Iceland - Part 2

Sunday

On Sunday we went on a full day tour of the "Golden Circle", a popular tourist route in South Iceland, covering about 300 km looping from Reykjavik into central Iceland and back. The three primary stops on the route are the national park Thingvellir, the Gullfoss waterfall (meaning "golden falls"), and the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Our tour also included a snowmobile ride on the Langjokull glacier.

We boarded the massive Super Jeep at 9am and left Reykjavik, heading south-east. We passed through the greenhouse village of Hverageroi, where they have dozens of huge greenhouses where they grow all sorts of vegetables and fruit for consumption in Iceland. Apparently, they even grow bananas in the greenhouses!

Our first stop on the tour was the Kerio volcano crater. The sun was still a few minutes away from rising as we got out of the jeep to check out the enormous crater, so it was very cold. Away from the city warmth and shelter of Reykjavik it was a lot colder. At most stops we were out in the open and the wind ripped through us, despite us wearing four layers and hats and gloves! Kerio is a volcanic crater lake, one of several in the area known as Iceland's Western Volcanic Zone, created as the land moved over a localised hotspot. The crater is 55m deep, 170m wide and 270m across. You probably wouldn't want to fall over the edge!

The countryside was really interesting. The large amount of volcanic activity in the area means that there are a lot of lava fields or areas of volcanic rock. In stark contrast, there are other areas of spectacular natural beauty - mountains, rivers and lakes to rival New Zealand. As there is a massive amount of space for a small population, there is plenty of land available for farms. We passed by a lot of farmland, mainly farming horses and sheep. We were informed by our knowledgeable tour guide that there is one horse for every four people in Iceland. They are used mainly for horse-riding, a popular tourist activity in Iceland, however, horse meat is also reasonably popular in the country. There were loads of tiny wooden farmhouses scattered across the fields too, usually sheltered by large grass or dirt banks on one side of the building to block the strong winds.

Our next stop was an area of geothermal activity called Haukadalur, which is home to several massive geysers. The original geyser at this place was called "Geysir" and that is where the generic name "geyser", used to describe these things all over the world, came from. Geysir stopped working around the 1980s, as the channel became clogged with silica. An earthquake in 2000 cleared the channel, reviving eruptions, but they have decreased again and Geysir very rarely erupts these days. Just 50m away, however, is another geyser called "Strokkur", which erupts very obediently every 4-8 minutes, shooting boiling water up to 30m skyward. Out in the open, waiting with camera positioned for the awesome shot below, 4-8 minutes started to feel like a very long time! And you don't want to lose concentration because you only have about two seconds to take the snap, or it's another 4-8 minutes waiting with cold fingers. Apparently a handful of over-eager tourists each year require hospital treatment for boiling water burns - one shouldn't stand downwind of Strokkur... There are around thirty much smaller geysers and hot pools in the area, including one called Litli Geysir ("Little Geysir"), which is really a little bubbling pot of water, which Megan likened to pools you see on the Crater of the Moon walk in Taupo. It also smelt a bit like home!

After a quick refreshment stop at the cafe (where we found that "Lakkrus" means "licorice" in Icelandic and when covered in rice bubbles and coated in chocolate, is rather delicious), we set off towards the Langjokull Glacier and the highlight of the day - snowmobiling! We drove for around an hour over some very rough terrain (luckily we were in such a beast as the Super Jeep) to reach a pit stop, where we were ushered into a shed and helped into full Michelin-Man style oversuits, overshoes and helmets. We looked awesome! Megan actually looked like an astronaut (see photo below). We then got into an even larger vehicle, a Super Super Jeep if you like, but built for snow - a little like a tank on ice - and we were driven right down on to the glacier.

The glacier looked like something from a movie - endless flat expanses of untouched snow and 20 or so snowmobiles lined up waiting for us. After a quick lesson on how to operate a snowmobile (they are probably the easiest things in the world to drive) we were off, Tim taking the first half hour of driving. We had to follow single file in a long line. Apparently over-taking or drifting off the tracks marked by the tour leader can result in you falling into a 200m deep chasm, never to be seen again. Needless to say, everybody followed the instructions strictly! Visibility was good initially, and we rocketed along, faces freezing and fingers even colder! Tim started to wonder if frostbite was setting in, since he couldn't feel his fingers and his forearm started to go numb! We then stopped for a 10 minute break to take some photos and swap drivers. Tim was relieved to discover that the other snowmobile drivers had experienced the same thing with frozen fingers on their right hand (throttle side of the snowmobile).

