October 19 - 25, 2016
Iceland
Arieh here. "All the leaves are gone and the sky is grey; went out for a walk on a winter's day"....except it was October in Iceland! Quite a bleak and open place at this time of year, although still beautiful.
Thanks to my best niece (in Northern California), Val and I went to Iceland for a week. No....Lara did not pay for our trip. However, she did suggest we join her on her way to work in Spain. So, we did. And then our friend, Denise Gordon (wife #4 on this trip; #s 2 and 3 weren't invited) came along to help us have lots of fun.
Despite the first parts of the title, we did have fun. The food was excellent, the company was exhilarating and the scenery was fantastic. Iceland is not a big place; only about 330,000 people (of which 90K live in Reykjavik, the capital) and a circumference of about 1,400 KM along the "Ring Road". Pretty sparsely populated and very small towns with big gaps between them once you get away from the capital (and the Golden Circle). Lara only had 4 days and we spent those in the Golden Circle area (mostly South and East of Reykjavik). She's a good person to have along as she is an event planner and did so for the trip. We started off by changing our plans because of the huge rainstorm/hurricane-style winds that were blowing the morning we arrived. Instead of heading out of town for a day trip, it was suggested we not drive around and go to museums in town. Which we did, as we couldn't get into our hotel until the afternoon. The first museum was the National Museum with a history of Iceland. New building, well done, well laid out and not too large. And a good place to grab a bite to eat. I did find myself falling asleep on my feet at times as our flight was an overnight flight. That is not a comment on the exhibits. Well-worth the visit. The other museum was a photography exhibit in the main library. It had some stunning pictures of people and landscapes of Iceland.
The next 3 days were spent driving around the Golden Circle and seeing some of the main sites--a natural park where the first Viking parliament was held (which also shows the fault line between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates), fantastic waterfalls that were wide (or tall) and very close to the road, lots of free-range sheep and horses, up-close glaciers (although we didn't walk on any), some gorgeous gorges, a stormy black-sand beach (a result of broken-down lava as opposed to a "common" white sandstone beach), and an iceberg lagoon (which we did not take a boat trip on as it was pouring rain and miserable). Hopefully, I will get some pictures from Lara in the near future and post them here.
Iceland is relatively inexpensive to get to. However, that is their trick to attract tourists. Everything else is pricey. Accommodations were good and not too pricey at this time of year, although I think they are higher-priced in better weather. Food is very expensive; more so than we found in France, Slovenia, Israel and Portugal in the Spring of 2016. And all goods are expensive. So, go prepared. As I mentioned, the food was excellent. Good soups (vegetarian or otherwise), fresh-caught sea fish, tasty lamb dishes and god-awful fermented Greenland shark. We only had some tasting of this Icelandic delicacy and that was enough. The story of this food is that you can't just eat this shark meat as it is toxic. Normal cooking, boiling, roasting doesn't help. By chance the early settlers figured out that it needed to be stuck in the ground for months on end and fermented. The process is slightly different today, but not too much. It doesn't go into the ground, albeit a wooden crate. But it still takes months and then it is hung to dry. Why is it toxic? So this particular shark can survive in the cold waters of the Northern Atlantic. Think of anti-freeze in a car's engine--same sort of liquid flowing through a Greenland shark's body. Yum. ☺
After Lara left, the three of us went to the Western Region (slightly north of Reykjavik) for two nights. It is famous for the Snaefellsjoekull National Park, which is famous for the Snaefellsjoekull volcano made famous in Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". We didn't climb the volcano. However, Denise and I went down inside it. And it is very dark. A number of years ago a lava tunnel was discovered. Think of a river in winter that freezes on top, but continues to flow under the ice. Then think of "turning off the tap", so the water drains out of the river bed but is still frozen on top. That is a lava tunnel. The top layer of lava cools and the "inside lava" keeps flowing out. Then, by chance years later, part of the top layer opens up and the tunnel is discovered. It was 200 metres long and 35 metres below ground. Did I say it was dark? When you go down with flashlights, it's not so bad. However, when the guide tells everyone to shut their eyes, turn off their lanterns, and then reopen your eyes, it is dark. Couldn't see my hand in front of my face and couldn't see my bright yellow jacket (picture).
It is said of the Egyptian plague of darkness that it was so dark, it was thick. It is very dark down in the bowels of the earth.
It was during these two days that we met some interesting hospitality workers and realized that a lot of the people we thought were Icelanders were, in fact, from Eastern Europe (or elsewhere). Wages are high (as is the cost of living) in Iceland and young folk flock there to make and save money. Long hours of work and lots of fun for them. One young couple from Poland were at the hotel and had been in Iceland for 3 or 4 months. They were saving for a South American trip. This was after they had already completed a 13-month bicycle trip from Poland to Thailand. Another was from Romania and he was saving up to go buy apartments in Romania to rent out. A third fellow was Spanish and he just loved being in Iceland--the openess, the nature, the quiet. They are all legal workers. However, they are not eligible for immigration.
On our last night we went out for a very tasty dinner, went to the local community centre and had an hour of swimming inside and outside in geo-thermally heated swimming pools. Not a spa, per se. However, after the swimming, there were hot tubs that smelled of sulphur. The hot tubs and one of the olympic-sized pools were outside under the sky. No people except for 3 Icelandic senior citizens enjoying the hot waters. These community/swimming pools are in every little town. A very nice alternative to the very expensive spas. And then, to cap it all off, the night sky was clear and we saw the Northern Lights. Quite a light show, except the colour was just white.....unless you looked through the viewfinder of a good camera. If so, you could see green. Just like in pictures in books. Go figure.
And that's about it. I would go back in a different month to try and get better weather, although we met someone on the airplane returning to Toronto and they said they had nice and warmer weather farther north!
