Blogs from South, Iceland, Europe - page 12

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Europe » Iceland » South » Hella September 30th 2013

Rainland today. Not been too bad the weather. Rained the first day, and today, but the rest of the time has been fine. So, easy day. A leisurely drive down the south coast of Rainland to see more volcanoes, more waterfalls, some trolls and a volcanic beach. The land is quite mountainous, but it’s nothing like the Lakes. I guess the difference is that, although the Lakes are volcanic (help me out here Sed), they are old and weathered. The land here is quite new, so the mountains are jagged and sharp. Very uncomfortable to lie on. Anyway, down to business. Testicle Cake. It’s an Icelandic delicacy apparently. They take lamb’s testicles, marinade them in whey, then press them into blocks and, Hey Presticle, Testicle Cake. (I thought it was bollocks when I first heard it, ... read more
Skogarfoss
Behind Skogarfoss
Water Falling

Europe » Iceland » South » Hella September 29th 2013

We met Thor last night !! Honest to Gods. That’s what the hotel manager is called. A lovely guy. Very interested in aurora too. Lots of animated discussion. Ended up hugging him (and yes, I was pissed, but I would probably still have hugged him anyway. In fact, I want to go and hug him now. Maybe later). So, how are we getting on with the Icelandic people ? Well, they’re a hardy race, but they don’t rest on their laurels :-). They are lovely people. Very friendly. Very approachable. You’d like them. And how are we getting on with the Icelandic language? Wellapartfromthefactthatalltheplacenamesseemtobetotallyunprouncablefullsentencesinthemselves, everyone speaks perfect English (even better than what I do isn’t it). Puts us to shame. I can speak some Icelandic though. For example, the Icelandic for “Hi” is . . . ... read more
Glacier Alley
Skidoos
Us With Our Skidoo

Europe » Iceland » South » Hella September 29th 2013

Funnily enough, there is a penis museum in Reykjavic. I haven’t been, but I am thinking of making a donation. Anyway, that’s enough penises (penii?) for now. Today is Golden Circle day. This is a 200km trip around south west Iceland taking in geysers, waterfalls and the Thingvellir National Park where two continental plates meet creating a rift valley. First up, geysers ( or rather geysirs, pronounced gay-zeer ). Geysers get their name from a geyser called Geysir in Geysir (according to some geezer). So this was our first stop. We can’t help being awed by all the geothermal gubbins going on here and Geysir is no exception. There are around thirty geysers and hot pools in the area, the biggest one being Geysir itself. It used to go off quite regularly but has got blocked ... read more
Strokkur - Thar She Blows
Strokkur From A Distance
Gullfoss

Europe » Iceland » South » Hella September 28th 2013

Imagine a doughnut. (Mmm – cream doughnut). No, no cream. Just a big doughnut. (Mmm – big jam doughnut). Sigh – no, no jam. Just a big plain doughnut, with a hole in the middle. No sprinkles. No sugar coating. Just a good ol' fashioned plain doughnut. (Pause). Got it? Now make it bigger. Bigger. Bigger. Tell you what, make it roughly 2500 miles across. (My my young man, now that is a big doughnut). Now, I want you to hold it over the North Pole (actually, the magnetic pole) (Actually, a few degrees off the magnetic pole). Hold it about 25-50 miles above the Earth’s surface (careful not to drop it). The doughnut will actually be over the top of Iceland, top of Alaska, about halfway over Greenland, top of Norway, and Russia. Now then, ... read more
Auroral Oval

Europe » Iceland » South September 10th 2013

On Day 3 we woke up near Vik and headed for the black sand beaches (which that area is famous for). There are usually puffins in the area but they had already migrated for the winter. So we enjoyed the view, decided against the swim, and moved on. We began our trek East where we drove through "the black desert" which is almost alien in its appearance, smooth black rocks and sand covered in a soft green moss. We stopped on the side of the road and experienced perfect silence; no wind, no birds, no bugs, no trickling water or crashing waves...nothing but our own breathing. Beautiful and amazing, a peaceful natural experience we've never been exposed to anywhere else in our travels, definitely a highlight. We arrived at Skaftafell National Park where made a 2 ... read more
Sun bathing on the beach at Dyrholaey
Jokusarlon Glacial Lagoon
Black sand beach near Vik