By this stage we were far out into the middle of the glacier and the wind had picked up - the coldest, most icy wind we had ever felt - and it was seriously battering us. We agreed that this surpassed Christmas in Prague as the coldest place on Earth we had ever been. Megan took the driver's seat for the second leg and driving with a cross-wind was a challenge, making the snowmobile wobble quite a bit. With the strong wind and visibility starting to deteriorate, it felt like we heading for the North Pole! However it came to an end all too quickly and we were back at base, wishing we could go for another ride! Once off the glacier and out of our astronaut suits, we jumped back in the Super Jeep to continue our tour.

Next up was the Gullfoss waterfall, however before we got there we were treated to the rare sight of an arctic fox on the side of the road. The arctic fox is a shy creature that looks a bit like a fluffy cat and it is Iceland's only native mammal. Gullfoss was a little more impressive than the ball of fluff. It is a monster waterfall in two tiers at right angles to each other (see photo below). The total height is 32m, the width 20m and the average amount of water running over this waterfall is 140 cubic metres per second in summer and 80 cubic metres per second in winter. Woah! We spent a few minutes admiring it before Megan had to take shelter in the restaurant/gift shop. The sun was starting to set and it was getting colder by the minute. After some hot soup and bread for a late lunch, we were back on the road to our final stop Thingvellier.

Thingvellir (which loosely translates to "parliament fields") is a site of historical, cultural and geological importance as well as one of most popular tourist spots in Iceland. The Thingvellir National Park was founded in 1930 to protect the remains of the parliament site and natural phenomena in the surrounding area. Iceland was settled around 870 AD. Parliament was established at Thingvellir in the year 930 and continued through to 1789, when it was moved to Reykjavik. The chiefs of the various "tribes" from all over Iceland would meet at this place every couple of years to discuss the issues of the day, rules/laws to address those issues and punishments for those who broke the rules. The Icelandic people claim that this is the oldest continuing parliament in the world.

We got out of the Super Jeep and walked around the parliament fields site for about 10 minutes. It was getting quite dark and, needless to say, rather chilly. The spot is marked by a big flagpole, although there was no flag flying - perhaps it had blown away! The parliament fields sit in a valley brought about by the meeting of two tectonic plates in the area.

The North American and Eurasian plates meet underneath Iceland, which is why there is so much volcanic activity and so many earthquakes in the country. The actual meeting point of two tectonic plates is not usually as visible above ground as it is here in Iceland. There is a steep rocky cliff right behind the deep valley where parliament fields are located. We walked along the valley right next to the cliff face up to a car park where our Super Jeep picked us up again. The view from the car park looking back down along the cliff and valley showed the meeting of the plates quite vividly. Interestingly, these plates cause the western side of Iceland and the eastern side of Iceland to move apart by 2cm every year, which (very slowly) increases the size of the country. It is thought that in 100 million years from now, Iceland will be larger than the Great Britain!

We were grateful to be back in the Super Jeep where it was nice and toasty, as we headed back to Reykjavik. We were dropped off at our hotel around 6pm. We decided to go for a couple of drinks at the Icelandic Bar, which was close to the hotel. Megan had read about it before our trip and it was highly recommended by past travellers. It was really cool - it had really comfortable couches and interesting decor everywhere. The service was top notch and they even gave out free chocolates and biscuits! Tim really wanted to try Polar Beer (he he he) but they had run out. So we had another local beer called Viking, and it was nice. We had dinner at Cafe Solon, another popular cafe/restaurant in the centre, with a lot of modern art on the walls. The food was really nice and it was pretty cheap.

Monday

Monday was a very cruisy day. We slept in a bit after our big day on Sunday. After breakfast we headed for the city and went our separate ways - Megan to check out the clothes shops and Tim to visit some touristy/souvenir shops and play photographer. We met up again at lunchtime for hot dogs at Baejarins Beztu. Yum!

In the afternoon we looked at a few more shops and then went for a walk around Tjornin, the small lake in the middle of Reykjavik. There was thick cloud cover overhead, which was not what we wanted. We were booked in for a Northern Lights tour that night. Iceland is far enough north to make it a great place for viewing the Northern Lights in the winter months. Our tour was to take us out of Reykjavik to the countryside where it is dark enough to see the natural phenomenon clearly. However, when it is cloudy you cannot see the Northern Lights, and as the cloud did not clear on Monday, our tour was cancelled.

