Our last full day... In Iceland...

For all you history buffs, our first stop was Hofdi House. Ring any bells? In 1986 this is where Reagon & Gorbatsjov had their summit which was/is considered the first step to ending the Cold War. (Did I get that right KK?) I loved another story better though. The British bought the house ( not sure the year) and owned it as the residence for their ambassador. In 1958 the ambassador convinced Britain to sell it to the city because it was haunted by a ghost called "The White Lady". No one has lived there since, it is used only for meetings, and it is not open at any time for tours. Certainly there was no sign of anyone this morning even though I thought it would be fun to catch a glimpse of you know who. The strange thing is... When I was choosing photos for the blog I was trying to decide between the two below taken in almost the same spot less than a minute apart. Notice the curtains in the double window on the bottom right? Was The White Lady trying to see if we had left yet?

Moving right along into the misty rain that followed us the rest of the day...

We went to the ON Power Geothermal power plant and exhibition. Great! Impressive! All you have to do is drill down into a volcano until you get to 300 degrees C. Do some magical things with steam and turbines and generators and presto, you supply 99.9% of all the homes in the Reykjavik area with 100% of their electrical, domestic hot water, and hot water for heating. It all runs underground too. The hot water is delivered to those homes at 176 degrees F. (I can verify that too, having very nearly scalded my hand a couple of times.) To make you electric car owners happy, they're rapidly installing quick charging stations to promote the use of electric vehicles. In the photo, the steam from the volcano/plant combined with the weather makes it look rather other worldly doesn't it? (Or is The White Lady following us?!)

We couldn't pass up, particularly because the weather was so nasty, a stop at a folk museum that featured old boats, old sewing machines, and bird eggs. I did take photos of all three (yes, they had them all) but blog space is limited. The boat in the photo is made of pine as were all fishing boats in this southeast corner of Iceland that were launched from shore, which they did until the 1030s? The boats didn't last as long but were considerably lighter than oak so they could be dragged into and out of the water easier. There are very few left. Isn't this a beauty?

And finally, for cousin Judy who loves light houses, a two for one... The man who last manned the big one for over 30 years before it was automated, is still alive, well, spry, and "sharp of mind" at age 94. We didn't meet him. Suspect he was down the road in the community "hot" pool rejuvenating.

Tomorrow we get an early start as we head home. Hope you enjoyed traveling with us!

Misty Reykjavik

A misty day makes a good excuse to explore museums. First stop, the Kjarvalsstaoir Art Museum. (Honestly, I doubt I'd ever have gotten out of grade school if I'd had to spell these words!) It houses the works of Iceland's most famous artist, Kjarvak (pronounced nothing like you might think). His work helped Icelanders appreciate their lava terrain. One of my favorites is this one of a lava field this time of year when the low vegetation is starting to turn color...

Then a brief stop to see the church and, of course, good old Leifur Eiriksson. He was a gift from the U.S. to Iceland in 1930 on the 1,000 year anniversary of their Parliament, 930 AD. (Do you think Leifur might have been inspiration for one of the heroic poses the men in our lives are so fond of striking?)

Trivia question... Who came first? The statue or the church? The statue was installed in 1932 (apparently there was a big "to do" about where it would go, quite interesting to read about). The church was built in 1945.

This one's especially for the library Susans in our lives. It's the reading room at the Cultural Center where the national library and archives are housed. They use the old card catalog as a guest book. You sign a card with your name, where you're from, the date, then file it alphabetically in the appropriate drawer. (It did make me wonder if they even teach alphabetizing any longer. The cards in my "section" did follow "GRO" but from there it was a mess!)

Just for fun... The slide in front of the elementary school across the street from where we're staying. (Ignore the spiral stairs in the background. They're on the building, not the slide.) Beyond the slide you can see some logs propped up on rocks for the kids to climb on. No need for fancy playground equipment here!

On to Reykjavik

Debby inquired about hitchhikers of which we've seen lots. The guide books tell us that, as opposed to the 60s, these fellow travelers expect to contribute toward the price of gas. But, with John at the wheel, is it any wonder we've continued to travel solo?

Our first stop in Reykjavik was the botanical garden. I thought we had a big rhubarb patch, which we do, but it's also oh so dull by comparison. All these plants are different varieties of rhubarb. I've definitely got to use more imagination. PS - did I mention Icelanders love rhubarb jam with their lamb (that's jam with cooked lamb for dinner, not jam at dinner with a lamb).

Also, if you thought I was a neat nick gardener, check this out...

Another for Joe... We're thinking this is Navy, Iceland style. The restaurant/bar is in the old harbor where this ship is docked. Gives a whole new meaning to "man overboard"!

More of Iceland...

This photo is for Auntie just to show I haven't forgotten about clotheslines. Truth be told, there aren't many here. To date I've only seen three, was only able to grab a photo of two, but did find a postcard of a watercolor of a clothesline so I'm not the only one who thinks they're neat.

