A little culture ...

Saturday morning came round, and an opportunity for me to strike out on my own again, for slightly loftier purposes this time. The rest of the family had little interest in it, so I visited the National Museum of Iceland. The permanent exhibition, "Making of a Nation", told the story of Iceland from the earliest settlers in the 10th century, through to the current day. There was a good guided tour in English, which took about an hour, and plenty of interesting exhibits. The Icelanders seem to have a strong sense of national identity, without being particularly militant about it.

I remember from my childhood to so-called "cod wars" - a dispute about fishing rights around Iceland, resolved I think when the UK gave in to Icelandic demands for a 200 mile fishing limit around Iceland in 1976. One of the exhibits was a device used by the Icelandic coastguard to cut the trawl lines of British fishing vessels - described as possibly the only weapon the Icelandic have ever used.

Met up for lunch at the renowned hot dog stand near the harbour - pretty good, reasonably priced, but nothing to write home about. Then on to see the so-called "Peace House", where Reagan and Gorbachev met in 1986 for the Reykjavik Summit, which while itself was a failure, is said to have paved the way to later treaties that effectively ended the cold war . A little disappointing - it seemed to be undergoing some sort of renovation, and there wasn't much more to do that take a photo or two.

Off to the Hallgrimskirka. We found out a little more about the scaffolding surrounding it - apparently they have found that some of the concrete used is defective, and they are dealing with it, but as they replace some, they keep finding more problems. Similar to back in the UK - they have Polish workers who keep at it until 10pm every day.

The church itself was impressive internally, and despite the work, the observation gallery in the tower was still open, with views over Reykjavik on three of the four sides (a small charge to go up).

The Golden Circle tour

Friday was set aside for the popular "Golden Circle" tour. A minibus picked us up from our hotel at 8:30 and took us to the coach terminal. Onto one of it appeared about three coaches doing the tour that day, and we were off.

First stop was a village whose main feature seemed to be as a coach stop for tours like ours. Lots of expensive souvenirs to buy, and an opportunity to get coffee or an ice cream. After that, there was a stop at quite a picturesque waterfall - although the guide didn't seem quite sure what it was called. Then onward, to the first "headline" attraction on the trip, the more well-known Gullfoss waterfall, which was a little more spectacular.

On further to Geysir for lunch, and some time looking at and photographing the geysers, including Strokkur, which was erupting every few minutes. It's easy to get just a little too close, and get a little damp with water verging on hot as a result! In fact, from one of several pools in the area, there was a little stream running down, which I tested to see if it was warm - it wasn't - it was hot! Apparently, on average two tourists a week are scalded. Just glad I wasn't one of them.

After leaving Geysir, it was on to Thingvellir (or Þingvellir in Icelandic). This has a very significant place in Icelandic culture. It was the site of the first parliament under the Viking settlers, and continues to have a significance to the present day as the summer residence of the prime minister. It was here that the decision was made that Iceland should be a Christian country in 1000 AD -uniquely accomplished without undue bloodshed - although pagan practices continued to be permitted so long as done in secret, including eating horsemeat, worship of the pagan gods, and leaving unwanted children out to die (although thankfully the later didn't continue to be tolerated for very long!)

The proximity to the mid-Atlantic rift wasn't quite as dramatic as I'd hoped - not sure what I was expecting to see, but the area seemed quite sedate compared to what it clearly is capable of.

From there, back to the hotel around 17:00 - a full day, but recommended as a way to see a lot of the popular attractions of Iceland in a short space of time.

Back for dinner at the Madonna Italian restaurant just a couple of doors up from the hotel. A little later I left the family back at the hotel, and went to the Dubliner pub, for a pretty good pint of Kilkenny - at 650 ISK about as cheap as a pint comes in Iceland. The much talked-about Reykjavik nightlife was not much in evidence - maybe a little early for that I guess, but it seemed more comparable to a very quiet Tuesday in what would be called a lively town in the UK.

Return from Höfn

Spent the night at the Hvammur guesthouse. Quite basic, but very pleasant. Some of the staff don't speak English, but all were very friendly. We had considered going up onto the glacier, but the weather didn't look very promising. As it turned out, it probably would have been okay. We were left with nothing specific to do before waiting for the flight back to Reykjavik in the afternoon, and we spent the time mostly walking around the shoreline, and stopping occasionally just to admire the scenery and read. We even saw a little bit of sun thought the clouds for a brief spell! Generally though, the climate was cool but pleasant, and the general feeling of peacefulness was great.

