So today is 13 July 2021 and we returned from Iceland 6 days ago. Here are the updates from our last couple days there - pictures and words!
Monday 5 July 2021 -Heimaey Island
This island is off the south coast of Iceland in the area called Vestmann islands (Westman), gray sand beaches and cliffs carved out by the Arctic Ocean. The history is "turbulent" with man and nature, walks on "uneven" terrain - yup we are getting used to that term.
It is the largest of the Vestmann Islands, steep Edfell volcano results. In 1973 the Heimaey volcanic eruption, only inhabited island in the archipelago. In 1627 there were only 50 people in Reykjavik and 1500 in Heimaey but now the numbers are reversed after several volcanic eruptions. In 2010 the eruption only killed one person who was actually in a pharmacy as he needed to get his meds.
Also interesting note: In 1627 300 pirates robbed the town and killed 36 people, took 242 people into slavery; 38 came back and had lived in Algeria. Turkey controlled Algeria so the Icelanders called them "the turkeys".
Swimming pool on our small ship which we never used - not interested!
Very interesting route and lots of cliffs after volcanic eruptions in this area.
These steep cliffs were unbelievable but true.
It was pretty tricky to pull our small cruise ship into this little dock. Our boat Le Dumont d'Urville is 430 feet long, 5 decks, maximum 184 passengers plus 118 crew - we were well taken care of!
How people build houses if they want to be protected from volcanic eruptions.
Beautiful Iceland - lots of open space for sure.
Puffins - very cute birds but hard to get a good picture.
This town in the background was nearly completely destroyed by the last volcanic eruption.
Beautiful skies, lupine flowers and nature!
We visited the Eldheimar Museum which was built around a home destroyed by the 1973 volcanic eruption when 5000 people had to evacuate and it buried 400 houses in the volcanic ash. Also called "Pompeii of the North". This is one of the houses:
This is a photo of a house being destroyed by the ash and fire.
This is what remains of one of the houses:
And next up - I got to have a famous pylsor - Icelandic hot dog which of course is "healthy" and organic and all that. It was good!!!!
10:30pm on the boat and we got the captain's announcement of killer whales very close. It was awesome and still a while before the sun "kind of" sets!
This is the latest volcanic eruption just a few months ago and we did wonder if we would be able to make the trip to Iceland. The volcano is still "bubbling" a little.
This was beautiful and shows the love and pride the Icelanders have for their country!
6 July 2021 - Tuesday - last day in Iceland
So we took the 8-9 hour coach on the Golden Circle Tour with stops at the "Big Three" landmark sights: Thingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir
Starting the day we had to have our 3rd and last COVID nasal PCR test before we can head home tomorrow. Out of pocket cost $138 so "not too bad could be worse" in Minnesota talk:).
Iceland has the oldest Scandinavian language. We learned how people gets their names - father's first name followed by son if it's a boy - so our son would be Johnson or Rossson; daughter is mother's first name followed by dottir so Jenny's last name would be DeVerlesdottir - confusing but true.
There are two tektonic plates moving: North American moving northwest and Eurasian moving southeast; 130 active volcanoes; "hot spot" under largest glacier active every 2.7 years; 30 minute notie ahead of eruption given to residents.
Iceland was settled in 640 by Vikings - Norwegian or Scandinavian who plundered and brought Irish slaves so Iceland has Scandinavian Irish heritage. Adin - pagan gold; Alphing - first parliament in the world in the 900s; Evangelical Lutheran is the major church (chopped heads off Catholics)
To start - every night when we got back to our cabin after dinner we had a special French treat - hard to beat even after my daily dinner dessert.
So riding the bus I see a huge Ikea and huge Costco - they must be everywhere!
Lava rock crevice - they do continue to separate so they "suggest" not walking along this path!
Lots of churches including one within walkng distance of the summer home of the President of Iceland. He does have "meetings" here including with officials from other countries.
Another long and winding and rocky road and we did every walk and feel pretty good that at our age we could do this.
Our walking guide pointed out a couple places in this nationa park which were spots of former homes lost in volcanoes. Iceland was formed 20-25 million years ago by volcanic eruptions...so.....if no volcanoes Iceland would never have appeared. 10,000 years of volcanoes are known.
One more walking path - always neat and tidy as possible.
This is one amazing little rock that we saw on our walk. How is it possible after 10,000 years of hanging there???
Read the fine print - very interesting stories about a creek we passed where women who commited crimes had ankle braces, then bagged and dumped by pulling a rope. Crimes like adultery and many others. Men were usually beheaded, excecuted or hung.
Next stop was the Fridheimar Family Farm for Horse, Vegetable and hobby farm. Huge numbers of lighted warmed buildings to grow tons of tomatoes, herbs and other things. The owner has 5 kids who help out and ride too!
Unique sink in the building where we had lunch which was also where the tomatoes were grown and harvested.
Best bread and huge loaves which are baked right there and it was excellent. The lunch theme of course was tomato!
One of the staff harvesting the cherry tomatoes and they have to hang the vines and move them up as they grow more.
What a great dessert - edible flower, frothy cheese sweet topped with a caramel sauce all served in a tiny clay pot.
We watched 3 of these hold up a full mug of beer all while riding the Icelandic Horse and not spilling a drop. Only Icelandic horses are allowed in Iceland to keep the breed pure and they have a lot of horses and do allow them to be purchased by other countries. I saw one note that a horse for sale was $18,000.
Two kids of the owner.
I was the luckiest one on the tour to get a picture of a horse pooping - big dump for sure!
I think we are checking each other out for safety. I guess I was ok as the horse didn't snort or hiss at me.
And I'm "Back in the Saddle Again" and I was the only one brave enough to climb up on this shaky saddle.
Lots of steps as usual but we did it. And I walked all the way down to the lowest point near the falls.
So we got to stop at a visitor centre gift shop and I'm looking at this and thought it was Christmas lights and then I read the small print about condoms so of course I pointed it out to a few others - lots of giggles and laughs
Notice that Old Faithful made it on to this sign and it is still on my bucket list!
The water is pretty darn hot. 100 degrees C is 212 degrees fahrenheit and our guide said some "younger folks" have jumped in the water and of course were badly burned in spite of signs being all over the place.
And back to where we started the cruise for 7 nights. Our airport pickup arrived here the morning of 7 July right on time.
No comments:
Post a Comment