Well guys & gals this blog is a little less user friendly than I’d hoped so please forgive spelling mistakes, pictures that are not right side up etc. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open last night to post anything. I felt like I had a whole sandbox in my eyes. So here’s my first attempt on this new blog.

After an uneventful flight (except for the northern lights dancing on the roof of the plane) but with virtually no sleep, we arrived in Reykjavik. We picked up our rental car and hit the road. We decided to explore the Reykjanes Peninsula before heading into Reykjavik.

Nothing is really well marked here. At some sights you see what looks like a four leaf clover which marks the attraction but you’re past it before it registers you have to stop. So after backtracking several times we saw a thermal pool with thundering clouds of vapour rising out of the ground. Then we went to the bridge between 2 continents. The Eurasian plate which is the earths largest continental tectonic plate is drifting away from the North American plate which is widening the Atlantic Ocean. When plates collide they for mountains & when they drift apart they form large valleys.

Other highlights of the day:

- Gunnuhver Hot Springs, Which is a bunch of hissing vents in the clouds of sulphurous steam. You smell it before you see it. There are also old building foundations here that were used for vegetable hot houses. And there’s a tall white lighthouse that stands on a little hill.

- Hafnaberg Cliffs, which we didn’t see as it was a 3km hike each way and the weather was not cooperating (windy & chilly) and we did not have the time as we had a tour booked in Reykjavik. Iceland’s old roads were marked by stone cairns strung along the pathways. They were known as priests because the locals said they showed the path to salvation without ever taking it themselves (Ha ha).But we did see some of these cairns going towards the cliffs.

- Brimketill, which is a pool on the seaside. It actually looks like a huge hot tub at the edge of the ocean.

- Grindavik, a small fishing village at the south end of the peninsula. Here we had brunch at a place called Bryggjan. It had the best lobster soup going. We talked to the owner who told us stories about Canada’s link with Iceland. Apparently at the Olympics in the 1920s (that were in Belgium) the Iceland hockey team won the gold medal. They were introduced and learned how to play hockey from Canadians. Icelanders had gone to Winnipeg to learn how to fly and they learned how to play hockey there. In fact, these Icelanders also started up the airline company now known as Icelandair. Going back to the highway we came upon 2 Icelandic horses grazing in a field. We stopped to get pictures and one horse started galloping towards us to greet us, it seemed. We got a kick out of that.

- the Blue Lagoon. I think most people that know anything about Iceland think of the iconic Blue Lagoon. It’s a touristy, steaming thermal pool with milky blue waters that costs a fortune to get into. For the basic package it was going to cost us CDN $150 each. So we decided just to look and enjoy the steam rising from the beautiful waters.

After that we drove to Reykjavík to check into our hotel and go on a “free” walking tour of the city. It really wasn’t free. At the end of the tour she asked for donations and recited amounts and how that amount would benefit her. For instance, 1000 Icelandic kroner‘s (ISK) would allow her to buy a beer, with 2000 ISK she could buy an appetizer at a restaurant and with 3000 ISK she could buy her mother flowers. To give you an idea 1000 ISK is about CDN$13.

We walked around the city and took in most of the sights. We met at the main square called Austurstraeti. We saw Dimkirkjan, the Lutheran cathedral, the Parliament building, some houses built in the 1800’s that

used sawdust for insulation, “Times Square” of Reykjavik (nothing like Times Square in New York as it consisted of a small area of interlocking bricks with 3 skateboard rails, and 2 basalt columns spewing steam). We saw the Harpa opera house. It is designed after Iceland’s unusual geological forms, with hexagonal glass tiles designed to resemble the basalt columns of lava seen around the country. The glass panels that are on the outside are supposed to resemble fish scales. The Hallgrímskirkja dominates the skyline. It is a space shuttle looking church, named after a renowned 17th century religious poet Hallgrimur Petursson. We walked up Arnaholl, a grassy mound, and found ourselves in front of a statue of Ingolfur Arnarson, Reykjavik’s first settler. He has a typical Viking helmet on (minus the horns). Apparently, contrary to popular belief, the Vikings did not have horns on their helmets. That was a disappointment!

Then it was back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. It was an early night as we were exhausted. We turned in at about 8:00.

First impressions:

- We saw no trees on the Reykjanes Peninsula when we were driving around. It looked like a nuclear holocaust area, filled with rugged litchin-covered lava fields. We did see some trees in Reykjavík. Apparently they have an annual “best tree of the year” contest and the winning tree gets an award. There are not a lot of trees in Iceland and, therefore, when a tree gets cut down or dies the owner of the land has to plant two trees in its place.

- it is very expensive in Iceland. The beer cost about CDN $13. That’s ACC prices, folks! We had typical fish and chips for dinner and it cost $90 with two beer in a casual restaurant where we ordered at the bar.

- the air does smell cleaner here.

- the language is impossible to understand. There is no way I could spell a word properly.

- there is virtually no architectural design to homes. They are pretty

much rectangular structures with windows. In rural areas they are spotted throughout the countryside, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

- there are no skyscrapers here. The tallest building in Reykjavík is about 12 stories high.

- The weather sucks! Iceland is the third windiest place in the world. You never see umbrellas because they just go inside out because of the wind. When it gets to 16°C (the average high in summer) apparently you find Icelanders on the beach sipping their piña coladas.

- would I come back? Not likely. I like it well enough - the history is interesting but, so far, the exorbitant prices, desolate landscape and crummy weather make it difficult to love. Maybe it’s the time of year.