Blogs from North, Iceland, Europe - page 14

Good to be in Akureyri. Last night the midnight sun was simply perfect - the sky was clear, the sun went down to the horizon, touched it and then up again. The morning after we set off to Myvatn, to the earthbaths for a relaxing bathe. Dettifoss is our next stop! The powermost waterfall in Europe, muddy, noisy and SO amazing. Now we do want to hurry over to the hot-spring area, Dimmuborgir and the pseudocraters. Not much time to do all this, fabulous nature, Godafoss (the waterfall of the Gods), beautiful as ever with all its history. We are at the hotel at 7 in the afternoon so after a good dinner a wander around town is nice. Tomorrow is going to be another adventure.... read more

Selfoss and Detifoss are waterfalls on the drive east from Myvatn. We hiked to the falls.... read more

Myvatn is a volcanic hotspot that looks and feels like another planet. It is a gorgeous location with excellent hiking opportunities. But, hiking lava fields is not easy. A 1729 eruption of the Krafla volcano brought the lava flow right into town. The priest delivered a "fire and brimstones" sermon claiming this was all God's way of punishing people for their evil thoughts and deeds and low and behold ... the lava flow went around and spared the wooden the church. The current church was built on the foundations of this original church. We hiked from Krafla's crater down into the town of Myvatn. It took a good part of the day as we weren't in any hurry. The geothermal activity has been tapped as an abundant source of almost free energy.... read more

Iceland has deep democratic roots. The original Icelanders came to Iceland to get away from the Scandinavian kings. They lived isolated rugged lives due to the very geography of the island - not much arable soil, a very short growing season, fishing being the main food source and frequent harsh weather. Self-reliance is the motto. They made sure they didn't have a king or were subjects of Norway, Swedish or Danish kings. They even chose their religion demcratically. Since before the battle of Hastings and Magna Carta days, all Icelanders gather once a year at Pingvellir, their original open air national assembly, to decide their laws and celebrate life. On one such Alping, probably in the year 1000, (no computers back then, so no Y1K issues eh!), they democratically decided between paganism and Christianity as the ... read more

Waking up overlooking the magnificent fjord and bird crap all over the tent and car was an interesting way to start the morning. We had planned to do a whale watching tour in the morning but further investigation informed us that the bigger whales had been gone for 1 ½ months and only can see dolpins which we have done before so no need to spend 50 Euro on that. We headed away to Akureyri which is the bigger city of the North and is like all the other places located in a magnificant location. We actually prefer this city than the capital Rekeyvik as it is a lot nicer with the buildings and things to do. We checked out the strange looking church and had the local ice cream (the main thing the tourist people ... read more