After our walk around the lake, we returned to the Icelandic Bar for a hot chocolate, to warm ourselves up, and then a couple of drinks to round off a very relaxing day in Reykjavik. We had dinner at our hotel and it was really good. We grabbed a deck of cards from the bar and played a few card games and tried another Icelandic beer, this one called Gull, while we waited for dinner.

Tuesday

Tuesday was our final day in Iceland, so we checked out of the hotel and caught a bus out to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa and is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. It is located in a lava field in Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland, between Reykjavik and the international airport, so it is a good stop-off on the way out to the airport.

The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur and bathing in the Blue Lagoon is reputed to help some people suffering from some skin diseases. The water temperature in the pools is around 40 degrees. The lagoon is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi.

We arrived at the Blue Lagoon spa around 10.45am and we had about three hours in the pools. It was so strange to be in hot water but still have the cold wind hitting our faces. But we found some sheltered parts away from the wind and it was perfect. They have pots of silica mud around the edges of the pools that you can smear on your skin. It is supposed to make your skin smoother and healthier. Megan took great delight in applying some of the mud to Tim's face, as did several other girls to their respective partners! There was one girl in the pools who had gone a little overboard and covered most of her body in the mud - she looked like some sort of swamp monster emerging from the water. They also had a big "waterfall" in the pools that you could stand under and receive a shoulder/back massage, such was the force of the falling water. That was very cool! We had short bursts in the steam bath and the sauna too.

Once out of the pools we had lunch in the cafe at the Blue Lagoon complex, which was surprisingly good. We got a combo that included a sandwich, a berry smoothie and a coke and we threw in a crazy Icelandic chocolate bar too, just to keep it healthy! They actually do really good chocolate in Iceland.

The bus picked us up at 2.15pm and took us down the road to the airport, where we stocked up on the aforementioned Icelandic chocolate in the duty free shop (we had to get rid of our Icelandic kronur somehow...). We both had a brilliant time in Iceland and we would love to go back again some time. Reykjavik is a fun place to visit and we wouldn't mind riding a dog sled (another option on the glaciers) or having another crack on a snowmobile. Spring/summer is a great time for whale watching tours and also for seeing puffins and other bird life. Plus in summer you get almost 24 hours of daylight!

Super
Jeep











Kerio
volcanic
crater












Sunrise














Strokkur
geyser

















Haukada-
lur area










Megan on
snow-
mobile












Michelin
Man
Megs











Langjokull
Glacier














Ditto












Gullfoss
waterfall











Iceland
country-
side

Thingvellir

Flagpole
at Thing-

vellir

Icelandic
Bar

Icelandic
Bar inside

Reykjavik

Megs at
Lake
Tjornin

Blue
Lagoon

Blue
Lagoon
pools

Ditto

Sun trying
to get above
mountain...

The massage
waterfall

Crazy
lava
fields

Iceland - Part 1

Friday

On Friday night we endured a very cramped and unpleasant tube ride out to Heathrow to catch a flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. It had been a long time since we flew in or out of Heathrow - we used to whinge about it all the time, but now we love it. It is so much better than Stansted! The flight from London to Reykjavik took less than three hours. We arrived around 11.30pm and then caught a bus into the city.

Iceland is a European island country, which lies just below the Arctic Circle in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. With a total population of around 320,000 on the 103,000 km² island, it is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries. Its capital and largest city is Reykjavik, whose surrounding area is home to about two-thirds of the national population. Iceland sits on the meeting point of two tectonic plates (the Mid-Atlantic Range), which makes it very volcanically and geologically active. As a result only 20% of the island is inhabitable (including grassland). The rest is made up of 54% barren waste, 12% glacier, 11% lava and 3% inland water. Warmed by the Gulf Stream, Iceland has a temperate climate relative to its latitude and provides a habitable environment and nature.

Saturday

After a late night, we were pretty tired so we started slowly on Saturday morning. Our hotel put on a brilliant cooked buffet breakfast as well as croissants, fruit, cereal and yogurt. It was awesome, although Tim was obviously very tired and had some issues with the juice machine...

