Month: June 2016

I’m writing this as we wend our way back towards NYC. We’re approaching Nova Scotia, and as I’m informed by the ‘flight data’ section of the video screen in the seat-back in front of me, we’re flying at a ground speed of 500 mph, with a headwind of 90 mph; we’re at 34,000 feet, and the air temperature outside is about -60°F. We enjoyed seeing Greenland pass below us almost an hour ago. Life in the fast lane, eh?  [Actually, I started this on the plane, but just couldn’t get it done there, nor in JFK after our visit with Rosy. I’m finishing it up now at Louisa’s kitchen table in Boulder.]

Continuing where I left off, we caught the 10 pm ferry to Heimaey, the largest, and only inhabited island in the archipelago. The island it only about 4 nautical miles off the coast of the mainland, and it takes a little more than a half hour to make the journey. I drove the van off the boat at almost 10:45, and we immediately made our way to the campsite. It’s located in a picturesque bowl that I would guess might be the remains of the original volcano that began the formation of the island.

After exploring the facilities a bit, paying the fee for our two-night stay, and finding a suitable spot to park the van, I suggested we hike up one of two steep that switchbacked up the far side of the bowl. Seeing evidence of a nice sunset over the sea between Heimaey and the mainland, we hustled up to the rim as best we could despite the extremely steep trail, and caught the tail-end of the sunset (which was at about 11:30 pm!)

After the slog back down, we did a little more exploring, including two replica viking stone houses that appear to sometimes be used as group campsites.

We woke the next morning to howling winds that never stopped for the remainder of our stay on the island. As has so often happened on this trip, it turned out to be a serendipitous decision that we chose to make that hike the previous night, even as late as it was, since the wind would have scared us away from the idea at any other time in our visit. Checking the weather, it was apparent that we would have significant rain as well by early afternoon, so we headed right out to do some outdoor activities.

First off, we drove around to the much less inhabited windward side of the island, just to get the ‘big picture’. The wind was blowing so hard there that it was difficult to even open the van doors!

From there, we headed back into town, and quickly stumbled onto one of the main sightseeing opportunities on Heimaey, which also happened to be the perfect precursor to the learning the astonishing story of the eruption of the Eldfell volcano in January of 1973. We had already read a little about the eruption, which lasted almost six months, and buried hundreds of homes and businesses; eventually increasing the size of the island by 20%. It was fascinating to walk through the area where the advancing lava eventually stopped, on top of which the islanders have erected signs that are almost like gravestones for many of the homes and other buildings that are buried 16 meters or more below the lava debris that remains.

We then drove to the brand new, state-of-the-art Eldfell museum, where one of the first homes to be buried by volcanic ‘tephra’ at the start of the eruption has been largely excavated. They’ve essentially built the museum up around this excavation, and then created many innovative and interactive exhibits that demonstrate both the scale of the disaster, and the amazingly innovative techniques that were attempted in an effort to stem the damage caused by the ever-advancing lava throughout the eruption.

For instance, a prominent geophysicist and volcanologist from elsewhere in Scandinavia came to study the eruption as it happened. He was the first to suggest that the few remaining townspeople pump a constant stream of seawater onto the leading edge of the lava flow on two fronts, in an effort to spare both the harbor entrance and more homes closer to the town center. After several months, the lava started to threaten closing off the mouth of Heimaey’s protected harbor, which would’ve been the death knell for their vibrant fishing industry. Thus, they decided to sacrifice homes and concentrate the water-spraying efforts on the harbor mouth. The effort was ultimately successful. In this screenshot from the Maps app, you can clearly see the extent of the lava flow, including just how close it came to closing off the harbor mouth.

