Iceland - November 9-15, 2017 - Trip 10

Winters are long nights and short days, Summers are long days. When we were there in mid-November, sunrise was about 10 am and sunset was 4:20 pm, and still a month away from the shortest day (December 21) when the sun rise is 11:22 and sunset is 3:20 for a day length in Reykjavik of just under 4 hours. If you visit in the summer, be sure to take a sleep mask, because the night is that short, and not all rooms have blackout drapes.

The first night we drove out to the northern tip of the peninsula, and found this "Lighthouse Cafe." We never found the cafe part, but it was in a place that was appropriate for a lighthouse.

The Blue Lagoon is a famous tourist destination. For about US$50 you can swim in the pool, and for an extra charge can use the swim up bar, cafe, or restaurant that overlooks the pool, or for a major extra charge can get a massage. We just looked, and later found that it was all man-made, not even based on a natural hot spring. Yes, that is Jenny, wrapped up standing on the snow covered deck of the 100 degree pool.

Not far from the Blue Lagoon is one of the places that the North American Continent touches the Eurasian continent above ground. The have built a bridge from one side to the other, so you can run back and forth between Europe and North America in a few seconds. The continents are drifting apart at the rate of about 2 cm per year, so I figure in my lifetime I am now 5 feet farther from Europe than when I was born.

Yes, that is me standing under the bridge, not sure which continent I am on at the moment.

The shoreline is not suitable for swimming, even in the summer, because of rough currents and rocks. Along the coastline (not sandy beaches) you can see steam venting from the ground. Most people in Iceland have both hot and cold running water piped to their homes, and heat their homes with this hot water from underground, no hot water tanks or furnaces.

Although there are lots of outdoor activities (in season), casual cross country (off trail) hiking is not one of them. This is the southern tip of the peninsula.

Most of the larger trees have been harvested long ago; the impression we got was that, if you didn't count trees obviously planted as a windbreak, there were no trees. The "natural" evergreen trees we saw were so few and stunted that they couldn't have supported a Christmas tree sale.

Note the "forest" along the ridge line. Look closely at the left.

Of course we had to visit the Lutheran church - Hallgrimskirkja - the largest church and one of the tallest buildings in Iceland, built 1945-1974. The design was to suggest the volcanos. The statue in front of the church is Leifur Eriksson, a gift from the United States before the church was built. Eriksson discovered North America about 500 years before Columbus. If you ask a local for the Lutheran church they will not know what you are looking for until you say Hallgrimskirkja.

Reykjavik built a concert hall, "Harpa," with great views from the inside and colored glass so it glows blue at night. The reviews made it sound like they were hoping it would become a landmark like the Sydney Opera House. during the day Harpa is not that impressive from the outside,

These wooden counters were used by priests hundreds of years ago to tally how many people made their confession or received communion

The Þingvellir National Park was the center of culture and government for centuries, where the various tribes met (during the summer) before there was a constitutional government. It is also another place where the North American and Eurasian geological plates meet above ground.

This is a path down the split. It was cold and the ramp was slippery. This is as far as Jenny wanted to venture. But remember that this split is moving apart at 2 cm per year, 5 feet in our lifetime.

We were able to drive around to a parking area at the bottom of the split. This is where we would have come out if Jenny had continued down the ramp.

Gullfoss is an amazing waterfall. In numbers I don't know how it competes with Niagara Falls, but it is comparably impressive.

We met a couple girls from Canada, and took their picture, so they took ours. Even they admitted it was bitterly cold.

Most of the falls was flowing water but some of the edges were frozen. It was a wonderful sight to see. We drove to the top where the Tour buses parked, but it was a long walk from there to the view. At the left is a shorter water fall that leads to an island from which there is a second waterfall (the center of the picture)

Geysir Geothermal Area is named after the largest and oldest, but now largely dormant, Geysir (from which the name Geyser originated and is used worldwide.)

Geysir has become a boring bubbly hot tub. One of the signs says the water is really 100 degrees Celsius (boiling). Don't test it with your finger; you will be burned. The nearest hospital is 50 miles away.

The area has countless springs, boiling mud pots, and steaming pools, not just the geysirs for the tourists. It was odd to see boiling pools surrounded by ice.

Strokkur has taken over the duty of entertaining the tourists. It erupts about 100 feet every few minutes, for a few seconds. If you don't like your picture, you will have another chance in a couple minutes.

Strokkur had a crowd watching despite the cold. I can't imagine how big the crowd would be in the summer.

I am sure it is meant as a joke, but there is a tiny boiling pot that bubbles occasionally, named Litil Geysir.

Generally we felt that Iceland was flat (in part because of the way the "wind kept whipping down the plains") but we know it is not. Yes there are hills in Iceland, that I bet would be beautiful in season. There are even volcanoes that erupt occasionally, but not in the part of the country were we were.

We saw a large number of horses, pasture after pasture. The Icelandic horse has a heavy coat, are small (almost the size of a pony), and have five gaits - the usual walk, trot, and canter/gallop, but also a tölt (described as a four beat single foot gait (which hopefully means something to a horse expert) and a flying pace which allows these small horses to reach 40 mph.

Since these horses are genetically unique, they may not have defenses against horse diseases in other parts of the world, so no horses may be imported to Iceland, and if an Icelandic horse leaves, it may not return.