JMA's World Travels

Given our love for travel and seeing new and interesting places it did not take much more than a few minutes of a television program to convince us that Iceland should be our next destination. August 2001 seemed like a good time to go as we did not have any other travel plans, weather-wise it would still be warm enough and the trips to the interesting places around Iceland would still be running.

A few interesting facts about Iceland:

• It is the closest European point to the USA,
• Has a temperate climate but a summer average of between 10 and 11 degrees Celsius with rain practically every day
• Has Europe's largest glacier,
• Is where Geysirs where first discovered and named after their discoverer and,
• Best of all, only takes between three and a half to four hours to fly there from the UK (-:

Our trip started with a late night flight to Reykjavik and, on arrival at the hotel, managed to just about blow up our room. The bedside wall-lamp came off in my hand when I moved it and, when I tried to put it back on it gave a BIG bang and blew the lights out!! After that bit of excitement we were moved to another room and went straight to sleep as it was around 2.00 am and we had an early start in the morning.

Day 1 was an exciting one before it even started, we had booked ourselves a trip to Europe's largest glacier. This involved flying across the width of Iceland and, as it was the BEST day they had had all summer with perfect blue skies, the pilot made a few changes in the flight-path to show us Iceland's highest peak and largest glacier from above. What a view!!

We were fetched from the airfield in a big-wheeled bus that would take us up to the glacier. The views along the drive were really beautiful, from the countryside and rivers to the "tongues" of the glacier making their way slowly down the hillsides, on to the dramatic views of firstly the completely barren landscape as we went too high up for anything to grow and finally of the awesome glacier.

Upon arrival we were fitted out with gumboots and helmets and, after a short lesson, set off for a four-kilometre skidoo (snow mobile) ride into the heart of the glacier. Annie drove on the way there and, being her first time on any form of motorised "bike" was quite an experience (-;

The ride took us to what seemed like the top of the world, we were on the peak of an ice mountain looking over the "sea" of ice that we had just travelled over and, on the other side of the peak we could see down to Iceland's coast and the ocean. Standing there with such stunning views in absolute silence and backed by the brilliant blue skies has to be one of the most awesome things I have ever experienced!

All too soon we were heading back down the glacier, this time with me driving which was a LOT of fun. Our glacier tour and treat was not yet finished, we were stopped again about half way back and taken one-by-one and held very tightly so we could peer over the edge and into a crevice in the ice. It was apparently quiet a small one in width but nevertheless went a long way in length and to an unknown depth!

At the end of the ride and before heading back down the mountain we had time for a bowl of delicious hot soup at the world's only restaurant-on-a-glacier.

Continuing our absolutely amazing day we went to a lake at the edge of the glacier where the ice "calves" off and, being such cold water, floats there for years and years. We went on an amphibious bus-boat ride on the lake to see the icebergs up-close. We were told that, where the icebergs are blue it means they have recently turned over as the ice has melted to the point of being top-heavy so flips over. We were also shown and touched a piece of ice that was as clear as glass and potentially thousands of years old.

Day 2 was a Saturday and the day we had planned to explore Reykjavik on foot and experience the naturally heated pools. As it turned out, it was also Reykjavik's birthday which meant all sorts of events during the day ending in a fireworks display at midnight.
We watched the start of the marathon where they had music and an aerobics team on a stage taking all the runners through a warm-up routine, what a good idea! We wandered around the town for a while and then took a bus to one of the swimming pools.
This was to be another interesting experience from start to finish. On arrival everyone takes their shoes off before entering the changing rooms and leaves them on a rack in the passageway (what an honest and trusting bunch of people, of course my shoes were there when I got back!) Inside there is more protocol to be followed, put your clothes in the locker before showering and washing in all the places indicated on the pictures (-; They do not have any chlorine or chemicals of any sort added to the water so hygiene is extremely important. there were two big pools that were warm'ish and a number of "hot pots" of naturally hot and bubbling water. As they are quite small and very popular with the locals as well as the tourists there is no such thing as personal space. Where there is room for someone to put a foot they will sit down even if it is between two people that may be together as we experienced. But etiquette also demands that you only talk to the person or people you know!? We spent a few hours between the pools and the hot-pots before showering again and getting dressed for the cool and rainy day it had turned into. We were quite amazed by how sitting in water could be so tiring, we were exhausted!
We spent the rest of the day meandering from coffee-shop through the town and on to our hotel. Later in the evening we had dinner in a restaurant that at around 11:30 pm took all the tables away and turned into a disco! Well I guess Reykjavik is the party capital of Europe. We watched the fireworks in a light drizzle at midnight before retiring to bed.