By the time we exited the museum, the rain had settled it, and the wind continued to rage as well, so we went off to the Natural history museum/aquarium, where we found a wonderful little surprise:

We’d been hoping to see some puffins the whole trip, and had seen a few from a distance on the hike up above the campground Friday night, but this was an unexpected treat. Heimaey has developed an interesting tradition in recent decades, due to a troubling developement in the puffin’s evolution. Apparently, the pufflings leave their burrows every August, and would typically glide down to the sea to feed and grow. Unfortunately, the lights of the town have begun to attract the young birds, and since they can’t really fly yet, they’re confused and can fall prey to the islander’s dogs and cats. In response, the local population has started letting their children go out with cardboard boxes every night to gather up the vulnerable pufflings. They have started taking them to the museum to be weighed and counted, and then they’re taken down to the shore and released. Puffins are primary sea birds, capable of diving quite deep and for long periods of time, so they’re safest on the water. And Tóki’s story? He was found in September of one year, apparently having hatched out about six weeks later than normal, and was half the weight he should’ve been at that point. So it was decided that he’d be best kept at the nature center, where he’s been ever since. We learned all about him from a very helpful little girl of about 10 or 12 that was sheparding Tóki around the museum that day. It seemed like she was the daughter of the folks that ran the museum.

After that, we attempted to complete the trifecta by visiting the Folk museum, but it was closed for a private event. Instead, we went back to the communal hall at the campground to shower, have a cup of tea, and relax before dinner. The place was alive with activity, mostly due to 16 German students on a trip to the island, who were very jolly. We had a nice conversation with two of them; a great example of the side benefits of travel.

We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner at a restaurant in town, and then returned to the campground so I could finish a blog post. I think I already wrote about how crazy our last night in the van was that night, with the wind buffeting the van. More adventures to remember!

The next morning, as I also reported already, the ferry ride back to the mainland wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be, thankfully. I found another wall mural for the series I started in Reykjavik almost three weeks ago!

Once back on the mainland, the morning sun lent me one more opportunity to capture the spectacular fields of lupine:

From there, it was back to Reykjavik for shopping, on to the airport to drop off the van, then to our guesthouse to get prepared for our departure Monday morning (yesterday). I’ll publish this now, then post later about our stop in NYC with Rosy yesterday, and our visit in Boulder with Louisa today.

What an amazing trip we had. I feel like I need to ruminate a bit about all that we did and saw, and post again with some final thoughts. Who knows when I might get to that, but I’ll try!!

Thanks for following us everyone; I look forward to talking to all of you soon. XOX, John & Mallory.

We had quite the night in the van last night. It was blowing a gale almost all day and when we turned in, it was blowing so hard that it felt like there were 8 or 10 football players encircling the van and randomly shoving it hard every few seconds. The wind kept up a steady roar as well. All of that combined to make for a less-than-perfect last night of sleep. We had an 8:30 ferry to catch back to the mainland, so we dragged ourselves out of bed and made a quick cup of tea before getting in line for the boat. Fortunately, the weather had calmed a bit, so the crossing wasn’t too bad. All we had to do then was drive about an hour and a half back to Reykjavik for a little last minute shopping (I never found anything in the way of a souvenir, but Mallory found a beautiful classic Icelandic cardigan sweater a few days ago; today was mostly gifts). We’re now sitting in our humble little guesthouse room; Mal’s writing postcards and I’m processing photos and trying to catch up on email and the blog.

Where was I on the travelogue? Oh, that’s right, Friday. That morning dawned cloudy and cool again, but your intrepid vanagers weren’t going to let a little rain stop us. After all, we had a lot more waterfalls to see! Actually one of the coolest (er, hottest?) things we’ve seen the whole time we’ve been here was our first stop that morning. Deildartunguhver hot springs is the largest in Europe, by volume. It puts out 180 liters/minute, at 97° celcius. It heats all the surrounding towns, through a 74 kilometer pipeline (considered the longest of its kind). Here’s a video I shot to give you an idea of what it was like:

It was really quite amazing, and only about a mile from our campground. You could see its giant cloud of steam from miles around. When you get close to all the little geysers, the steam envelops you; we ended up quite damp when we walked back to the car, just from the steam!

From there, we had went another short way up the road to see an museum dedicated to Snorri Sturluson, a famous Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He lived from 1179 to 1241, and wrote many of the most familiar (to them) Icelandic sagas. Here’s a striking bit of brightly painted carving that surrounded the entrance to the exhibits:

The museum is in a beautiful building too, but we just didn’t have the energy to brave the crowds, so we did a quick circuit, checked out the giftshop, and headed out to the first landmark of the day, Hraunfossar and Barnafoss:

The blue water in all the creeks and streams around Iceland is quite striking, isn’t it? I’m not sure why it’s so turquoise. I’ll have to read up on it.

