Late October we were busy packing and heading for Dublin Airport. Louise from Wallace Travel
in Finglas had called us due to a cancellation, so now we found ourselves boarding
an aircraft from Primera (McBear said it was a chartered Boeing 737) with destination Keflavik
in Iceland. Roger was deligthed as Iceland
was real Viking territory and the Icelandic people speak the language that comes
closest to the original old Viking language. McBear was almost hyper as Iceland is literally
speaking positioned on top of the mid-Atlantic ridge so volcanos, hot springs and other
geological extremes are a special feature of Iceland.
Click the map to enlarge
We arrived at Keflavik International Airport and went by bus to Reykjavik, the capital
of Iceland. Reykjavik means "Smoky Bay". We would be staying at the Hotel Loftleidir close to
the centre of Reykjavik. Here we are waiting in the reception for our luggage to arrive.
We discovered that Hotel Loftleidir was located next to Rekjavik's domestic airport!
McBear was excited and said he just wanted to have a brief look at some aircraft taking off
and landing before we went sight seeing...
The weather was fantastic and knowing that McBear could spend hours watching aircraft taking
off and landing, we rushed out the door before he could settle down in the window. We wanted
to see the Perlan, a new building with 5 huge water tanks for nearly 30 million litres of
drinking water. Ernest was a newbie and a polar bear like Roger, and this was his first trip
with the Travelling Bears. Being all white as the snow patches around, Ernest was afraid he
would be taken for a snow patch and left behind.
"Don't worry," Roger said. "There's 6 of us in the group, and McBear and I will make sure
the numbers fits, when we leave..."
From the top of the Perlan we had a fantastic view, and since the visibility was more than
a 100 kilometers, we could see vulcanos and hot springs in the horizon. In fact, just above
our heads on the photo is actually several hot springs with steam rising.
The next morning we headed for the city centre to learn about the capital of Iceland. Reykjavik
has around 200,000 citizens including its suburbs, and since Iceland in total has around 310,000
inhabitants, Reykjavik has a huge percentage of the population with the rest scarsely spread on
the island. Iceland itself is 100,000 square kilometers which is a little bit more than that of
Ireland which is 83,000 square kilometers.
We wanted to visit the famous church, Hallgrķmskirkja, and have our photo taken in front of the
church. It turned out, however, that the church was undergoing restauration so the tower was totally
wrapped up in scaffolding. In front of the church was a statue of Leifur Eiriksson, the Viking
who discovered America.
"These Vikings were true seafarers", Roger told Ernest.
"Wow, and you spend your first years at sea?" Ernest asked.
"Yes. That's why I totally identify with these famed explorers and warriors," Roger said with pride.
We wished to see more of Iceland and in the evening we were planning a full day's trip for the
next day. Here, we are debating the itenary.
Next morning we headed north eastwards. The first stop was at the famous žingvellir, where
the Icelanders in the old days used to gather to vote for parliament and have a debate on laws.
žingvellir is located near žingvallavatn which is a large lake and is also one of the places
where one can study how the tectonic plates of North America and Europe separate. Everything
to the west (left on the photo) was on the American plate and everything to the east was on
the Eurasian plate. The two plates separate by 2 cm each year (a little less than an inch).
McBear was almost hyper. He found this was soooo cool...
From žingvellir we headed futher north east to the famous river waterfall, Gullfoss. It was very
windy, so McBear had to sit with a heavy camera battery in order not to be blown away.
From the cliff above we had a fine look at the waterfall. The river drops 11 meter at one
place and 22 meters at another. The water is melting water from inland glaciers.
From Gullfoss we went to Geysir with the world famous hot springs. In fact, Geysir has given
name to all geysirs in the world. Unfortunately, Geysir itself has
stopped spurting hot steam, but one of the other springs, Strokkur, is very active. Every 5 minutes
Strokkur erupts with a 20 meter (60 foot) tall burst of steam. Behind us, Strokkur had just
finished sending another huge amount of steam into the air.
"What a burp!" Ernest said in recognition.
While Tom, Edward, Goldie Bear and Ernest went for coffee, McBear and Roger patiently waited another
5 minutes, so we could get the steam eruption on
camera. Behind us, people were ready to click on their cameras, and then .... phoooschhhh!!!!! A new
column of boiling water and steam!
On the way back towards Reykjavik we passed a waterfall called Faxi. Here, the salmon travel
upstream. In order to help the salmon climb the waterfall, the Icelanders have built a small
stairway with water basins next to the waterfall.
On the way we also passed Skįlholt church. It's built by contributions from the other Nordic
countries; Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Faroe Islands.
The last stop on the return to Reykjavik was in Hveragerši, a small town with lots of green
houses. Due to the large amount of hot springs, the Icelanders are able to heat their houses
incl. green houses with non-polluting heat. Here in Hveragerši at a place called Eden Roger met
a fellow Viking and they exchanged lots of news and good gossip.
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Rev. 21 August 2010