Iceland

As we boarded our flight in Toronto, we nestled into business class for the five hour flight to Iceland. Iceland was a country I'd wanted to visit for years, so I had been eagerly awaiting this trip for a few months. We flew over Greenland, and as we started our descent into Reykjavik, we could see the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajökull in the distance, spouting ash. The drive from the airport to the city revealed a flat, barren landscape, with lots of old lava & rock. After a great beakfast at the Icelandair Hotel Loftleidir, we had a city tour around the capital of Reykjavik, where we were shown the parliament buildings, main city square, and other interesting places. The houses are like little lego blocks - blocks with flat rooves, no balconies - so they have flat sides, and different colours. We then drove to our hotel for the night, the Hotel Hengill, which was near the biggest lake in Iceland.

Iceland uses something like 98% renewable energy - mainly geothermal. They pride themselves on having clean air, and even sell tins of it at the airport! They have quite a bit of land for such a small population - they only have 300,00 Icelanders - and two-thirds of those live in the Greater Reykjavik area. This means that once you leave the capital, everything is very spread out. Villages may only consist of five houses, and gas stations and restaurants are few and far between. This only adds to the dramatic landscape, with there being little civilisation, and a mixture of barren, desolite landscape, and then waterfalls, volcanoes, glaciers and the Atlantic. A lot of the landscape was carved out during the Ice Age, with cliffs dropping off quickly to the flat landscape and out to the Atlantic. The country experiences around 10,000 earthquakes a year (around 27 a day!), however in the 4 days we were there we didn't feel anything - most are too small to notice.
The next morning we went to Gulfoss and Geysir. Gulfoss is a big waterfall, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. It abruptly plunges in two stages down the crevices in the earth. Iceland sits on the edge of two of the biggest tectonic plates - the European and the American. This has a lot to do with the volatility of the country - the geysirs and volcanoes, and also means that there are crevices in quite a few places. The plates move on average 2cm a year - making me wonder if one day the country will be split in two! Geysir is home of the original geyser - which is where the word comes from.

The original Geysir only spouts every few weeks now, however 50m south there is the Strokkur Geysir, which spouts every 4-8 minutes at a decent height. We stopped for lunch at the fabulous Hotel Ranga, near the south coast, which is near two of the most famous volcanoes in Iceland - Hekla, which erupts every ten years (and is due to erupt this year), and the currently erupting Eyjafjallajökull. This was the first place we started to see evidence of the ash, with the wooden decks covered in black ash, and cars covered in it. It is a beautiful hotel, complete with a stuffed polar bear in the lobby! There are no polar bears in Iceland, however occassionaly one will arrive via iceberg from the Arctic - by which time, after a few months with no food, they are very hungry and attack people & animals, so end up being shot!

Then we continued along the ring road that runs right around the country, and past Eyjafjallajökull. We were given masks to wear as there was so much ash, it poured in to the coach. The first view we couldn't see so much as it was a bit cloudy, however as we moved around to the eastern side of it we could see it really well - the ash was just billowing out, the ash cloud was changing every 5 seconds or so - so much ash! Quite spectacular, we were only about 2km away, and I couldn't help thinking how much it was affecting these people's lives. The news has concentrated so much on flight disruptions and the people being affected by that, but these people living in the vicinity are affected every day - and living in uncertainty. The ash is harming their animals and destroying their crops. Crops are hard enough to grow in Iceland's harsh climate and with the volcanic soil, without having ash everywhere as well! The clean up job is constant. I expected the ash to be fine, like talcum powder, but it's actually more like sand - they're quite big grains.

We stopped at a little museum, which had such gems as the first ice skates - cow bones that you strap to the bottom of your shoes and slide along on. I'm not sure what the NHL would make of those! Then it was on to our second night's stop at the Icelandiar Hotel Klaustur. We always seemed to start our meals with a bowl of creamy soup, and then follow on with either fish (arctic char or halibut), or lamb. Both the fish and lamb are very good, and plentiful! Breakfasts were typical Scandinavian style - bread with cheese, meats, liver pate, smoked salmon/herrings, tomatoes, cucumbers and so on.

The following day we headed further east towards the major glaciers, and to Jökulsárlón, which is where there is a large glacier lagoon. We took a boat ride on the lagoon, amongst the icebergs, to see them up close. They're quite beautiful - different colours of white and blue, depending on how long they've been around for. This lagoon has been in movies such as Bond's Die Another Day, and Tomb Raider. A seal followed us for a while, and kept curiously popping his head above the water, which was an added bonus! The guide broke off bits of the ice, and let us taste it - the ice was over 1000 years old.

Then it was time to head out to the coast, where we were hopping to see the Puffins - unfortunately they hadn't arrived from their migration yet (apparently we were only about a day early!), so we missed out on that. It was great to be out by the wild coast, with the waves crashing and the ominous ash cloud overhead. Heading back to Reykjavik we went out for dinner before settling in to the fabulous Hilton Nordica Hotel.

On our last morning in Iceland, after a sumptious breakfast buffet at the Hilton (and tasty skyr, an icelandic yogurt), we went to the famous Blue Lagoon.

It's a geothermal spa, with the water being just slightly warmer than body temperature, and rich in minerals such as silica and and sulphur. It's known for it's healing properties, and it's a lovely way to spend the time before our flight, floating around in the milky blue water, with silica mud all over our faces!
Regrettably it was then time to board our flight back to reality - having realised another dream destination, and ticking somewhere else off the list!