Fire and Ice

Tags

Iceland, Photography

Kerið Volcano, Golden Circle

This photograph is on my screen saver, but as I have so many on there, and as usually the screen saver kicks in when I am not at the laptop it took me by surprise when I spied it yesterday, it looks so fitting for the season.  It was taken when we were in Iceland and hasn’t been tinkered with, that really was the colours of this volcano and its associated lake.  It last erupted around 3,500BC, so the scientists say.   Once molten rock poured from that gash in the earth, when we were there only rock hard, stone cold ice lay in its crater.

Both stages of this volcanos life have its own beauty.  I wasn’t around in 3,500BC – no I wasn’t – so have no idea what this particular volcano looked like as molten lava, rocks, ash, steam and fire shot into the air, but I have seen pictures of other volcanos in full blast and they are awesome.  What this photograph reminded me of was that the violence, noise and destruction of an erupting volcano can also bring about such serene, peaceful beauty and that can happen in people’s lives too.

It also reminds me of the blog that Kimberly organises during Lent that I have been very remiss in reminding you all of Beauty from Chaos, go have a look, better still bookmark it, add it to your blog roll or sign up for the feed.

Come Let Us Worship

Tags

Christmas, Iceland, Photography, stained glass

Adoration of the Sheperds Hallgrimskirkja Church, Reykjavik

There is Cold and There is Cold!

Tags

Iceland, Photography, Weather

The snow has fallen and of course people are moaning about the cold.

Which made me think it was time I changed my blog header to what is now above, Hjalparfoss, located in the Thjorsa Valley in Iceland.  The foss suffix tells you it is a waterfall or rather as the picture indicates it was a massive frozen lump of ice when we were there due to the -20+ temperature, now that’s cold.

It isn’t even in the missus’ here so stop moaning and put on another jumper!

Update:- As the blog header is forever changing so here the picture.

The Round-Up Saga

This final saga is all the little bits and pieces I either missed during the past week or so, or didn’t fit into any of the other sagas.

To start with in answer to a question I was asked – yes Iceland had angels, here is one from the pulpit of the Church at the Presidents residency.

A building missed from the Buildings Saga one that you might recognise.  It is called Höfði in 1986 its picture was transmitted to television sets around the world as the place where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in secret to discuss SALT - not the condiment.

One of the ways that Iceland uses their abundance of free hot water is for heating this includes in certain areas, under-pavement heating.  While walking down by the docks one day we discovered this area of pavement under construction.

I know Hubby managed to get that last picture a little out of focus, but he is totally forgiven for this next picture is also one of his, and must be one of the best pictures he has ever taken. 

Solfar is a sculpture of a Viking ship which sits on the waterfront in the bay, we had taken a gentle walk up to have a look at it, stopping off for a hotdog on the way on a cold but not unpleasant morning, then as we turned to go back we saw that storm clouds had suddenly blown in and now hung threateningly over the city, the picture actually shows the edge of the storm.  Needless to say we ended up being caught in the snow storm on the way back.

Of course the local wild-life have to deal with the weather day in and day out, and this goose had decided if the water beneath it had frozen this was the best way to keep warm.

This picture for me sums up the beauty of Iceland on a cold winters day.  Although it is obviously cold in the picture it somehow exudes warmth and welcome, maybe because it has a Christmassy look about it.

And finally – this picture has to be shown, not for its content this was the driver of the super jeep which took us up onto the glacier putting some air back in the tyres, but because Hubby told me I had to post it, he is looking for sympathy.  It was sheet ice underfoot, you couldn’t stand still even when you tried you found yourself slowly gliding along on top of the ice, well I did, Hubby on the other hand found himself lying on the ice with his feet in the air and a sore elbow!

Just one last saga to tell, that of the plane on the way home.  There we were sitting ready the preamble telling us the stewards names and welcoming us on board had began when suddenly there was dark and silence.  The lights had all gone out, the announcements had stopped even the engines were silent.  Hubby isn’t too keen on air travel so I turned to him and said ‘At least it happened while we were still on the ground.’  Honest I was trying to be helpful; although I am not convinced he felt that way about it.  Next came a series of what I can best describe as false starts, while we didn’t hear a key turning in an ignition with the accompanying straining engine sound, the lights flickered as if in time to such a scenario, then nothing again for a while.  I looked out of the window and saw a truck draw up beside the plane with a generator on board.  Yes we were getting a jump start!  Soon the lights came on and stayed on, the engines started up again and eventually we were on our way, saying au revoir not good bye to Iceland.

