I Wonder as I Wander…

I heard that many times while we were planning our trip to Iceland and generally responded ‘because I’ve never been there’. I also heard ‘What are you going to see and do in Iceland’. After Ross, Richard, Bob and I decided to go to Iceland, I heard so many people who had lived, visited, or knew people from here. A couple of the speakers at our Int’l convention mentioned Iceland due to its geothermal heat and its economic crisis.

It was a little due to the economic crisis that we chose Iceland—right now they really need tourists to help their economy—so some of their prices are pretty low. The airfare wasn’t too bad and the apartment where we are staying is very reasonable. The food is still pretty pricy because they have to import almost everything (except whale, lamb and puffin).

As we were landing, all we could see out the plane window was what looked like tundra—just black lava with a little bit of moss on it. Someone had compared it to the moon’s surface and that’s the way I would describe it as well—barren and rocky. Our bus ride into the city had more of the same, but you could see a snow covered mountain across the way and every so often there would be a bunch of wild flowers—I saw some lupines. As we got closer to Reykjavik, there were more trees and flowers—although I think it’s early, the lilacs are just starting to show some buds.

We got here Thursday morning around 6:30 am—we had left Mpls at 7:20 pm Wed evening. The flight was 6 hours and they are 5 hours ahead of CDT. They are actually on GMT. So we had all day to wander around and try and get caught up on our sleep. We found an information center and picked up a lot of brochures, a bank and changed our money (and had hot chocolate and mocha), and did a little sight seeing. We got to city hall—which is a neat building right next to The Pond. The guys walked around the pond and I decided to sit on a bench in the sunshine, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I laid on the bench and took a nap.

About 5:30 pm, Gunnar (who has the apartment) gave us a tour of Reykjavik. It was very interesting—he told us a lot of the history of the country and city. He also stopped the car in the middle of the road to point out something. Sometimes he would sit there until the car behind him honked--although no one seemed to get too upset. He’d also be looking at something and drift into the other lane—once Richard grabbed the wheel because he was heading for the curb.

After we got back to our apartment, we decided we needed to eat something—we had seen a restaurant that said it had a fish feast—so we went there. Most of the fish was cold—and there must have been 20 different things—dill salmon, smoked salmon, cod, fish pasta, scallops, oysters and squid, and even whale. The whale was very dark and tasted and had the consistency of raw meat. They also had several hot entrees—potatoes, vegetables and a couple pasta dishes. And, what really drew us to the feast—they had a whole table full of deserts including chocolate cake, yogurt (which is very good here), several cheeses, and fruit. The restaurant also boasted an ‘ice bar’—so we had to check it out. It was a very cold room that had ice blocks all over the walls with benches and tables made of ice. The benches did have a heavy furry thing on them. There was an actual bar in it—although no one else was in there at the time—maybe it was too early or a Thursday night. Everything was very blue. After all that eating, we went back, played one game of cards and went to bed.

One of the huge pastimes in Iceland is going to the swimming pool—even in the winter. Since they have all this geothermal hot water coming out of the ground, they use it to make swimming pools and hot tubs (they call hot pots). So all over town there are swimming pools and the big social networking happens at the pool. Gunnar said he goes to the pool every day at 5 pm—so he meets up with the same people and they discuss all the issues of the day. We spend most of the day on Friday at Laugardalslaug, which is the largest. It has an indoor pool (used for training); outdoors there is a huge pool with lanes for swimming laps, a huge pool that was full of toys like slides and floaty things, a huge rock hot tub, a wading pool, a series of five hot pots, each one getting hotter and one being salt water and a steambath. They are very strict that you have to soap up and shower (without your swimsuit) before you go into the pool and then shower when you get out again. I’ve started walking around naked like all the other women in the locker room.

That evening, we ate at a place where Ross and I had a puffin feast, Richard had a lamb feast, and Bob had sole. Yes, they eat those cute little puffins—it was very interesting a dark meat with the texture and a little bit of the taste of liver (but not as offensive). We even had a puffin salad and Richard had a lamb salad. Iceland was playing Holland in football (soccer) on Saturday, so we were beginning to see a lot of bright orange around (Holland’s color). After we were seated, in came 18 men (with all kinds of orange clothes)—they were very boisterous and pretty loud. It was funny, because when their food came—there was no talking, but really loud clinking of silverware. You could tell when they finished eating, because the noise level went up quickly.

We had massage appointments back at the swimming pool on Saturday. Bob and I left early while the boys slept in (they had gone out clubbing the night before—since the bars don’t close until 5 pm—they stayed there until then). It’s about a 45 minute walk to the pool, so we have been getting our exercise. The massage was very relaxing—I even dozed for a bit afterward. It was the first really warm and sunny day, so everyone was out soaking up the sun—we got a little burned. Bob and I left the pool before the boys and stopped to shop at a few places—we got our Christmas ornament and an Icelandic sweater. Later the boys stopped at the same places and got sweaters. We look really cool! We also look really cool in our fancy bathrobes that came with the apartment.