Reykjavik is a really cool city. It actually reminded us a lot of Wanaka/Central Otago - the wide open spaces, very few people around, massive 4WDs/jeeps on the roads, the crisp fresh air. It is just so different to anywhere else in Europe. We had a look through some of the shops on the main shopping street, Austurstraeti. Reykjavik has some really cool clothes and art/craft shops - actual one-off shops rather than chain stores. Bonus!

Our walk along Austurstraeti took us towards the main landmark in Reykjavik, the Hallgrimskirkja Church. Construction of the modern concrete church, which dominates the Reykjavik skyline, began shortly after World War II, but was only completed in 1986. The main religion in Iceland is the National Church of Iceland, which is a Lutheran body. The 73 metre high steeple has a viewing platform at the top, which is accessed by a lift. So after we checked out the inside of the church and listened to the choir for a while, we went up to the platform to take in the views of the city. Even though it was cloudy, the views over the city and out across the harbour were breath-taking (photos below).

Back on the ground, we made our way down to the harbour to visit another of Reykjavik's landmarks, the Solfar Suncraft, a modern work of art made of stainless steel in 1986. It looks like the skeleton of a viking ship. The wind was whipping in off the harbour and it was absolutely freezing down by the water, so we got a few photos and then retreated to the more sheltered city centre. The weather was actually very good for the whole time we were there, considering it is almost winter. It was cold (highs of between 1 degree and 5 degrees in Reykjavik, much colder inland) but it did not rain while we were there, which was amazing really.

After our big breakfast we did not feel like much for lunch, but we had heard about the world famous hot dog stall down near the harbour, called Baejarins Beztu. In 2006, a British newspaper rated it the best hot dog stand in Europe! It cranks out over a thousand tasty dogs a day, all from a little shack in a car park on a street corner. Former US president Bill Clinton and Metallica vocalist James Hetfield have both eaten there. We each got a hot dog with the "works" (dog, ketchup, mustard, fried onion, raw onion and a special sauce). Easily the best dog we have had, and there are some damn tasty dogs in Europe!

With bellies satisfied, we headed for the National Museum. We were pleasantly surprised, as the National Museum was brilliant. It was really well laid out, separated into distinct time periods, since settlement in the 9th century right up through the birth of the Republic in 1944 and beyond. There were some fantastic exhibits, including a tiny human figure made of bronze (over 1,000 years old) thought to be of either the Norse god Thor or Christ, and an equally spectacular carved wooden church door, dating from around 1200, depicting the medieval tale of Le Chevalier au Lion (it features an ancient warrior on horseback slaying an unruly dragon).

The settlement of Iceland began in 874 when the Norwegian chieftain Ingolfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island. Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter before leaving when food supplies ran out. Over the next centuries, people of Nordic and Celtic origin settled in Iceland. Until the 20th century, the Icelandic population relied largely on fisheries and agriculture, and was from 1262 to 1918 a part of the Norwegian, and later the Danish, monarchies. In the 20th century, Iceland's economy and welfare system developed quickly, and in recent decades the nation has implemented free trade in the European Economic Area, diversifying from fishing to new economic fields in services, finance and various industries.

After the museum visit we stopped in at the popular Cafe Paris for a snack and a drink. It was busy and noisy, but a very fun cafe. With the sun starting to set (sunrise was around 10am and sunset 4.30pm while we were there, but apparently in late December/early January, they get just three hours of daylight!), we got changed at the hotel and caught a bus across town to the city's main swimming pool complex, Sundlaugavegur.

The geothermal activity in Iceland means that there is an abundance of natural hot water across the capital (the name Reykjavik loosely translates to "smokey bay" or "steamy bay", a name the settlers gave to the spot due to the steam rising off natural hot water pools in the area). Swimming is extremely popular with the Icelandic people. There are several swimming pools in Reykjavik and they tend to be cheap and largely used by locals (in contrast with the expensive and touristy Blue Lagoon hot pools). The Sundlaugavegur complex is almost entirely outdoors. There are two large swimming pools at around 29 degrees, one for lane swimming and one for leisure with its very own hydro slide) as well as several "hot pots" around the sides at 39 - 43 degrees. We stuck to the hot pots. It was 1 degree outside when we arrived at about 4.30pm and -2 degrees by the time we left at around 5.45pm. So switching hot pots was tricky business, as our feet froze within seconds as we scampered across the cold, wet concrete. But once inside the hot pots, it was magic.