Europe » Iceland » South September 8th 2013

We experienced a lot of water today. Some glacial and falling over cliffs, some hot and bubbling up from the ground and even a bit from the sky. It was a good day. We started in Thingvellir National park which is a UNESCO world heritage site. This is the location of Iceland's first parliament (~900AD) and it drew the chiefs from each of the clans across the country. It has high cliffs created from the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. These geo-historical shifts have resulted in a beautiful landscape filled with striking rock walls, mossy fields, a waterfall and some crystal clear streams; it's not hard to see why the first settlers picked this place to meet. After Thingvellir we moved on to Geysir where we saw steam and water bubbling from ... read more
Thingvellir National Park
Waterfall at Thingvellir
Geysir

Europe » Iceland » South » Vík August 30th 2013

Iceland’s main artery is a ring road that loops around the edge of the entire country. The buses are sporadic and expensive and we liked the idea of having our own car, free to stop as long as we like, wherever we like, camping whenever we were tired. However, hiring a car proved a little more difficult than we anticipated. Getting out of Thorsmork (where we finished our hike) was difficult in itself. We payed a lot of money to get onto a bus that looked more like an old battered loaf of bread sitting very high above extreme tyres. But the reason for this soon became apparent as we went cross country across the giant rocks of a dry river bed. We had to cross what remained of the river at one point, which was ... read more
IMG_3158
DSC01116

Europe » Iceland » South » Vík June 12th 2013

This was the last day of our South Ring road trip. We were up and ready for breakfast by 8 am as we had another long day of traveling ahead of us back to Reykjavik. Stephan was an excellent guide and we were looking forward to hearing more Icelandic stories. Or so we thought. Let’s just say that by the end of the day it seemed like he was reaching for things to say and his so called sagas were dragging on and were not that interesting. We first started out going back to Glacier Lagoon. If it wasn’t too cold or if the weather was nice we were going to take a trip on the boat through the lagoon. How funny is that, if the weather is nice; what we were thinking? We are in ... read more
Iceburg
Colors of Blue Lagoon
Some cool formations on the beach

Europe » Iceland » South » Hella June 11th 2013

So today we left Reykjavik to head down the southern coast with our bike tour guide, Stephan. He picked us up from the Hilton around 9:30 for our 2 day adventure. We were actually glad to be leaving the Hilton as this was not your typical, high end Hilton. Our power went out 3 times in the 3 days we stayed there. Judy was able to finagle a free trip to the spa and hot tub, a $50 value. The hot tub was no hot tub time machine, it was a mold machine. It was hot, but definitely not worth the price if she really had to pay for it. We also were able to procure 4 free drinks out of the Hilton for losing power. We tried for dinner but only got the drinks. At ... read more
Beautiful waterfall we walked under
view from underneath
veiw from behind

Europe » Iceland » South » Hvolsvollur June 10th 2013

The day started not too early for everyone but who can tell since it never gets dark. It is very weird. We met our private guide Edda at the hotel around 9AM to start our drive of the Golden Circle. This is a drive about 150 KM long around the geothermal and geological areas of interest in Iceland near Reykjavik. Gene was our driver while Judy was the designated backseat driver. Which was ironic because she had never even seen a map of the area, but kept telling Gene where to go and how to drive. We started with a quick stop at the world’s largest geothermal power plant so Kirsten could get her geek on. Chester was bored, but it only took about 30 minutes so she had to deal with it. The natural hot ... read more
The Small Falls
The Original Geysor
The Golden Falls




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