Also fascinating are the obvious lava formations in the rocks everywhere:

Next up was a side trip to catch a lesser-known waterfall called Bruarfoss. I found it quite remarkable, especially since it’s essentially unmarked from the nearest paved road, and the photography book in which I found it recommended said that people are often thwarted in their efforts to find it. I did actually have a little trouble with Google Maps when we’re in the nearby settlement, and had to switch to the Apple Maps app to finish the job. Perseverance paid off, as you’ll see:

Just because I can, I’ll also share one of the little Live-Photo-converted-to-video-using-Motion-Stills bits that I shared on Instagram:

Phew! I’m really sorry if I’ve overdone it with the waterfalls, but it’s really a big part of what Iceland’s all about. I think Mal joked at the beginning of the week that it could really be called Fossland!

On our way to catch the ferry out to Vestmannaeyjar (the Westmann islands), we stopped to make a little ramen tuna casserole dinner, while parked below our first waterfall of the week, Seljalandsfoss. We stopped next to the highway just before the falls, so I could grab this giant lupine field with the falls in the background:

So that leaves our 36 hours on Heimaey, the main island in the archipelago, as my last bit to post about here. I’ll probably write that on the plane tomorrow, and publish it when we land in NYC. We have something like a 7-hour layover, so we’re actually going to leave the airport and meet Rosy at a Himalayan restaurant in Queens for lunch, then zoom back to the airport for our flight to Denver. Louisa will pick us up at DIA at something like 10:45 pm tomorrow night. Sheesh, if we don’t have some jet lag for a few days, I’ll be amazed. At least we get to see both girls for a bit before we get home.

Until tomorrow!

Yikes, we’ve been traveling so long, I’m starting to lose track of time! ;•) It’s now Saturday evening, and we’re on Heimaey, the main island in the Westmann island archipelago. The weather has definitely taken a turn for the worse, but we’ve continued to be lucky with patches of clearing at opportune times. I’m going to report on Thursday, and then attempt to get caught up as we wend our way back home over the next couple of days.

Thursday morning was cloudy and cool, and had rained a fair bit during the night. Fortunately we had some indoor activities on the agenda, and then just a couple of sights to see along the Snæfellsnes peninsula north of Reykjavik. First was a couple hour drive to Borgarnes, then a visit to the Settlement Museum there. The exhibits there were fascinating, with one section that covered the little that is known about how the first Norse settled the island, then another that was a great example of the Viking ‘sagas’ that are so common here. This is one small sample of the wood carvings that were the highlights of the second exhibit:

From there, we headed out onto the peninsula to take in the iconic mountain Kirkjufell, and it’s sister waterfall, Kirkjufellfoss, on the north coast. The weather was very rainy at that point, but I still managed to capture some decent shots:

One of my primary goals of the whole Iceland trip was to visit (and get a photo of) Snæfellsjökull, the iconic ancient volcano that inspired Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, and is actually the namesake of our own Mt. Sneffels! It’s located at the far end of Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which was completely covered by clouds and rain by the time we got there, so I guess it just wasn’t meant to be on this trip. The salvation of the day, however, was that we’d made dinner reservations at a hotel/restaurant recommended by friends in Ouray (thanks Kathleen & Carla!) in the tiny coastal town of Búðir. After driving the main road from Kirkufell west a little ways, it climbed into the clouds and we proceeded for about 5-10 miles in 20 feet of visibility. Suddenly dropping out of the clouds, we saw Hotel Búðir in the distance. We had the most incredible meal, sharing perfectly cooked Iceland lamb chops and Dover sole. It was the perfect end to our first day of less-than-ideal weather. As we got in the van to drive to our next campground, we even spotted Búðir’s famous Black Church:

As I wrap up for today, it’s blowing a gale outside, but we’re enjoying the warmth & international commradery of the campground’s communal building. We had a delightful chat with some German students who are part of a group of 16 staying here tonight, and are surrounded by folks speaking several languages (none of them English). Tomorrow we catch the early ferry back to the mainland, drive to Reykjavik for some last-minute shopping, and then on to our guesthouse near the airport for our 8:35 flight to NYC on Monday morning. I should have lots of time tomorrow afternoon to get caught up on the last couple of day’s adventures. In the meantime, here’s yet another waterfall, seen flowing out of the clouds above Búðir: