Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 85

Day 1- Well it has been quite an eventful trip for 2 of us so far. Everyone was to converge on Denver to fly directly to Reykjavik on a 5:15 flight and arrive in Iceland at 6:30 am. Kirsten and Chester made it no problem to Denver. Kirsten's flight from Houston was uneventful, except for the screaming child sitting next to her on the flight, and Chester only had a 20 minute drive to the airport for once. Gene and Judy, Kirsten's parents, were to arrive in Denver around 2:30, with plenty of time to make the connection. Suck it Frontier. The Omaha flight was delayed over 6 hours for mechanical reasons. So during her layover, Kirsten spent lots of money to change and find new flights so her parents can make the trip. Gene and ... read more

Geo: 64.1353, -21.8952Today was just like yesterday. Cold. Wet. Windy. A great day for a swim! We ordered free room service for breakfast. A bus picked us up from the harbor and dropped us at the hot springs in Gullbringusysla. A place where you can swim in crystal blue thermal volcanic heated springs. Entry will cost you 40 Euros per person, but well worth it. As per local customs, you have to shower naked before entering the hot springs. I got through the sausage fest, put my towel on the rack and met Nat in the springs. It was a freezing 10 or 15 metre walk to the water, but nice and toasty upon entering. Overall the water was warm, but not hot. Occasionally when swimming about you would find a nice toasty hotspot. It was ... read more

Strokkur is one of Iceland's most famous geysers and one of the most active guaranteed to erupt in less than 10 minutes. We arrived at the geothermal area beside the Hvita River with our rental car and parked near the shop and reception area. Like most of these natural sites, entry is free and we walked past a small bubbling geyser towards the main attraction. The geyser had just blown off steam and the air was full of condensing steam and a lot of 'oohing' and 'aahing' by the coach load of Chinese tourists surrounding the geyser. We did not have long to wait. Out came our cameras and I set up my tripod in a clearing away from the main crowd. I had a grand stand view of the eruption and was congratulating myself on ... read more

One of the most striking scenes one comes across in the Icelandic countryside, apart from the volcanic terrain and beautiful rock formations is the lack of vegetation especially trees. So it is quite difficult for large animals to survive in the windy stormy exposed landscape. And that is why the Iceland horse looks more like a pony. Most of the original population was wiped out by the volcanic eruptions of 1780 but the population was restored by breeding about a hundred years ago. The animals looked very peaceful feeding off snow covered tufts of grass, mostly huddling together for warmth. One of our cherished souvenirs is a hand crafted wooden horse.... read more

This is my first contribution. This is just a hobby, an off shoot of another hobby, traveling. We have been seriously bitten by the travel bug. This blog is primarily intended as a way of remembering, a virtual souvenir, a travelogue for family and close friends. We were on our way to Iceland from Heathrow for our 2012 Christmas holiday. The weather was surprisingly fine half way across the North Sea, when we started to have several bumps and air pockets. The captain ordered the suspension of the food service, and we settled down waiting for the last part of the flight to be over. Everyone was watching the onboard movie when suddenly the captain announced that we have a slight problem, on landing our braking coefficient was 'rather low' and that we would have difficulty ... read more