The Southern Saga

This was to be a Saga of hot and cold beautifully started with a visit to Kerið Volcano, it is just how you would expect a volcano to look, in fact several people remarked on how they wouldn’t have been surprised if it suddenly opened and Dr No was hidden below.  The water sitting in the crater was frozen hard, yet still remained an intense blue colour, this picture has not been tampered with at all, the colours were incredible.

Then it was off to Gullfoss – yes a waterfall – the Gull meaning golden.  Apparently during the summer months the spray is lit by the sun created a golden sheen all around.  This is another one of those times when size can not be appreciated by a photograph.  The waterfall has two drops both 35 meters – around 100 feet in old money – the sound and sight just make you stand in wonder, well they did me, and then I started snapping away.

Waterfalled out and warmed by a couple of bowls of ‘Autumn Soup’ we headed off for the hot bit.

They say you learn something new every day, well for on this particular day I learnt something new and I am passing it on to those of you, who like me, weren’t aware of it.  We went to visit Geysir, not a geyser, but the Geysir, the one all other geysers throughout the world are named after.  It was having a rest during our visit; it only erupts after a large local earthquake, which actually meant I was able to take a picture down into its vent, something I certainly couldn’t have done if it was planning on spewing forth.  Another geyser, Strokkur, however was playing and roughly every 10-15 minutes would send a plume of water high into the air.  Again British Health and Safety would have had a field day as a rope was all that stop you going and standing right on top of Strokkur if you felt so inclined, and mini geysers and hot springs peppered the path – they might be small but they are the same temperature - accidents are very rare, give people responsibility and they will act responsibly.  Just like at the Deildartunguhver hot springs the surrounding area was red in colour from centuries of chemical reactions, the fallout area around Strokkur reminded me of seeing the west coast of Scotland by air.

Yet again Iceland had warmed our hearts and filled our memories with its cold beauty and vast emptiness.

The New Year Saga

One of the big reasons for going to Iceland was to experience their New Year.  Hubby made the trip in 2000 and has talked about it every New Year we have shared, so this year I was too see rather than just hear what he was going on about.

First order of the day, before any celebrations could begin was getting Hubby into his kilt.  Dress was to be smart casual so no Bonnie Prince Charlie jacket, and the lack of kilt pin was my fault, I totally forgot to pack it.

 

Then it was off for our New Year’s Eve meal, traditionally lamb.  Then on to a bus to travel to a point overlooking the city to see the fireworks, this is what Reykjavik is all about at New Year.

Fireworks are only sold at this time of year and only sold by the fire service and there must hardly be a home in the city that doesn’t set them off.  It is hard to describe the amount of fireworks, and unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me and Hubby’s camera wasn’t able to catch the displays, but every inch of sky above the city had not just one or two fireworks shooting into the air, but dozens.  The air become thick with the smell of cordite and despite being some distance from the fireworks themselves the sound of them was unceasing.  Try doing an image search for New Year fireworks in Reykjavik, the pictures you will see are not just some lucky snap shot of when everyone’s fireworks happened to go off at the same time, the sky is like that for at least an hour is not more.

The answer to the question by the way is – thermal longjohns, we were in Iceland, it was the middle of winter, the wind was howling!

The Western Saga

No we didn’t end up in Texas, this saga is about the trip we made to the West coast of Iceland, travelling firstly through that 4 mile tunnel under the fjord which I mentioned in the last post.

First stop of the day was Deildartunguhver producing 180 litres of hot water per second it is the largest thermal spring in the world, and along with two neighbouring springs produces 62 megawatts of electricity.  As the water comes out of the ground it is 212F.  One of the things I found very refreshing in Iceland was their attitude to personal responsibility, here it is clearly displayed there is a sign clearly stating the danger of the hot spring on a low wooden fence, however if you are stupid enough you could still reach out your hand and touch the water as it bubbles up, however it is your responsibility not to, don’t try and complain if you are stupid enough to ignore the warning, it wont get you anywhere.  This attitude is as true whether you are visiting hot springs, geysirs, climbing inside lava tubes, on glaciers, in deep snow, in fact wherever, the dangers are obvious and evident it is up to you to take care.

