Akureyri, Iceland
Friday, 10/1/10
5:55am, pitch black sky, glassy seas, almost total quiet, this is the start to our day. (Grumble, grumble.) But, the day was the best so far, by far. Iceland is an incredible place, barren and desolate in places and yet full of beauty.
We had a full day tour. The ship docked at 7am, the local authorities cleared us to disembark at 7:10 and our tour started at 7:30. Our day ended back at the ship at 3:40. We were to have been back at 3:30 for a 4pm sailing. We had no time to explore the city of Akureyri.
The bus took us on a short trip through Akureyri, the guide pointing out a few sights like the oldest building in Iceland, dating from 1795. The red stop lights and stop signs are all heart shaped in Akureyri. In the late fall and all winter it is dark except for at least 4 hours, so it was determined that heart shaped signs might make the winter easier for the people here. Akureyri is located on the longest fjord in Iceland, about 60 miles long. There are many rivers and streams with trout and salmon. One river we went by is a famous salmon river, but costs $1,000.00 per day to fish there. Amazing! We saw a factory that takes cod heads from all over Iceland, dries them and ships them to Nigeria. Amazing. They use heat from geo-thermo forces under ground to generate 60% of their electricity and supply hot water to homes. Iceland has 1/6th of the volcanoes in the world and they tap the underground heat here and put it to good use.
Iceland has some pretty tough characters in their fairy tales. They believe in elves and trolls. At Christmas time, 13 Yule Lads come out, one each day from Dec. 12th until December 24th. They cause minor mischief, stealing cream, banging doors, sniffing candles, etc. But the worst is the Christmas cat and Santa’s mum. If a child has been bad, he can be taken and put into stew by Santa’s mum. If the child doesn’t get new clothing before Christmas, the Christmas cat steals the child and eats it. All Icelandic children are good in December!
The tour bus first took to us to a point high above the fjord to shoot photos of the town. Then we went to Godafoss Waterfall, the place where all of the pagan god images were thrown when Christianity was accepted in 1000 AD. The falls are split like Niagara, but not as high or as wide. Still, it is an impressive sight. After the falls we had a trout lunch at a local restaurant with several other busses full of ship passengers.
Following lunch, we went to Lake Myvatn in the heart of Iceland’s most geologically active area with the Skutustadir craters; large pseudo-craters formed when lava overflowed the lakeshores sodden ground. The craters look volcanic, but aren’t. They are very low.
Dimmuborgir means ‘Twilight Castles’ in Icelandic and was our next stop. Here the lava has been thrown up and cooled into weird shapes. We’ll try to add a video of some formations. The area had well tended paths, so we were able to walk through some of the area. The ‘great rift’ goes through this area as a small fissure in the ground, maybe 18” wide, that is a result of the tectonic plates separating and moving Europe and North America farther apart. We have enclosed a picture of John straddling the rift, right foot in North America, left in Europe. The average yearly movement is only 2 centimeters, but between 1975 and 1984, there was so much underground activity that the rift widened by 3 meters, nearly 10 feet. Cool.
Our last stop on this tour was Namaskard, boiling mud pools that vent foul sulfur fumes with quite a bit of noise, a gurgling sound from the mud and a roar from the vents in the ground above the mud areas.
All in all, this has been our favorite day of this trip. Sunday, we will be in Reykjavik and have a 90 minute air flight scheduled that will take us over much of Iceland and the volcano that erupted earlier this year. The seas today, Saturday, are rough. Co was on deck 5 this morning getting a latte, when a wave crashed over the porthole windows, quite a surprise to all around there. We just hope for no rain and high clouds or sunshine tomorrow. The wings of the plane are above so photos can be taken with perfect sightlines. We’re really excited.
The Captain announced over the speakers system on Friday that we had indeed crossed the Arctic Circle, on the way to Akureyri, which means nothing, but seems to be a fun fact.