We got a bus back to our hotel and enjoyed a couple of Happy Hour drinks in the hotel's bar before going to dinner at Laekjarbrekka, one of Reykjavik's finest restaurants. The restaurants and bars in Reykjavik are amazing too - in fact, there is not really anything we did not like about the place. Iceland has a reputation for being expensive, but following the recession, which hit the country hard last year, and the subsequent collapse of the Icelandic kronur, prices were about on a par with London. The food was superb, we would definitely recommend it! We were exhausted after a busy day of exploring Reykjavik, so we hit the sack pretty early. We had a huge day on the cards on Sunday too!

Tim wrestling
a polar beer

Hallgrimskirkja

Church

View from
top over
Reykjavik...

...and out
across the

harbour

All of the
vehicles

were

massive!

Tim by

the harbour

Megs and

the Solfar

Suncraft

Baejarins

Beztu - best

dogs in

Europe

Lake

Tjornin,

Reykjavik

Megs

outside

Cafe Paris

Our hotel -

Hotel

Reykjavik

Centrum

Laekjar-

brekka

restaurant

Iceland's

tiny

Parliament

building

Reykjavik's

Town Hall

Megs on

Austur-

straeti

Hot pots

at Sund-

laugavegur

pools

Pools

again

31

A day in Stratford-upon-Avon

On Saturday 31 October, we got up early and caught a train up to Stratford-upon-Avon. We had spent a day there last winter when we did a tour of the Cotswolds and we wanted to go back to see a bit of the place.

Aside from being a very pretty English town, Stratford-upon-Avon was, of course, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The town is, therefore, extremely popular with tourists and is actually second only to London in terms of tourist numbers. During our last visit, we bought a ticket for entry into all five of the Shakespeare Properties in and around the town. We only had time to visit one of those last time, so we thought we should try to see some of the others before the tickets expired. We had already seen Shakespeare's Birthplace, which was really interesting.

Our first stop on this visit was New Place & Nash's House. In retirement, a wealthy Shakespeare bought a fine home at New Place, in the centre of town. The house was demolished in 1759 by a subsequent owner and only the grounds remain. An Elizabethan knot garden has been laid out on part of the New Place grounds, which is very pretty. The adjacent Nash's House is where Shakespeare's grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall, who married Thomas Nash, lived. Elizabeth Hall was the last in Shakespeare's line. Nash's House contains beautiful furniture from the 1800s, showing what the house would have looked like when Hall and Nash lived there, as well as various exhibits telling the town's history.

After visitng New Place we did a spot of shopping on the busy (and scarily Christmassy) streets of the town centre and grabbed some lunch at Subway! We even managed to find a pub that was showing the North London derby on TV and we saw some Arsenal's 3-0 demolition of perennial try-hards, Tottenham.

Then it was off to Hall's Croft. Hall's Croft was owned by Shakespeare's daughter, Susannah, and her husband Dr John Hall, who she married in 1607. The building now contains a collection of 16th and 17th century paintings and furniture and an exhibition about Dr John Hall and the medical practices of the period. The property includes a big garden which contains a variety of plant life that John Hall may have used in his treatments.

From Hall's Croft we walked around 20 minutes to the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon to Anne Hathaway's Cottage. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582. The cottage, which is actually a spacious twelve-roomed farmhouse, was Anne's childhood home and where Shakespeare courted Anne before they were married. The cottage was passed down through the Hathaway family until 1846, and in 1892 it was sold to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. We had a tour of the cottage, which included a very informative talk by one of the guides, and then we wandered in the beautiful gardens and orchard in the cottage grounds. There were some rather strange sculptures in the "Sculture Trail & Tree Garden" - see photos below.

It was starting to get dark, so we headed back into town and popped in to The Old Thatch Tavern (one of the older pubs in Stratford and rumoured to be haunted following a brutal murder at the pub many years ago). It was a very fun, cosy little pub. It was Halloween of course and they had decorated the place nicely. We had a drink and then decided to have dinner there too. The food was awesome. We were served by a large guy dressed as Lurch from the Adams Family and a girl dressed as a cat...she wasn't very scary at all. Then it was back on the train to London - we both slept on the train - long day!

Megs at
New Place

Nash's
House

Knot
Gardens
at New
Place

Megan in
Shakespeare
statue garden

Busy
streets
of
Stratford

Shakes-
peare
Hotel

Hall's
Croft












Outside
the Cottage













Anne
Hathaway's
Cottage












What is this
woman doing
with the donkey-
man?














Megan
kicking
leaves at
photo-
grapher...