Having seen the water come steaming out of the ground we were now to see it coming out and freezing as we headed off to Hraunfossar.  Hraunfossar is not just one waterfall – did you notice the foss sufix – but a stretch of water which pours out from beneath a lava blanket.  Water seeps through the lava and at the end of this lava field you can see it pouring out onto the bedrock.  While under the lava the water doesn’t freeze, but at some points as it hits the cold Icelandic air it freezes.

This water pouring out from under the lava joins a river which also has a waterfall just a bit further up steam, a waterfall called Barnafoss, translated as Children’s Waterfall, which gets its name from a rather sad story.  There used to be a natural stone arch that bridged the river below the waterfall.  One Christmas day a family living nearby went to Church apart from two of the children who were supposed to stay at home.  When the family got home the children were nowhere in site, but their footsteps in the snow led to the river and the stone arch, the children could not be found anywhere and their mother in her distress destroyed the stone arch which it was presumed her children had fallen off and drowned in the fast flowing freezing river below the waterfall.  There is now a wooden bridge where the stone arch once was and it is easy to see how anyone falling in wouldn’t stand a chance.  Like the pictures I posted of Hjalparfoss earlier in the week it is hard again to grasp the scale however if you look closely at the last picture you will see a red mark in the top right hand corner that is a person!

We were in a super jeep again for this day out, and just as well as waterfalls done for the day we headed off the beaten track, through Reykholt to Langjokull Glacier.

It is actually illegal to off road in Iceland, they don’t want the ground to be churned up and damaged, however when it is frozen that can’t happen, so if a road is impassable and you can get around by driving on frozen ground that is allowed.  That also goes for crossing streams, which is just as well as we were soon to discover what that sign was there for.

Reykholt an alluvial plain at the rear end of Langjokull Glacier, we had had plans to visit the other end of the Iceberg, but they fell through at the last minute so we ended up at this end of it neither of us were complaining, it was a trip not to be missed and next time, once I have bought him his waterproof camera, we can visit the other end!

If pictures have not done the waterfalls justice, it is even more so when it comes to glaciers.  The scale, the sense of awe and wonder, the remoteness, the beauty, none of which can be captured by a camera lens.  The thrill of dusting back the snow and standing on galacial ice, knowing that it was slowly moving and hundreds of meters below it was polishing a new valley floor.  It really did feel as if you were on top of the world.

But you can’t stay on top of the world, and we ventured back down and underground, well sort of!  Volcanos have shapped Iceland and underneath the lava crusts are mazes of lava tubes which once carried molten rock.  In a few places the roofs of these vast tubes have caved in and you can venture in at your own risk.  Inside you can see where the heat has polished the rock, and in some places it looks as if the rock itself has melted due to the heat of the lava pushing through.

Iceland had once more had surprised and delighted us.

The Buildings Saga

While most of the newer buildings are built of concrete, to offer some protection from the earthquakes, Iceland’s older buildings reminded me of the buildings we had seen in Norway, and indeed we discovered that orginally like those in Norway they would have had turf roofs and in poorer areas were wood was a premium turf walls also.  This, the oldest house in Reykjavik, is now a craft museum.

Reykjavik is dominated by two buildings, the Pearlan is one.  It was built utilising four storage tanks for the water from the hot springs around the area and has stunning views over the city, the actually building itself being a glass structure in the middle of the tanks.

We were there just as dawn was breaking 11:30ish, and later on in our visit we would drive through the 4 mile tunnel underneath the stretch of water you can see in this picture.

The other building which dominates can be seen in the picture above, it is Hallgrimskirkja Church, often wrongly referred to as the Cathedral, which is situated elsewhere.  It is supposed to look like a volcano erupting, and while for me it doesn’t quite capture that image it is a stunning building.  Inside is it without embellishment but magnificent, you can climb the tower and get great veiws of the city, but we didn’t have the time, don’t think Hubby was too dissapointed about that!  The font is striking representing the three states of H2O, ice, water and steam.