Day 3 was another organised-tour day on what is know as "The Golden Circle" where we were taken by bus to see some more incredible sights. The first stop is at a local greenhouse where we saw our first Troll even if it was made out of plants (-:
From there on for the rest of the day's trip it is all about natural beauty: first was a small waterfall just to get us into the swing of things. Then a quick stop to see a natural "hole in the ground" half full of water, unfortunately not as beautiful or scenic as it was described to be as the rain was coming down pretty hard.

Thankfully the rain stopped just before we got to the impressive Gullfoss "Golden Waterfall". These falls were saved from being destroyed by developers in 1907 by the protests of a young woman who is remembered by a statue erected of her at the visitors centre. Although the rain had stopped it was still pretty chilly (especially as it was the middle of summer!) so we moved on to the next impressive sight after about half an hour at the falls.

Cleary this tour is planned to show each sight to be more impressive than the last and our views of and experiences at the worlds first discovered Geysirs, sometime in the 13th century certainly were very impressive.
There are a number of hot and gurgling pools which we were warned not to touch as it is way beyond any heat we humans are able to endure.

The last treat of the day was a visit to Thingvellir National Park which is famous for two reasons apart from its fantastic natural beauty.
Firstly it is the site of the world's first parliamentary democracy and government system set up in 930 AD. Standing on the platform at the place where the chieftains gathered we were told how they spent a number of months each year discussing and deciding on the laws and ways of government. It is never wise to be a criminal but especially here, all criminals, no matter how petty, were held in prison all year and then brought from all over the country once a year to stand trial in front of the parliament!

The other reason for Thingvellir's fame is the great fault line where the American and European tectonic geological plates meet. They are moving slowly but surely ever-further apart and have formed a rift down the middle of the lava rocks of past volcanoes. We walked down the path in this rift so we could see the incredible power of this slow parting of the geological plates. At the end of the path there is a brilliant view of the whole area we just passed through and, although our photos bring back the memories they cannot do justice to the beauty.

Back in Reykjavik we ended our day with a meal at the local Italian restaurant where we "splashed out" on pizzas and wine. The import duties on alcohol in Iceland make it almost prohibitive to drink much more than a drink or two!

Day 4 was our last day in Iceland and was another self-touring day. We started in the same way we had each day, with an Icelandic breakfast at the hotel which was any or all of fruit, cereal, boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers - pickled or fresh, bread rolls, pastries, toast and, best of all, a variety of herring!

Then to complete the Icelandic experience we went to a geothermally heated pool of seawater known as "The Blue Lagoon". It is actually the natural by-product of the local power station and comes from 200 metres below the surface and at that point is incredibly hot. By the time it reaches the lagoon it is a LOT cooler but, depending on where in the lagoon you are, still pretty hot. We spent a few hours walking around the lagoon seeing how far into the hot water we could tolerate before having to turn back. The lagoon varies from about waist-deep to shoulder-deep for me so easy for most people to walk around most of it. There is also natural white silica-mud that Annie proceeded to smear herself in from head to toe, I am sure it is good for you but I passed on the full body treatment preferring to just walk on it!

All too soon the four-day Icelandic adventure was over and we were heading back to the airport to fly home. At the airport we bought some of their specially dried and salted Cod (fish) to try, which turned out to be quite tasty, and then boarded the plane home. If you haven't guessed, we REALLY enjoyed our trip and, given the natural beauty and fascination, definitely recommend Iceland be put at or very near to the top of your must-travel-to list!!!