Gunnar showed us a hot dog stand that was always busy. He said it was the best hot dogs in town, so we had to go there and get one—they were very good. We had them ‘with everything’ which included brown mustard, a mayo relish, onions, and some crispy fried onions. Richard wants to go back sometime.

Sunday was a day to stock up on groceries and do some sightseeing. Ross and Richard had gone clubbing again, so Bob and I got up and made a run to the grocery store—it’s a lot of fun to look at the different products—most of them don’t have the writing in English at all, so we were just trying to figure out what it was. Sometimes we have to go by photos on the boxes because the orange juice says ‘appelsinu’ on it and the apple juice said ‘epla’ on it.

We were going to do the harbor festival yesterday, but it rained all day long—so we decided to visit the Church that sits at the top of a hill with a huge tower. We went to the top of the tower and could see all around us. The church is doing a renovation, so the tower is covered with scaffolding, which is a little disappointing.

From there, we went to the Settlement museum which had the actual archeological dig from a long house that was build 871 +/– 2. They have started saying ‘plus or minus 2’ for a lot of their dates, because they found some discrepancy in some of the dates they had been using for years; Christianity came here in 1000 (+/- 2). The Settlement museum was very interesting and had great technology. They had displays that were motion activated and would run a little show about people hunting the auk (a big dumb bird that couldn’t fly, so is now extinct). There was also a huge model of the long house that had an interactive display where you could see what the different parts of the house were used for. It was like a giant touch screen touch phone—at one point there were six different viewings going at the same time. Even Richard was impressed by the technology.

For supper, we decided to go to this seafood restaurant that Gunnar recommended. It was about 5:10, so we went in, but they didn’t open until 6, so we made a reservation and came back. The restaurant was a house with different rooms and it was like grandma’s attic—plumb full of ‘stuff’—knickknacks, pictures, doilies, lace tablecloths, needlework, flowers, etc, etc. We had the fish special which included dried wolfish (catfish) with butter—out waitress explained how they laid the catfish on racks by the sea to let the salt winds dry it—then they beat it into thin strips, cut it up and put butter on it to eat. It was very chewy and kind of grew as it rehydrated in your mouth. The next course was a fish soup, which was extremely tasty—lots of tomato and basil. The main entrée was fried catfish—with a sauce, some vegetables and baby red potatoes. The special included rhubarb pie with ice cream, but they ‘encouraged’ us to go to the cognac room for our dessert. This room was full of the Victorian type couches and chairs, more doilies, a couple china closets that were full, a treadle sewing machine, and a view master with a lot of the slides that Bob remembered having when he was a kid. Every time we would look at something, we would start laughing because there was something else that was just so funny, like a painting of a fish, or a naked black women holding a bowl.

We had two tours scheduled with Gunnar, our host and tour guide. The first was what they call ‘the golden circle’ tour—and very interest—mostly because Gunnar teaches Icelandic language and culture—so he is telling us about the history and stories of the area. Once we left town, we saw more lava fields, but a lot of them were covered with moss and purple lupines. They plant the lupines because it will make soil so other crops can be planted. Sometimes it was purple for as far as you could see. When the first people came to Iceland, they cut down all the trees for building and fuel—now they are trying to build up the soil and plant some more trees. Gunnar pointed out a typical Icelandic forest—it consisted of scrub brush. He said Norwegians joke ‘What do you do if you get lost in the forest in Iceland? Just stand up and see where you are!’

We saw where two rivers converged—one was from glacier melt and was full of grey silt and the other was from the snow melt in the mountains and was clear blue—where the two rivers met you could see the two different colors. The water in people’s homes is either very hot from geothermal or very cold from snow and glacier melt. All the homes are heated with hot water and most of their electricity is made from steam driven turbines. We saw some pipes that brought the steam from the earth to a power plant and the pipes were zig zagged with sharp turns. Gunnar explained that the steam had too much pressure and that’s the only way it can be regulated.

Our tour included stops at a crater from a volcano—we hiked around it. Then we went to the waterfall Gullfoss which is really two falls and very beautiful. Gunnar told Richard to follow him for a really good photo—they crossed the rope barriers and into a cave that brought them right next to the falls—Richard said he could almost touch the water.

We also went to a geyser area where there are several active geysers. The large one, “Geysir” doesn’t erupt very often, but another one ‘Strokkel’ goes abut every five minutes. Bob and I watched it erupt a couple times and then started following a path up the mountain where there were some fantastic views—lots of green fields and lupines in the valleys. While we were up there, Ross and Richard wanted to get some really good photos of the geyser and ‘feel the mist and steam’, so they walked around to the other side (always staying behind the ropes). It was a while before it erupted and so was a very big eruption. Richard was snapping photos and they were watching the water and steam shoot up and up and soon it was coming down on top of them—they got soaked by warm, but not hot, water that smelled like sulfur. They said they looked at each other with water dripping off their hair into their eyes and started laughing and as they turned to go, the geyser erupted again and they got soaked again. They saw a lot of the other tourists were laughing and a few came by with comments. The area also has a lot of boiling mud areas and strong sulfur smell.