While we never quite managed to get to the Cathedral, despite passing by it on a number of occasions, but we did also visit the Church at Presidents Residence at Bessastaðir.  It is the oldest church in Reykjavik and apparently the only one built out of stone.  This church is seen as the St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey of Iceland despite its size, it is where past presidents are commemorated and contains the oldest known font in Iceland which was once situated outside the building.

The Þingvellir Saga

Þingvellir is a World Heritage Site and the area where the first parliament in the world is said to have taken place in 930.  Unfortunately we arrived just as the sun was setting and didn’t see an awful lot of it, but what we did see was stunning.  This area is where the Island becomes unique in the world.

Politically Iceland is part of Europe, but Geologically it is part of both Europe and Northern America and here is were the two plates meet, and the only place were the meeting of tectonic plates is visible in the world.  The continental drift is easy to see in the cracks and faults that abound in the area and earthquakes while common throughout Iceland are most common here – Reykjavik experiences around 30 earthquakes a year although most are very minor.  The area is looks as if someone has discarded great lumps of stone are the massive forces have pushed them up into the air, in other places there are deep ravines, some filled with water, so deep that it isn’t known how deep some of them may be.  One of the most stunning sites is the Almannagjá were the North American Tectonic plate rises over the surrounding area.  Maybe it was because it was dusk, or maybe it was just because I knew what we were walking past but the area seemed to have a primeval almost sinister quality as if anything could happen any second.  Our return trip to Iceland - Hubby promised we would go back if I bought his a waterproof camera, guess what his next birthday present will be – will see spend more time in that area but for now this is the best of the pictures we were able to take in the fading light.

The Blue Lagoon Saga

It has been said that no trip to Iceland is complete without a trip to the Blue Lagoon.  We made such a trip.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Blue Lagoon it is a Geothermal Spa with milky blue water, the majority of the bathing is outside and there is a waterfall and silica mud to paste onto yourself for added benefits.  The experience is wonderful, your body cocooned by the warm water as you breathe in the cold clean air.  The lagoon isn’t far from Keflavík airport and for those using it as a stop over between Northern America and Europe a visit there rather than sitting in the airport lounge is becoming increasingly popular.

We decided, as we were on holiday, to upgrade so that we could use the indoor pool as well as the outdoor and while it is only me pictured below inside I can assure you that Hubby also went in the water and we both went outside.  Hubby wasn’t really looking forward to it, on his previous trip to Iceland he hadn’t ventured in, but he thoroughly enjoyed it, and like me was reluctant to leave once it was time to go.  Any return trip to Iceland we make will deffinately include another visit there.

 

The Landmannalaugar Saga

Landmannalaugar is an area of hot springs in the Southern Highlands of Iceland.  The Highlands have seen much volcanic activity over the centuries and is the home to Iceland’s best known active volcano, Mount Helka.  It is also an area which you can’t actually get to during the autumn, winter and much of the spring months unless you go with a super jeep, which was exactly what we did.  This was no ordinary 4×4 it had 46″ tyres and an on board compressor to control the tyre pressure which was lowered to 3psi to deal with the deepest snow.

We were heading for the hot springs, but first we had to get there and that meant a drive through the Thjorsa Valley.  We had only seen pictures of the area in the summer months, when the dark landscape clearly displays the mile after mile of lava fields, however it is no less dramatic in the snow, as our first stop Hjalparfoss – foss the Icelandic for waterfall you will see that suffix often during these sagas.

It has been said that a picture says a thousands words, however there are some times and some places that a thousand just isn’t enough to even begin to describe what is being captured.  You can get some idea of the cold from the ice at the foot of the waterfall, but the absolute beauty could not be captured, and the scale is hard to fully grasp.  Standing there in the middle of nowhere with the temperature reading -10 surrounded by vast incredible beauty that made us look like mere specks of sand, is a memory I will long remember.

