Iceland part B

Yes as you have read, we finally got to Iceland to see the place Claudio has been coming to for 5 years now. He did a terrible sales job in trying to convince me to come, so I admit I dragged my feet a little. But I am so glad we finally saw what it is that he loves. It is an amazing country.

There were a few things that struck me as particularly fascinating. One, Nature! Every where you go there is a different landscape, parts of the island are plain lava from recent flows and parts have lava stone completely covered in moss. Other landscapes have pushed past this stage and are pastures and some trees (there are very few trees in fact). There are bubbling pots of mud next to piles of stone with steam pouring out of them on a landscape of pink, yellow, white and red dirt. There are hot pots of near boiling water. There are seascapes with black sand beaches littered with pastel colored rocks and large chunks of crystal clear or blue ice (depending on the thickness). There is a lagoon at the base of a glacier full of icebergs, a little too full unfortunately. We spend a good hour just naming the shapes we saw in the icebergs, like you would do with clouds. And just when I thought we couldn't see something different in the scenery, just when I thought we had seen all there was to see, we would see something completely different. A mountain top with pillars of stone in horizontal lines separated by swathes of green, it looked like something out of lord of the rings. Then a washed out area 30 kilometers long from the mountain to the sea, all black sediment from a previous volcanic eruption, just empty. For those who are curious, we did go by the most recent volcanic area. There were 2 smaller washes where damage had clearly been done, but it wasn't a very big impact from our perspective. We couldn't see the smoking volcano that day because there were too many clouds. Oh, and I haven't mentioned the waterfalls! Lots and lots of waterfalls! I was Doug (the dog) in "Up," every time I saw one I would stop what I was doing or saying and say, "waterfall!"

Ice chunks on the beach in the south

There was Myvatn, the lake on which Claudio spends so much time. We did see the midges but the swarms were only a carpet on the field by the time we arrived. They were just little floating clouds over the grasses. We missed the big show. The lake is beautiful and seems to collects birds, there was a never ending supply. Their rental house is on a particularly lovely peninsula in the lake which had large (I assume) lava rocks sticking up out of the water, they were covered in plants and flowers. My description isn't good but it was fantastic. The sun setting on that lake (as much as it could set at 11pm) was crystal clear and wonderful. I only wish we could have gone out on the lake. Next time. We left on the day of the solstice which in Myvatn means only one hour of "darkness," the sun just dips below the horizon. In Rekyavik they have 2 hours of "darkness." Thats the difference between the north and the south of the country. Interesting!

I think I should stop now but I must mention the natural hot springs everywhere! Myvatn has nature baths nearby which we enjoyed, but all over the country, most public pools have thermal bath that feed their hot pots (hot tubs), very stinky but incredibly relaxing!

Really there is lots more to talk about, but we'll leave that for another time. I didn't even mention the food. Next year we are hoping to go back and explore some more, and maybe even see a blue whale!