Sunday, June 16, 2013
We're beat! Up very early this morning after a very late night last night. Still no official word on our luggage this morning, maybe tomorrow. They did find it in Boston from what we understand so that is a good thing.
When driving in from the airport last night we noticed some unique patterns with traffic. First off, there are NO STOP signs, just lots of yields and lots of circles-almost like being in Jersey, but not quite. Additionally, the red lights light red and yellow prior to turning green. It's very similar to the start off of a drag race. Fortunately people stop for red lights because everyone jumps the greens.
We started the day in Hveragerdi, 28 miles east of Reykjavik. This town was struck hard by an earthquake in 2008. In the middle of one all-purpose area (store, post office, museum, café, bakery…) they have installed a glass floor where you can stand on top of the fissure in the earth from the quake. It’s this long divide, not terribly wide but very deep. Next we went hiking and I must say that after about 1.5 miles straight up, I quit - it ceased to be fun when gasping for air. Glenn and I broke off from the group and had a really cool, beautiful and leisurely hike back down the mountain. Lots of cool pictures! The hot springs were incredible. What a site to see waters that are actually boiling and churning with the steam rising in 40-50 degree outside temperatures. The guide strongly cautioned us to stay on the trails so we would not fall and get burned by the waters. We hung out at the cafe drinking a few beers and waiting for the rest of the group (the cafe owner comes to Orlando occasionally to buy shoes with her husband - apparently he has really big feet; doesn't amazon deliver here?)...very nice afternoon.
When we got back to the hotel we walked a mile or so to a Target/K Mart like store to buy some essentials. Over 18k Iceland Krons later we have some new socks, etc.
We had this amazing dinner in the downtown area which reminded me a little of some of the Canada places we had visited previously. Dinner was at Sjavargrillid which means seafood grill - all I can say is amazing! The food and service was impeccable.
We played a little Emily wins after dinner, she got a children's book on puffins, we won't tell her that was also on the menu at Sjavargrillid.
Ok, one more note...all I can say about the toilets is weird! I've been in about 6 restrooms and EVERY one had a different flushing mechanism...pull up the ball on top, push the large pad on the wall, push one or both of the two buttons on top of the tank, it takes me a few minutes each time to figure out the flush...where is consistency !?!!?
Tomorrow we hope to go to the Blue Lagoon (assuming luggage and swim suits arrive).
Monday, June 17, 2013
So we got great news on our luggage today, NOT! Apparently the luggage was not checked all the way through to Reykjavik and our bags are being held by customs - still in Boston! We leave here tomorrow morning for Copenhagen then Wednesday for the ship. I've now got AAA, and the insurance we purchased trying to get our bags out of hostage and on a plane here today. Don't know if it will happen or not, nobody has a high sense of urgency in this matter but us. We’re canceling our trip to the hot springs today to deal with this and to shop for some clothes.
Our second day in Iceland pretty much sucked. We spent the day trying to locate our luggage and trying to find some clothes and toiletry items to pull us through another day or two, so 38k kron later more new clothes that don't fit correctly. The bras were size 75, 80, 85, 90's - who knows? The rest of the sizing was in European so had to figure out my size. We really wanted to hit the hot springs but had no swimsuits and needed to give priority to securing our luggage. Worth the investment if the luggage actually shows up tonight - we think finally it may.
We finally ventured out late this afternoon for a little fun. Went to a little sports bar for another Iceland beer and then ventured off to a sandwich shop called Lemon. Everything on the menu was in Icelandic but near as I could tell I ended up with a pressed sandwich with prosciutto and mozzarella and tomato with a pesto like sauce on whole grain bread (which seems to be the norm here). It was incredibly good! Glenn even liked it and he somehow ordered his without the tomato.
This evening was the golden circle tour. The weather could have been much better it was very windy, cold and rainy but the tour was magnificent! We started with a stop in Þingvellir which means where parliament thinks. This is the site of a Rift Valley that marks the crest of the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The natural environment is unique in the world. It is also home to Pingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. Here it is said to be no man’s land...that space between the Europe and the Americas continents at the junction of the two tectonic plates. No man’s land is sinking into the ocean a little each year. The craters marking the divide are clearly visible as these tectonic plates that continually shift are leaving violent scars on the landscape.
We then stopped at Gulfoos where I mailed postcards...I'd say to look for them in 2014 sometime. The post box was at the rest stop for Gulfoos. It was a small box, like one would have mounted by the front door in a city home, and it was stuffed full with postcards to be picked up! Gullfoss (English: Golden Falls) is a waterfall located in the canyon of Hvítá river in southwest Iceland. The wide Hvítá rushes southward. This is a two-step waterfall that is absolutely magnificent! As one first approaches the falls, the crevice is obscured from view, so that it appears that a mighty river simply vanishes into the earth.
From there we visited the Geysie, sometimes known as The Great Geysir (pronounced gay-sir) located in southwestern Iceland. It was the first geyser described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans and they are very proud to say that we mis-pronounce the word when speaking about 'old faithful'! The nearby geyser Strokkur erupts much more frequently than Geysir which has been affected by several earthquakes throughout history. Strokkur's activity has also been affected by earthquakes, although to a lesser extent than the Great Geysir. Essentially this is eruptions of boiling water hurling up to 80 feet in the air every 5-10 minutes. Overall it was an incredible display. There are around thirty much smaller geysers and hot pools churning boiling water in the area, including one called Litli Geysir ('Little Geysir'). Did I mention that while surrounded by boiling waters, we were freezing, in the wind and rain at this point?
On the return trip we stopped to visit with some of the 80,000 horses that roam the area - except for Fabio, I have never seen such flowing manes, these were beautiful animals! The Icelandic people go to great extents to protect this breed of horse. If any horse leaves Iceland for a completion or any reason, it can never return to Iceland. Additionally, our driver made a side trip to a dormant erupted volcano which was nothing but a crater in the ground, the lava fields went on for miles in this area. We stood on the rim of a volcano!
The final stop of the evening was to another smaller waterfall but also very beautiful. There was a man made salmon ladder on the side of the waterfall to allow the salmon to migrate further into Iceland. I'd bet it is an inspiring site to see the salmon climbing the ladder in the spring to find a place to spawn.
Have to say our driver was very scary! He showed us a video documentary of the 2010 volcano and Glenn finally pulled to the front of the bus to operate the DVD before the dude killed us...there were many such moments on this tour as the guide read the spiel he had to give while weaving back and forth on the road!
We got back to the hotel at about 1 a.m., we need to be up at 5 for our flight to Copenhagen.
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