Iceland
Arieh here. "All the leaves are gone and the sky is grey; went out for a walk on a winter's day"....except it was October in Iceland! Quite a bleak and open place at this time of year, although still beautiful.
Thanks to my best niece (in Northern California), Val and I went to Iceland for a week. No....Lara did not pay for our trip. However, she did suggest we join her on her way to work in Spain. So, we did. And then our friend, Denise Gordon (wife #4 on this trip; #s 2 and 3 weren't invited) came along to help us have lots of fun.
Despite the first parts of the title, we did have fun. The food was excellent, the company was exhilarating and the scenery was fantastic. Iceland is not a big place; only about 330,000 people (of which 90K live in Reykjavik, the capital) and a circumference of about 1,400 KM along the "Ring Road". Pretty sparsely populated and very small towns with big gaps between them once you get away from the capital (and the Golden Circle). Lara only had 4 days and we spent those in the Golden Circle area (mostly South and East of Reykjavik). She's a good person to have along as she is an event planner and did so for the trip. We started off by changing our plans because of the huge rainstorm/hurricane-style winds that were blowing the morning we arrived. Instead of heading out of town for a day trip, it was suggested we not drive around and go to museums in town. Which we did, as we couldn't get into our hotel until the afternoon. The first museum was the National Museum with a history of Iceland. New building, well done, well laid out and not too large. And a good place to grab a bite to eat. I did find myself falling asleep on my feet at times as our flight was an overnight flight. That is not a comment on the exhibits. Well-worth the visit. The other museum was a photography exhibit in the main library. It had some stunning pictures of people and landscapes of Iceland.
The next 3 days were spent driving around the Golden Circle and seeing some of the main sites--a natural park where the first Viking parliament was held (which also shows the fault line between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates), fantastic waterfalls that were wide (or tall) and very close to the road, lots of free-range sheep and horses, up-close glaciers (although we didn't walk on any), some gorgeous gorges, a stormy black-sand beach (a result of broken-down lava as opposed to a "common" white sandstone beach), and an iceberg lagoon (which we did not take a boat trip on as it was pouring rain and miserable). Hopefully, I will get some pictures from Lara in the near future and post them here.
Iceland is relatively inexpensive to get to. However, that is their trick to attract tourists. Everything else is pricey. Accommodations were good and not too pricey at this time of year, although I think they are higher-priced in better weather. Food is very expensive; more so than we found in France, Slovenia, Israel and Portugal in the Spring of 2016. And all goods are expensive. So, go prepared. As I mentioned, the food was excellent. Good soups (vegetarian or otherwise), fresh-caught sea fish, tasty lamb dishes and god-awful fermented Greenland shark. We only had some tasting of this Icelandic delicacy and that was enough. The story of this food is that you can't just eat this shark meat as it is toxic. Normal cooking, boiling, roasting doesn't help. By chance the early settlers figured out that it needed to be stuck in the ground for months on end and fermented. The process is slightly different today, but not too much. It doesn't go into the ground, albeit a wooden crate. But it still takes months and then it is hung to dry. Why is it toxic? So this particular shark can survive in the cold waters of the Northern Atlantic. Think of anti-freeze in a car's engine--same sort of liquid flowing through a Greenland shark's body. Yum. ☺
After Lara left, the three of us went to the Western Region (slightly north of Reykjavik) for two nights. It is famous for the Snaefellsjoekull National Park, which is famous for the Snaefellsjoekull volcano made famous in Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". We didn't climb the volcano. However, Denise and I went down inside it. And it is very dark. A number of years ago a lava tunnel was discovered. Think of a river in winter that freezes on top, but continues to flow under the ice. Then think of "turning off the tap", so the water drains out of the river bed but is still frozen on top. That is a lava tunnel. The top layer of lava cools and the "inside lava" keeps flowing out. Then, by chance years later, part of the top layer opens up and the tunnel is discovered. It was 200 metres long and 35 metres below ground. Did I say it was dark? When you go down with flashlights, it's not so bad. However, when the guide tells everyone to shut their eyes, turn off their lanterns, and then reopen your eyes, it is dark. Couldn't see my hand in front of my face and couldn't see my bright yellow jacket (picture).
It is said of the Egyptian plague of darkness that it was so dark, it was thick. It is very dark down in the bowels of the earth.
It was during these two days that we met some interesting hospitality workers and realized that a lot of the people we thought were Icelanders were, in fact, from Eastern Europe (or elsewhere). Wages are high (as is the cost of living) in Iceland and young folk flock there to make and save money. Long hours of work and lots of fun for them. One young couple from Poland were at the hotel and had been in Iceland for 3 or 4 months. They were saving for a South American trip. This was after they had already completed a 13-month bicycle trip from Poland to Thailand. Another was from Romania and he was saving up to go buy apartments in Romania to rent out. A third fellow was Spanish and he just loved being in Iceland--the openess, the nature, the quiet. They are all legal workers. However, they are not eligible for immigration.
On our last night we went out for a very tasty dinner, went to the local community centre and had an hour of swimming inside and outside in geo-thermally heated swimming pools. Not a spa, per se. However, after the swimming, there were hot tubs that smelled of sulphur. The hot tubs and one of the olympic-sized pools were outside under the sky. No people except for 3 Icelandic senior citizens enjoying the hot waters. These community/swimming pools are in every little town. A very nice alternative to the very expensive spas. And then, to cap it all off, the night sky was clear and we saw the Northern Lights. Quite a light show, except the colour was just white.....unless you looked through the viewfinder of a good camera. If so, you could see green. Just like in pictures in books. Go figure.
And that's about it. I would go back in a different month to try and get better weather, although we met someone on the airplane returning to Toronto and they said they had nice and warmer weather farther north!
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