Iceland - Day 11

It's been a day with a lot of walking in downtown Reykjavik from the Old Harbour, to the church Hallgrímskirkja, to the Saga Museum, up and down the few more popular streets. We even saw Owen Wilson! (No picture of him, unfortunately!) He was with three guys, he looked taller than I thought he was (and that Imdb says he is) and it looked like he was looking for a bar or restaurant...

I have a few other pictures though...

Reykjavik, as seen from the tower of Hallgrímskirkja...

Goose meat salad for lunch...

Later, a hot dog (pylsur in Icelandic) from the stand in the Old Harbour. People like Bill Clinton and members of Metallica have eaten here. Hot dogs in Iceland are quite good. They're made of lamb meat and "the works" means with fresh onions, fried onions, ketchup, sweet mustard, and remoladi, a mayonnaise based sauce with relish. Very tasty!

Tomorrow we're flying home...

Iceland - Days 9 & 10

No internet last night.... but yesterday was a perfect day around the Snaefellnes Peninsula, and up the mountain too. Today, it was lava fields and lava tubes.... and then, finally, Reykjavik.

It's been an otherworldly trip and sadness is nibbling at my heart because it'll soon be over... But, hey, I have a full day tomorrow in Reykjavik and since the days are so long here in summer, I'll make the most out of it.

Here are some highlights from yesterday and today.

Up the Snaefellsjökull of Center of the Earth fame...

Hraunfossar, a series of waterfalls made up of rivulets streaming from the Hallmundarhraun lava field over a distance of about 900 metres. The lava field was formed in an eruption from long ago, from one of the volcanoes under the Langjökull glacier...

Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik...

Nice Irish pub in Reykjavik... I wish I could say I was inside, but I couldn't have left my daughter's on the sidewalk...

Iceland - Day 8

A peaceful, beautiful, perfectly sunny day, driving the North Fjords among sheep, the blue ocean, and colourful houses...

We had great coffee here...

Iceland - Day 7

This is for my blogging friend, deep poet of the real and great editor, The Walking Man. I wish to you with all my heart that you see this dream come true. It might have to be by other means than by foot or by boat, but I truly hope that it will be.

This is the Arctic Circle Monument on Grímsey, an island situated on the Arctic Circle, 41 kilometres off the North coast of Iceland. The island is 5.3 square kilometres, 5.5 kilometres long, volcanic rock surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, covered in low grasses and amazing flowers. It is home to around 80 people, courageous fishermen and their families -and one million birds...

Iceland - Day 6

Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods, is nicknamed by locals "The Beauty", as opposed to Dettifoss, "The Beast." Its name has to do with the conversion of Iceland to Christianity in the year 1000, when all the old Nordic gods were thrown in the water as a symbolic act of conversion.

Heading north into Akureyri and Tröllaskagi, the Troll Peninsula...



Krap, funny (for us) name for very yummy Icelandic slush...

Trolls in Akureyri...

Almost midnight in Ólafsfjördur... with focus on the ground and on the sky...

It's past midnight and there's no need to turn on the lights in the house we're renting. I'm not sleepy at all, but I have to go to bed... tomorrow it's the Artic Circle... Good night!

Iceland - Day 5

We drove through an eerie lunar landscape, to reach Dettifoss, Europe's largest waterfall by volume (500 cubic meters per second)...

...then through more alien landscapes (perhaps like Venus) to Hverir, with boiling mud and steam...

to the Krafla volcano crater, now filled with water...

An entire day closest to what it would be like on other planets...

Iceland - Days 3 and 4

Internet connection was very week last night... so I couldn't do much... We spent the night in a small cabin on a farmer's land... At past 11:30 pm, it was full light outside, strange birds were chirping, horses were munching on thick, crisp grass, and across green fields, pretty close, three glaciers were looming...

I was going to leave you with this image of ice age old ice washed up on the beach at Jökulsárlón...

Here are a few more from day 4...

Said cabins...

A Viking village...

Boats at Djúpivogur...

Bless bless! (Bye bye! in Icelandic)

Iceland - Day 2

Lava fields... lupin fields... waterfalls... glaciers... black sand beaches... a hallucinating landscape with a distinct end of the world feeling...

The entrance to Raufarholshellir Noas lava tube... a mouth of the Earth... 

A wild lupin field, blue and fragrant, just below Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that stopped all air traffic to and from Europe a few years ago...

Skógafoss waterfall...

The sun at 11 pm... with Myrdalsjökull in the far background... the Katla volcano inside the glacier erupts on average every 40-60 years... last time in 1918...

Reynisfjara beach... black basaltic sand and the wild cold waves of the Atlantic...

Iceland - Day 1

There is something about Gullfoss waterfall that is fascinating and profoundly disturbing... more than height or volume of water...

...it's imagining in what depths it goes... and what it would be like to follow it there...

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the Earth. I did it. Arne Saknussemm

You probably recognized this as the message found by Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew, Axel, in a runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga, which led them to their fantastical adventure to Iceland and beyond.

Well, doing just that has been one of my childhood’s daydreams. And I put a lot of work into it at the time; books of geology, speleology, paleontology, maps, detailed plans, supplies lists… Don’t laugh!

I can’t believe that on Monday night - tomorrow-  I’ll be flying to Reykjavik. Better late than never, right? Actually, what made the trip happen now is Icelandair putting up direct flights from Montreal to Reykjavik. So here I went again with maps, and books, and supplies like hiking boots, and waterproof jackets, and head lamps. We’ve rented a car and will be driving around the island. The car is a 4x4 so that we can also drive on the unpaved highland roads. Car insurance covers damage caused by volcanic ash…

Now, unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that I won’t be able to descend into the crater of Snæfellsjökull and, even if I could, I won’t find the famous entrance there… but I’ll certainly keep out an eye for others… And for elves…

Going to Iceland is pretty high, if not top, on my bucket list. I’m feeling kinda overwhelmed right now, even before getting there. I’ll see how the wi-fi situation is on the road and the extent of what I can do with my tablet, but I’ll try to post a picture here every day.

Bless bless!