Spent some time in the glacier exhibition - very good for helping to understand what the scale of the Vatnajökull glacier, the largest glacier in Europe, covering 8% of the land area of Iceland.

The 17:30 Eagle Air flight back to Reykjavik got in just a little ahead of schedule (flying time about 50 minutes). Then off for something to eat - Icelandic Fish and Chips (an "organic bistro" - near the harbour. Pretty good - a cut above what you might get in your local chippy back in the UK. Like many of the meals the tab is increased somewhat if you want anything alcoholic with it.

We've noticed in particular the friendliness of the Icelandic people this trip. Very many seem to speak good English, and all we've come across have been helpful, friendly, and tolerant of things like us messing round trying to make the right change from the unfamiliar currency.

Journey to Höfn

Up for the Eagle Air flight, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation at going on what would be a smaller plane than we were used to. Turned out to be a British Aerospace Jetstream 32, and if anything the flight was sufficiently smooth to be something of an anti-climax. Nice views on the approach to Höfn though:

The airport is about 7km outside of Höfn. We called a taxi from the airport, which arrived quite promptly, and took us into Höfn for about 1400 ISK (around 8.80 GBP). After leaving our luggage at the guesthouse, we walked towards the harbour, and then out onto Ósland, a promontory that forms part of the natural protection of the harbour. Some great views from there of the glacier, and so peaceful (apart from the sea birds that seemed to take exception to us walking along a particular stretch of the road - or perhaps they were just hoping to be fed).

Interested to see on the Iceland Meteorlogical Office website tonight that there have been 22 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in the last 24 hours! Perhaps we'll get a bit better acquainted with this when we go to the mid-Atlantic rift later in the week!

Arrival

Arrived on schedule into Keflavik Airport - getting onto the Airport link bus after midnight, and while not light, it was a long way off completely dark. I was a bit confused about the geography, since I thought the road from Keflavik to Reykjavik ran west to east, until I realised that of course, what light there was would be from the north, over the pole.

Tuesday: After a late breakfast it was time to explore a little. A bit grey and drizzly in Reykjavik. Interesting city, not exactly like anywhere we've been before, but quite European in some ways. Certainly, there were some familiar names in the main shopping street, and a lot of local ones too. The Settlement Exhibition was very interesting - the remains of a Viking longhouse preserved in its original location, which is now below street level in downtown Reykjavik.

One thing I was looking forward to was seeing the Hallgrimskirkja in real life, but unfortunately the tower is surrounded by scaffolding at the moment.

We ate this evening at the Cafe Paris. Seems to be quite a popular place, not least because of the fairly reasonable prices by local standards. Looking at menus outside restaurants as we passed, it appears you can spending anything from 1500 ISK for a main course, up to 4000 - 5000 ISK at the other end of the market.

The provincial airport at Reykjakvik seems fairly busy, judging by the planes coming in over the city during the day (including one military-looking plane this evening that seemed alarmingly low). Early night tonight - up for a 7:30 flight to Höfn. We showed our ignorance by pronouncing it "Hoffen" when ordering the taxi - apparently it is something more like "Hurth")

The night before ..

We fly tomorrow, landing in Reykjavík at around 11.30 pm - not that it will be properly dark. Advice is to take a sleep mask Time for some intense last-minute reading up on the guidebooks on the plane. We've already come across one useful principle - it's never necessary to tip. Helpful, given the much-vaunted expense of doing - well - almost anything in Iceland. Hoping to pick up a little something at duty free on the way out to take care of that particular creature comfort while we're there :-)

One week to go

Still not quite sure what possessed us to spend the annual summer holiday in Iceland - I mean, why would you go from the cold north west of England to somewhere which will probably be even colder? Booking a couple of excursions tonight (cheaper to do before you get there apparently), and getting together the confirmations of different bits of the trip makes it feel that much closer.

We've never been the type of people that spend extended periods of time on a beach. Mostly we go for what we consider more interesting places. Usually perhaps a little more mainstream than this, but now looking forward to something a little different.

The plan - a week's trip flying from Manchester to Reykjavík (or more precisely Keflavík, about 30 miles outside Reykjavík, and then a bus journey in). It's close enough to the Arctic Circle that it never really gets dark this time of year, so it remains to be seen how we cope with that. A few days in Reykjavík, punctuated with a flight across to Hofn, a small fishing town on the south east coast, with an overnight stay.

For those that don't know, Iceland sits on top of the mid-Atlantic rift, where the Eurasian plate meets the North American plate. Just reading about once valley next to the rift, where they get 10,000 earthquakes a month (most too small to feel).

More thoughts to follow ...