 Suspicious the Icelanders are now using dryers, I finally asked one young man today how the utilities worked. Except for remote farms almost all the homes are heated with hot water that's filtered and piped to them underground. Cold, glacier water also comes underground as does electricity that's generated either with geothermal or hydro, and telephone. We've seen no overhead wires around homes. He told me it costs about 10,000 krona ($95) a month for a small home for all utilities. Not bad when you consider dinner out for two can easily cost that much and that's only if you stick with water as your beverage.

This is the Snaefellsjokull glacier sitting atop the old Snaefells volcano. If you believed Jules Verne in his book "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", you can slip under that ice cap and descend into the crater of Snaefells to start your own journey. Didn't they eventually pop up in Italy? Perhaps if Italy gets any warmer and the ice caps keep up their rapid rate of melting, the Italians will start popping up here. Just speculating...

In case you can't identify this straight away, it's a basket of eiderdown. Turns out Iceland is a big supplier of eiderdown... 80% of the world's production. It's collected from the nests of wild eiderducks (the ducks have been protected since 1847 and are still going strong so no need to worry about their safety); 60-70 nests to make 1 kg. Not sure how fast the farmers can collect it but according to the Park service, 1 kg was worth about $1900 in 2014. Japan bought most of it that year, worth over $570 million, to use in their eiderdown duvets. Wow!

And finally, the white building to the right of the ones with the red roofs, is where we're staying tonight. That's a glacier on the mountain on the far left, and John's hiding another glacier on a mountain to the right. We can see both from our bedroom window. The water is not a lake or the sea but the largest river in western Iceland. Joe & Karol... John thinks the trout fishing should be fantastic (but it's not to be this trip...) PS - it's very very very quiet here.

And one last bit of nothing trivia... American jazz seems to be the music of choice. It's on everywhere we go.

Traveling west...

J

This morning we took a slight detour to visit Glaumboer, a farm built of mostly of turf and driftwood like most Icelandic farms were before the 1900s. If you look closely between the buildings you can see how the turf was cut and laid up. It was great insulation as well as protecting the buildings from the wind. Almost all the buildings at this farm were connected by a dark central hallway. Can you imagine what the winter must have been like? Dark to begin with this far north and then add lots of snow which covered some of the windows. If that wasn't bad enough, they weren't backed up to a mountain for water so had to walk to the river to get water. Next photo...

I took this standing in the front door, and yes, that's the river way way down there. It froze over in the winter so they had to take along an axe to break through. I'm trusting the horses weren't helpless in the winter and could at least pull the cart!

These guys were at the turn for the Seal Capital of Iceland. Have no idea what they were supposed to represent but we saw them in a couple of other places as well. Did we see seals? Nope. It was cold & windy so can't blame them for wanting to hang out elsewhere.

And, last but not least, a friendly sheep along the gravel road we drove on half the afternoon. Sheep continue to be everywhere and this one seemed more than willing to hitch a ride with us. By the way, Iceland is full of young hitchhikers. Reminds us of the 60s.

Just pointing out...

Sarah commented yesterday she's missing seeing photos of Uncle John pointing at things. He wants me to "point out" he's been busy making new friends...

His friends were getting a bit testy as the sun was starting to appear and they didn't want to turn to stone so we parted ways. Anyway, today was John's day to go whale watching.

Hence the foul weather suit. John's pointing at the boat he would have preferred to go on but as John's luck would have it, there was no wind. (Sound familiar anyone?) He went instead on an all electric boat about that size. (Thanks John B for the tip.)

I, on the other hand, trotted off to spend the afternoon in the museum where there was lots to learn because the information was in English as well as Icelantic. On the top of my list is how all the old farms in the middle of nowhere got electricity.

The answer is they all back up to waterfalls and began installing micro hydro systems in the early 1900's. The water also gave them running water and, if they were "lucky" enough to live near volcanic activity, they also had all the hot water they needed. The lady we're staying with for a couple of days grew up on one of these farms. Her parents farm has the remains of a very old crater. There were 11 kids so the parents have given them all lots backing up to the inside of the crater. (The crater is completely open/worn away for about a third of its circumference.) Most of "the kids", now with grandkids of their own, have built vacation homes there. She had an aerial shot. Quite impressive!

And, for you Fred, this is John wishing he did have a bottle of gin. Once again I think his thrifty German heritage might be to blame since he thought the gin at the duty free store was much too expensive, so gave it a pass. Then he found out a draft beer in a glass was $12. Is there some reason he seems to be loosing weight?

More lava fields...

The building to the far right in the photo is the Cowshed Cafe. After driving through lava fields all morning in the mist and rain with temperatures hovering around 40, the blue skies above this farm that sits on a lake looked very, very appealing. It has a farm to table restaurant and features lamb (the menu says they have 140 sheep but I had lamb shank with rhubarb jam the way the Icelanders like it so I suppose they now only have 139). John had beef goulash from the beef they raise. And my salad had mozzarella they make at their dairy. You have a choice of a table looking into the barn where the dairy cows are (there's a window between) or a table overlooking the lake. Oh yes, the photo is the back road to the place. I was just about to open the gate so we could drive through.

Waddling out of lunch we drove the short distance to the hot baths for a little rejuvenation.

According to a Denver couple we met while soaking, Amazon is going to Denver. Did you read it here first?

This photo is for you Becky. Around the year 1,000, the designated lawmaker had to decide what religion Iceland was going to be. He meditated on it for a day and a night and then decided on Christianity. Gathering up the carvings of the pagan Norse gods, he threw them into these falls now known as Godafoss (translated as waterfall of the gods). One might think there would be a church nearby, but no. There's only a gas station. It does, however, have restrooms for which many a traveler, I'm sure, has been extremely thankful as restrooms are very few and mighty far between!

Over, around, through, up, & down...

That pretty much describes the roads we went on today. Only 11,000 people live in the villages and along the roads we travelled today. We started today in Hofn. That is pronounced "hup" while inhaling as though you were hiccuping quickly. The scenery is extraordinary, like driving through a photo essay National Geographic might have done, where each corner you turn is prettier than the last.

The road pictured above we just travelled from Hofn (you aren't still trying to pronounce that, are you?). Then we continued on around fjords, spotted sheep everywhere and flocks of wild swans, over mountain passes and under mountains via tunnels, up up up a switchbacked road on a mountain that thought it was an Alp, and down down down to Seydisfjordur described as the prettiest village in Eastern Iceland. To be honest, that wouldn't take much as the major architectural style seems to be silver metal with a few windows. This village is starting to jazz things up considerably by painting the metal on a lot of the buildings all sorts of lively colors. I suppose if I had to deal with winter in Iceland I wouldn't chose wood siding either. It just occurred to me, the siding is probably the reason for the big aluminum smelter we passed today.

The gallery above is one of my favorite paint jobs. (Leigh, I fully expect to come back to find you jazzing up the outside of your studio a bit and trying to convince Bruce to add some color to the driveway...). Should one feel faint at the thought of having to drive back over that mountain (you might appreciate this Judy) you can always catch the ferry to Denmark and fly home from there. 

Char (I agree with you Chris, I can't get enough of it) continues to be on every menu and John had sea wolf for lunch (tasted sort of like halibut). We tried to stop at a place known for its homemade turnip chips but they were closed for a wedding. And, Karol, I hate to tell you, but we passed on a chance to order haggis with sweet turnip mousse.

Argh!

Sorry, I just spent an hour putting together today's blog and the connection dumped it all. Sooo... Try number 2 - you're getting a shorter version...

Scenery like northern Utah & a lot of Idaho including Craters of the Moon. Idaho doesn't, however, have moss covered lava fields.

One lane bridges like New Zealand. Courtesy rules!

Glaciers, the world's largest sandur (took us close to an hour to drive across it!)

Sheep everywhere including in the road, always alive, never DOR.

Photos? Oh yes...

Vik, the southernmost point in Iceland. The rocks off the point are the Troll Rocks formed when the trolls stole a sailing ship but were caught in the sun which turned them and the ship to stone. The black sand beaches are beautiful and the seafood heavenly! Not much is spent on architects but would you if you lived under a volcano set to explode again? We moved right along...

Our last stop was to see the birthplace of Iceland's icebergs. When we stopped for the night we had the local beer that's made from those icebergs and flavored with local Arctic thyme. (As I enjoyed my beer, and, yes, it was good, I tried not to wonder how they got all that silt out of the thousand year old ice...)

Clear & Beautiful!

The photo shows tectonic plates where the laws of the country were once recited every year to the population (at least those who made it there... The land is really rugged!). If any laws were forgotten from the previous year, well, they obviously weren't needed any longer.

Gulifoss Falls, with the required rainbow. Those little tiny specks are people. We're here in the off season and there were still 11 tour buses in the lot when we arrived.

John sends this photo to Red's Body Shop. Imagine having to paint that thing?!

And, last but not least, a geyser. We happen to be staying overnight within walking distance of it. We were told the hot water is sometimes a little slow getting to the shower but not to worry, there's plenty of it.

Now if we can only stay awake long enough to see the Northern Lights which everyone says are going to be spectacular tonight....

Getting to know your airports...

Early to rise (not necessarily into the air) and we're off (thanks to Terry delivering us to the airport). My goal is to share 4 things a day. Of course Day 1 has been all about airports. You'll be pleased to know Syracuse's local brewery now offers breakfast (once you go thru security). My apologies for the large photos but I can't figure out how to get them smaller....

And then there was JFK... For a VERY VERY VERY long time. But it did bring back memories of traveling across country in Bridge's VW bus. So, Bridge, if you ever think of putting Tillie out to pasture you might consider... A bar!

Her cousin now residing at JFK was very popular!

Oh my, that's only two things. #3 Our first experience eating at the Shake Shack (hopefully the last). #4 The absolutely worst breakfast I've ever tried to eat on a plane. Remind me next time to pack some food. Nevertheless, we have arrived in fine shape and looking for a great time (and better food)!

Testing... Testing... Testing...

When one reaches a certain age, a fuzzy photo is much appreciated! The 3 "sirens" on our new musing rocks are Bonnie, yours truly, & Pat. They were here to, among other things, send John & me off to a little vacation in Iceland. And, because I haven't done the blog in so long I'm having to learn it all over again, today's post is a practice run. So stay tuned... One never knows what excitement awaits!