Our last stop was at Thingvellir which was the where the oldest Parliament in the world was founded in 930. It’s also where we could see the plate tectonics that divides the North American and European continents. The Iceland Parliament used to be a two week session where families would stay for the social aspects. The leader would first recite the laws and then representatives would suggest laws or policies and everyone would decide. If there was anything that wasn’t decided by consensus—the two people who disagreed would go onto an island and fight until one killed the other.

We got back to Reykjavik around 5:45 pm and had Gunnar drop us off at The Pearl—which is actually several water tanks on top of a hill to keep the city’s water pressure stable. They have built a dome on top of the tanks and have a very nice restaurant on top of it. It didn’t open until 6:30, so we just looked around and watched the artificial geyser erupt several times and watched kids wading in it to gather the coins. Ross had a whale appetizer and reindeer, Richard and I had lamb, and Bob had steak. They also kept bringing us samples—an appetizer and dessert.

The second tour we had was an even longer day. We started at 9 am and didn’t get back until about 8:30 pm (or 20:30—we had a 24 hour clock—it was always funny when we were going to bed at midnight and it would be 00:00 o’clock.) Our first stop was at a waterfall where we take a steep flight of steps up to the top and look down on it—it was very beautiful. Right next to it was the Skogasafn museum—it’s a place where this one man basically collected things for his entire life (he’s in his 90s, but nobody knows his actual age. He’s a friend of Gunnar’s and really took a shine to Richard. He linked arms with Richard and was patting him on the back or butt. He would say ‘come see this’ and would rush us over to look at several things and then ‘come see this’. He also would demonstrate a stringed instrument and sing, or a tool for hand spinning lamb’s wool or horse hair—set it down and say ‘come’. We went through some turf houses—they were surprisingly comfortable—with wooden floors in the living areas and ended up at a church. He sat down at the pump organ and played and sang several hymns. By this time, people from another tour had joined us and everyone was singing along in all different languages—it was really neat. Last year, over 44,000 people visited the museum and in the last 11 years over 300,000 people have been through it (the same as the population of Iceland).

After there, we walked up to a glacier and climbed on it a bit—since it was going over lava fields, the gravel in it was very black. Gunnar explained that in the 1980s (I think), there was a volcano eruption under the glacier—so the steam and hot lava build up under the glacier and after several days, there was so much pressure that it lifted the glacier a bit and all the water came and flooded the town of Vik, but the people knew something was happening, so had evacuated and nobody was killed, but a lot of homes were destroyed.

On both our tours, we had a traditional Icelandic soup with lamb and vegetables. On Monday, it was very good with lots of big chunks of lamb, Wednesday’s was OK, but not very much lamb at all—more vegetables. Our next stop in Vik was at the black beaches—it was totally amazing because it seemed like it would be dirty like soot, but it was just like sand—you could brush it off and it didn’t leave any black on your hands. The ocean was very cold—no swimming there. Gunner pointed out that we were at the southern most tip of Iceland and if you looked south, there was no land between where we were and the South Pole.

We stopped at another beach which had black (and some other) pebbles. It also had a huge cliff which was made when the volcano erupted—since some lava took longer to cool it made interesting rock formations that were hexagon shaped columns. There was a cave that we could go into and see the bottom side of the columns which was really neat.

On the way back, we stopped at another water fall, where you could go behind it, but you had to climb up some steep rock steps. Bob and I started out and on the way, the wind gusted and blew a lot of the spray onto us—so this time we got soaked. The sun was shinning through the waterfall and it was very beautiful. When we got home, we took Gunnar and Andrias out for supper—we had some wonderful fish dishes—including ‘cod chins’ and fish hash—we talked for a long time—it was really a fun day and evening.

On our last day, we took a bus to the Blue Lagoon—which is a geothermal spa that was created by the runoff from a geothermal power plant. The people who worked there swam in the pool and discovered that it was very good for their skin. The pool is a milky blue color and is totally surrounded by lava. The water has silica in it and there are pots of silica all around that you plaster all over your face. People look so funny swimming around with all this white gunk all over their faces (some even had it totally covering their shoulders). We all had massages that were in the water on these floaty mats with a fleece over up. Every so often the therapist would push our feed or middle into the water, so the fleece would stay warm. It was fun because the therapists had to hang on to us so we didn’t float away while they were massaging. We did all get pretty well sunburned on our faces.

Since we were in Iceland, we had to get some Icelandic sweaters and warm ‘66 North’ jackets. This brand was made for sailors as warm and waterproof clothing. Now it’s become a designer brand. We also found great chocolate and licorice and bought some at the duty free store in the airport as we were leaving.

We had a wonderful trip and the question has come up ‘where are we going to next?’