nearby.  Our guide is also a fishing guide and he treated us to salmon that he had caught and smoked.  He has also written a book on fly fishing in Iceland.  On our way to the hotel, we had one more stop to make, Helgafell Mountain (Holy Mountain).  It was only about 250 feet high so was an easy climb.  The legend is that you have to climb the mountain without looking back, face East, and make 3 non self-serving wishes and they will come true.  The short drive to the hotel was through lovely countryside near the water and when we got to town, the bus driver gave us a brief tour of the town and the harbor.  We checked in and then went for a walk down by the harbor and then across to another small island that sported a short lighthouse at the top.  The views from the top were wonderful and by the time we got back to the hotel, it was time for dinner.  Tonight's meal was huge:  cod (which I thought was the main meal, chicken with a variety of veggies and homemade ice cream for dessert.  The ice cream was drizzled with loganberry sauce - yum!  Again there does not seem to be time to post pix, but will try to get some on soon.