Colleen and John
5:55am, pitch black sky, glassy seas, almost total quiet, this is the start to our day. (Grumble, grumble.) But, the day was the best so far, by far. Iceland is an incredible place, barren and desolate in places and yet full of beauty.
We had a full day tour. The ship docked at 7am, the local authorities cleared us to disembark at 7:10 and our tour started at 7:30. Our day ended back at the ship at 3:40. We were to have been back at 3:30 for a 4pm sailing. We had no time to explore the city of Akureyri.
The bus took us on a short trip through Akureyri, the guide pointing out a few sights like the oldest building in Iceland, dating from 1795. The red stop lights and stop signs are all heart shaped in Akureyri. In the late fall and all winter it is dark except for at least 4 hours, so it was determined that heart shaped signs might make the winter easier for the people here. Akureyri is located on the longest fjord in Iceland, about 60 miles long. There are many rivers and streams with trout and salmon. One river we went by is a famous salmon river, but costs $1,000.00 per day to fish there. Amazing! We saw a factory that takes cod heads from all over Iceland, dries them and ships them to Nigeria. Amazing. They use heat from geo-thermo forces under ground to generate 60% of their electricity and supply hot water to homes. Iceland has 1/6th of the volcanoes in the world and they tap the underground heat here and put it to good use.
Iceland has some pretty tough characters in their fairy tales. They believe in elves and trolls. At Christmas time, 13 Yule Lads come out, one each day from Dec. 12th until December 24th. They cause minor mischief, stealing cream, banging doors, sniffing candles, etc. But the worst is the Christmas cat and Santa’s mum. If a child has been bad, he can be taken and put into stew by Santa’s mum. If the child doesn’t get new clothing before Christmas, the Christmas cat steals the child and eats it. All Icelandic children are good in December!
The tour bus first took to us to a point high above the fjord to shoot photos of the town. Then we went to Godafoss Waterfall, the place where all of the pagan god images were thrown when Christianity was accepted in 1000 AD. The falls are split like Niagara, but not as high or as wide. Still, it is an impressive sight. After the falls we had a trout lunch at a local restaurant with several other busses full of ship passengers.
Following lunch, we went to Lake Myvatn in the heart of Iceland’s most geologically active area with the Skutustadir craters; large pseudo-craters formed when lava overflowed the lakeshores sodden ground. The craters look volcanic, but aren’t. They are very low.
Dimmuborgir means ‘Twilight Castles’ in Icelandic and was our next stop. Here the lava has been thrown up and cooled into weird shapes. We’ll try to add a video of some formations. The area had well tended paths, so we were able to walk through some of the area. The ‘great rift’ goes through this area as a small fissure in the ground, maybe 18” wide, that is a result of the tectonic plates separating and moving Europe and North America farther apart. We have enclosed a picture of John straddling the rift, right foot in North America, left in Europe. The average yearly movement is only 2 centimeters, but between 1975 and 1984, there was so much underground activity that the rift widened by 3 meters, nearly 10 feet. Cool.
Our last stop on this tour was Namaskard, boiling mud pools that vent foul sulfur fumes with quite a bit of noise, a gurgling sound from the mud and a roar from the vents in the ground above the mud areas.
All in all, this has been our favorite day of this trip. Sunday, we will be in Reykjavik and have a 90 minute air flight scheduled that will take us over much of Iceland and the volcano that erupted earlier this year. The seas today, Saturday, are rough. Co was on deck 5 this morning getting a latte, when a wave crashed over the porthole windows, quite a surprise to all around there. We just hope for no rain and high clouds or sunshine tomorrow. The wings of the plane are above so photos can be taken with perfect sightlines. We’re really excited.
The Captain announced over the speakers system on Friday that we had indeed crossed the Arctic Circle, on the way to Akureyri, which means nothing, but seems to be a fun fact.
Colleen and John
posted by Colleen and John | 1:41 PM
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