Travels thru Life: August 3 - Drive to Stykkisholmur

This morning, we left Reykjavik to start our exploration of the western half of Iceland. The island is entirely volcanic, and being stretched because it sits on top of the mid-Atlantic ridge. Millions of years ago, it was MUCH narrower -- the eastern-most and western-most rocks came from the same eruptions. The island is getting about an inch wider each year. You can really see the volcanic impact as you drive. Areas where there were more recent eruptions are barely vegetated. Older areas show the layer upon layer of lava flow that built up the hills, and the results of erosion that created scree down the hills and eventually arable land at the bottom. There are a lot of fjords, formed by fingers of lava reaching out where lava had flowed before and leaving deep bays digging into the country side. One of these bays became a naval base for the British, and in mid-1941, for the US during WWII. Most remnants of the bases are gone now.

Hvalfjordur -- Whale Fjord -- site of WWII British and US Navies

At a rest stop, we looked for and FOUND Magnum Bars -- these are the world's best ice cream bars, which we discovered in Turkey and looked for in the US unsuccessfully, until they recently appeared at Safeways. These were really expensive (over $5 each vs. $3.50 in Turkey and about $1.50 in the US) but we indulged anyway. A girl needs her 10am snack!

Our next stop was the largest hot spring in Iceland, which supplies 2 cities, about 40 miles away, with hot water. If you have seen Yellowstone, you have some idea of this, but the water here is boiling as it appears and comes out at an astounding rate. Even the trickles of water down the hill above the spring were steaming. I think if I were thirsty and came upon a stream, I would be checking the temp carefully before just gulping it in!

Boiling hot springs

There are also a lot of waterfalls where ever you look and we drove to a set of two in the western country side. One is called Lava Falls -- water is literally falling out of the rock, apparently from nowhere, into the river. The other is Children's Falls. The story is, a LONG time ago, 2 kids were left at home while everyone went to church. The kids walked over a rock bridge across a falls and fell in so their mom destroyed the rock bridge so no one else would get hurt. The place was pretty amazing, whatever the truth is. There was also an interesting white flower called the cotton flower -- looked kind of like a smallish cotton boll on a stem. It used to be used to make wicks for the oil lamps.


Lava Falls -- the water seeps out of the rocks

Site of former rock bridge at Barnafoss (Children's Falls)

Upper part of Barnafoss

Next we stopped at Reykholt, home of Snorri Sturluson. Born in 1179, he married well and became a writer and diplomat. His writing is still understandable to the Icelanders, a measure of how little the language has changed. He is famous for his sagas. He ran afoul of the King of Norway, and was assassinated when he was 62. We saw the hot pool where he bathed, a possible burial site, and a cute little church now used primarily for weddings.

Poppy with 2 visitors at Reykholt

Lunch was in a small town (Borganes) that features The Settlement Museum, which showed how Iceland was settled. The most surprising thing to me, (considering that on the way from the airport to Reykjavik our guide told us we were playing the game "Spot the First Tree" -- a landscape tree on the edge of town) was that Iceland was originally heavily wooded but got logged out early on for building and firewood. They haven't quite got the idea of reforestation, tho they are working on it.

After Borganes, I snoozed on the bus til we got to the Snaefellsness Peninsula, where we will spend the next couple days. We were challenged to walk up a holy mountain, Helgafell, without talking or looking back. If we touched the remnants of a small church and made a wish, it was sure to come true. Fortunately for me, thought it was a bit steep, it was a short walk and I managed to make it 15-20 minutes without a word, as did Jim. Now we can only hope our wishes are granted.