Download Iceland update Oct 1..

Iceland
Reed and Nadeane, Oct 2011
Iceland is said to be the newest land in the world – still active
volcanoes erupting from the meeting of two Atlantic tectonic plates
– Europe one side – America the other. All this volcanic activity,
geothermal energy, plus the climate, creates the most jaw dropping
scenery. Most dramatic.
Everyone remembers when Iceland hit the news in 2010 with the
eruption of that volcano that made and ash of itself and grounded
European flights. Another eruption took place in April this year but
got no media attention since it didn’t affect flights. The name was
still unpronounceable to newscasters!
The people of Iceland are shaped by “water, wind and fire” they
say. I can certainly say they are resilient and determined people.
Its a wild land to live in.
Reykjavik has mostly recovered from the near
total collapse of its economy three years ago and
bankruptcy of its largest banks. Prices are
almost back up to where they were (yikes).
Iceland is not on the regular track for budget travellers. I have not seen
a single Aussie or Kiwi – and they are usually everywhere! It was off
season, so there was lots of accommodation for us. We rented an
apartment in Reykjavik through www.booking.com . Almost affordable!
We flew here via Iceland Express, a low budget
airline locally known for delayed flights and
some questionable customer service. But
despite rerouting us to Oslo – and taking 2 hours
longer to get here - all went well on our flight 
Icelanders are proud of being different - like these sculptures definitely off beat. Also as far as the music scene alternative is
mainstream here, because there is no mainstream. Check out Iceland
Airwaves the festival that just happened - crazy stuff.
There are 300,000 people in the whole country. The total population
would fit in the corner of even a moderate sized city.
We went on a road trip to the
Snæfellsjökull which is a large
glacier, and volcano. However the
snow on the road at 400m
prevented us from getting to it. This
is where in the famous Journey to
the Center of the Earth they
started the journey. Nothing that
dramatic here...This is a picture of
me with our Couch Surfing Host.
Through another Couch surfing host we rented a car –
an old 1987 Saab....classic Swedish car. After 7 days and
1800km of driving in a large circle we arrived back in
Reykjavik. Yeh!
The landscape is sparse, with almost no trees, and lots of low
ground cover like heather and blueberries. There was green
fields and hillsides along the coast and when visibility allowed
we could see the snow covered peaks. Being early October
the snowline had dropped to the low hills surrounding the
towns. The wind blew regularly and strongly. Glad to have
our winter clothes.
There are outdoor thermal pools in most towns and we visited
several. They are used daily by Icelanders particularly by the
elderly. One pool in Akureyri had 10 outdoors pools with
different temperatures, waterjets, play areas, hot waterslides,
and hot waterfall. Iceland would be a good place to grow old.
There is a feeling like the Newfoundland outports with the stages
and fish boats, nets and floats, small shops, and boats everywhere.
The basalt columns seen on the exposed cliff faces shows the kind
of rough, newly exposed rock. We saw this a lot. I mean a lot.
The Icelanders declared their independence from
Denmark in 1944, while the Danes were
themselves occupied by the Germans. Iceland’s
liberation was won without a battle.
There are museums and Viking names everywhere – and the language
is relatively unchanged from the old manuscripts. There are some
trippy well preserved home sites from the 900 and 1000AD –
incredibly old – made of sod and stone.
The original houses had wooden pole rafters support ed
on sod rock walls. On top – well you can see - grass.
These ones have had wooden fronts, and windows added
probably in the last century.
Iceland converted to Christianity in 1000 en
masse (pun intended). King Olaf and his
councillors deliberated and finally declared it the
new religion. Done... Unusual for a whole
country to change like that but it was a
deliberate choice to avoid bloodshed and war.
Smart people.
It seems Iceland’s early leaders were very
modern thinking, especially considering their
somewhat shady Viking past of raiding and
trading.
Small churches are everywhere, because til fairly recently there was a
decree that one be built every 10 km approx, usually on private land.
Nowadays they sit empty a lot.
There are some amazing modernistic styles of
churches, for instance that resemble seagoing ships or
this one looking like the tall basalt columns much of
Iceland is made of.
The earliest known parliament was held here at Ϸingvellir or
Thingvellir in 930ad , making it the first establishment of rule by
laws and governance based on a democracy. It ran for about 800
years. Annual sittings took place in temporary structures, and
still today there are no permanent buildings. Imagine our
politicians camping....might shorten the filibusters.
The land on which it sits has geological significance as the most
visible place where the tectonic plates come together. Ironically
the rift between the rocks is widening year by year, as the
tectonic plates drift apart. The ground has been dropping and
causing periodic flooding. Yet this gap, with water flowing
through it, is the symbolic home of today’s Iceland government’s
and used for major events. The AlϷing – or actual seat of
parliament is in Reykjavik. (Google “althing”)
Here is a bit of a drive around Iceland....first up the
winding road.
We stayed with a wonderful couple Nicole
and Jon who run horse riding tours into
the nearby mountains. Not only were
they kind enough to put us up in their
guest house (see below), we had dinner
together. They speak English, French and
Icelandic... www.hekluhestar.is
This natural stone cave in the lava field is the Kirka (church) so named because of the natural gothic arch shape.
These two waterfalls, cascading over
the basalt cliffs, meet the wind at
the edge and never make it to the
ground.... blow me away!
Well thats it. New Zealand, Bali, Singapore, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zanzibar, Kenya, Turkey,
Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, France, Denmark, Finland, Petersburg, Estonia, Latvia, Iceland....and
Canada makes 20.
Now we are in Halifax. There may be one last travelog...... Canada east to west.
See this and the previous updates at http://www3.telus.net/reedspace/travelog/
Thinking of you and yours,
we wish you happy rest of October and Halloween,
Reed and Nadeane