Iceland

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November 30 to December 2nd --- Reykjavik Iceland
A bit of a delay in preparing this blog; once we reach Iceland I took a break in updating the blog, probably because we were close to home and once home Wow was there ever a lot of things that demanded immediate attention. Anyway back to Iceland; the first thing that registered was how far north Iceland is. The sun rose between 10 an 10:30 a.m. and did a low arc on the horizon to set around 3 p.m. One of the things that registered with me and I could never get a straight answer from our guide was that each morning we were up and about by 9 am, but when you looked at traffic it was very light or if you looked lights in apartment windows to indicate if people were up, most were still dark. The result is that I have no idea of what the normal work day is in Reykjavik.

The population is approximately 300,000 people for the country, considering that the population was between 70,000 to 90,000 a hundred years ago; either Icelanders have few children (this seems unlikely considering the long cold winters) or there has been significant emigration for only a tripling of the population in 100 years. Our daughter Michelle is thinking of doing a walking tour in June, this would be the ideal time with almost 24 hours of sunlight and the foliage at its best, however November was another story. It wasn’t colder than Prague but the constant strong winds made it feel colder. The evening of our arrival we were entertained by one of the largest children choirs I have ever seen. They were excellent, in addition there was a professor who spoke on Icelandic folklore but where we were sitting I couldn’t really hear him but no problem our tour guide the next 2 days did her best to fill us in with folklore tales. On the 23rd we were off to visit the Kerio crater, then the Geysir area which is a geothermal field where hot springs and geysers are in abundance, plus a visit to the Gulifoss waterfall, the queen of Iceland’s waterfalls tumbling into a deep gorge. Next on the agenda was a visit to Pingvellir National Park, which was the site the oldest exiting parliament in the world. The preceding is the description from the guide. Yes, it was this, a place where each summer the chiefs and others got together to make rules. It was also a place where people from different parts of Iceland could meet, mingle and trade with each other. Within the Park the Great Atlantic rift is clearly visible. Iceland is situated upon 2 tectonic plates that are pulling apart. The result is earthquakes and visible rifts as part of the country is on the North American tectonic plate and the other part is on the tectonic plate that Europe sits on. On December 2nd we stopped at the Blue Lagoon on our way to the airport. The thermal water is suppose to have beneficial effects on your health (I ducked under many times but I haven’t notice that any new hair has appeared on my head, so I guess it didn’t work its magic on me).

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Photos

Iceland
The raw terrain of Iceland has its own beauty.

Iceland
This is pathway between rocks that have been pulled apart in the rift.

Iceland
Sun setting at about 3:15 in the afternoon