Iceland is cool
In June, we took a trip to Iceland.
Why Iceland? Well, as you can probably imagine, it’s not very hot. At 300k people on an island the size of Kentucky, we didn’t expect it would be crowded. We are anti-social weather weenies, so it seemed that it would serve us well. We were also interested in the geothermal features, and were looking for something a little out of the ordinary.
It was only after we chose Iceland that we discovered that despite Icelandic (basically, Viking–old Norse) being the native language, almost everybody speaks really good English. And VISA is taken absolutely everywhere–we didn’t change any money. Bonus.
While there, we ranged across the West and South of the island. On the West, we toured the Snaefellsness Peninsula, visited Arnarstapi and saw the Singing Cave, and took a snow cat up Snaefellsjokul (Verne’s fictional doorway in Journey to the Center of the Earth). We rode Viking horses (they’re purebred as there have been no horses imported for over 800 years) over lava fields. We went on a boat tour to watch puffins. Of course we went to several parks and museums. We drove through Grindavik, swam in the Blue Lagoon and in public Reykjavik pools heated by geothermal power–including one large hot tub in the Atlantic (Nautholsvik). We visited Thingvellir, another rift site where Iceland’s parliament met for almost 1000 years. We saw several impressive waterfalls, including Europe’s largest, Gullfoss. We climbed Mt. Esja. In the south, we went to the beautiful wind-swept black basalt beaches of Vik and Reynisfjall.
The geothermal features didn’t disappoint. We saw the original Geysir; OK, so that one disappointed since it doesn’t erupt anymore. But we did see other geysers, mudpots and more. Iceland is on the mid-Atlantic rift, where the North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart. Iceland, only 20M years old, grows about one cm per year and will eventually pull apart. One feature we visited was called the “Bridge between continents”, which lets you walk a 60′ bridge over a stunning rift from the Eurasion side to the North American side. Iceland has over 30 active volcanos, with a major volcanic event every 5 years or so. In the 60’s, NASA went to Iceland to test equipment for a lunar landing. Almost all heat for water and buildings comes from geothermal power.
I found myself surprisingly interested in the history (for me, anyway; Carrie’s always interested in that). It was settled by the Norse in 874 and excellent written records have been kept ever since. Although Reykjavik didn’t become an important city until recently, Iceland’s first settler, Ingolfur, settled there. His well can be seen on a downtown sidewalk. The Norse middle class were looking for new land after a huge land grab by the Norweigan king. In 930, trying to avoid another monarch, they established the world’s first parliament. They basically had a legislative body and a judicial process, but not having an executive branch no doubt contributed to their being ruled by a foreign power for most of their history (which is why they were so reluctant to let the Americans build a base when they joined NATO shortly after gaining freedom from–and losing the protection of–the Danish after WWII. The US is closing the base next month, which is now causing stress about the economy and defense). With that type of government, in such a desolate land, the primary punishment for a serious offense was to be exiled. Ingolfur’s land in Norway had been taken after he murdered a nobleman; in a sense exiled, he went to Iceland. Erik the Red was also banished from Norway for murder and moved to Iceland. Commiting murder in Iceland, he sailed off again and discovered Greenland. His son Leifur Eiriksson, born in Iceland, later sailed off to discover Vinland, or North America. In 1930 the U.S. gave Iceland a statue of Leifur to celebrate Iceland’s 1,000 years of parliament. The statue is now at the highest point in Reykjavik, in front of the Hallgrimskirkja, facing West.
Note that Ingolfur didn’t discover Iceland. There are numerous stories of Irish monks that lived there, seeking solitude (they left when the Norse arrived). Naddodd, while lost, was the first Norseman to see it. Gardar Svavarsson, probably having heard Naddodd’s tale, sailed completely around it and stayed for the winter. In 870 Floki Vilgerdarson, hearing these tales of the faraway land, set sail with three ravens. When he let the first one go, it flew back home. When he let the second one go, it flew in circles and came back to the ship. When he let the third one go, it sailed on towards Iceland. He settled there, and was amazed by the fishing. So much so that he neglected hay for his livestock. They all died over the winter, and he returned home depressed, calling the land “Iceland” to discourage other folks from going. Erik the Red (also not really the discoverer of Greenland, just the first successful settler–and Leifur wasn’t the discoverer of Vinland) did the opposite trick, calling his (much more icy) land “Greenland” in an effort to encourage more settlers.
We stayed in downtown Reykjavik (along with two thirds of the Island’s population, and growing), at the Room With a View inn (http://www.roomwithaview.is). The room was as advertised, the managers were nice, and it had good access to everything downtown. The only problem is that it’s on the main shopping street. That was fine most of the time, but on Friday and Saturday nights the party drill goes like this: drink at home until 10:30pm, stand in line talking loudly outside the nightclub for an hour, dance until 2:30am, and then come out and yell (often in English, oddly enough) and drop beer bottles until 6:00am. Then the street sweeper comes by to clean up the broken glass at 7am. The noise combined with jetlag and the eternal light (it is below the arctic circle, so the sun does set–but only from 12am to 3am, and it doesn’t go far so it’s always light) made it awfully hard to sleep.
Sleepless Friday and Saturday nights aside, it was a great trip, and we’d like to go back. Next time we’d like to see the coast of the Northwest peninsulas, Heimey island, Lake Myvatn and Akureyri.
Pictures of the trip (password protected) are here:
http://www.schwitters.org/Pictures/2006/06-19%20Iceland/thumbs_d/thumbs_p.html