We still had a long way to go however and back in the jeep we soon discovered that despite the long drive we had already made we were still relatively close to civilisation.  We had travelled out of Reykjavik for an hour or so stopped off at The Highland Hotel for a drink of warming hot chocolate – they really know how to make hot chocolate in Iceland no powered nonsense – and then turned off into the wilderness.  Hjalparfoss was about a 20 min drive after that, the sun still hadn’t fully risen and we still had another hour and a half of snow covered lava fields to cover.

The scenery continued to be stunning, we had been told we could ask to stop at any time to take pictures, I could have had us stopping every 5 minutes, but I didn’t as we would never have got there.  During this stage of the journey the sun finally rose. 

The pylons you can see in one of the pictures come from the Hydro Power stations which cling to the major rivers, producing cheap power for homes and industry alike.  Aluminum is Icelands main heavy industry, a lot of power is needed to extract it from the boxite, Iceland have that at a cost that makes it Aluminum production a very profitable venture. 

At this point I should probably say that the daughter – studying Geography at Glasgow University – is the only one I wouldn’t bore with the number of photographs we took.

Eventually, after fording a couple of smallish rivers, we reached our destination the hot springs at Sprengisandur pass, there from the deep snow came plumes of steam, the temperature had now reached -23.  As the steam rose it froze as it collected on the moss making a delicate lacy work out of ice.

Lunch eaten, sandwiches bought in a petrol station in the early morning - there is nothing out there apart from a hut for those who want to change and take a dip in the hot springs - we headed back along the Thjorsa Valley stopping at the Thjorsa River were at -18 it didn’t seem that cold, despite the fact the edges of the river were frozen.  Snowboarders whizzed past us (the only other way to get around in that terrain) and the sun began to set once more.

Reaching The Highland Hotel once more we tasted for the first time Autumn Soup – see yesterdays post – while the tyres were re-inflated, then we began the long journey back to Reykjavik detouring to visit a Geothermal Power Station.  The hot springs are utilised to proved heat and electricity and the smell of sulphur is common in Iceland, they call it the smell of money, you do get used to the smell although it never became pleasant, it did stop being unpleasant. 

By the time we arrived back in Reykjavik it was dark and a balmy +1.  What a wonderful introduction to Iceland it had turned out to be.

The Food Saga

No, not what the daughter would have you believe that I have reached my dotage, but Saga as in a Viking tale, this one of Iceland, a place which cherishes it’s Viking history, a place full of contrasts, a place I have long wanted to visit, while Hubby has been before, the place were we welcomed in 2008.

Over the coming week I will be posting a variety of Sagas from our trip this first one will be about the food.

In Iceland the hot snack choice is hot dogs, in fact for some it is the national food.  The most famous hot dog stand is Bæjarins beztu pylsur near the harbour, and we followed in the steps of Bill Clinton and Metallica and tasted their wares.  We didn’t eat the 13 it was reported that Clinton ate but we did enjoy them.  There they keep them simple cold crispy onions, warm fried onions, tomato ketchup, mustard and Icelandic mayo, elsewhere they add all kinds of things to them, prawn cocktail for one!  Bæjarins beztu pylsur, is as the name translates the best damn hot dogs in town!  It is also probably the cheapest food in town - maybe that is why they are so popular.

On our first evening we went out for a meal to a good but not the best restaurant in Reykjavik, one which served Icelandic food and where a glass of red wine cost £20!  Apart from the hot dogs, petrol 13p a litre, the electricity and heating virtually free, nothing in iceland is cheap.  But I digress back to the meal and our first, and certainly my last taste of guillemot, served with a thick berry sauce which is very strong and appeared on many dishes.  After some discussion we agree the taste was most like strong pigeon.  We also had Icelandic lamb for the first, although not the last time.  If anyone has ever doubted how an animal is kept and what it is fed on affects the flavour, then they need to taste Icelandic lamb.  Firstly it is virtually fat free, with no marbling, the fat on these lambs is all on the outside under the skin to keep them warm, this means the texture is very different to what we know in this country.  Secondly lambs spend most of their time eating berries and very tough grass, which gives the flesh a gamey flavour.  If we had not known we were eating lamb we would have thought it was roe deer, not as strong in flavour as venison.  Lastly the cheese board, all but one of the cheeses was Icelandic, all were soft and brie like, with brie itself being the one non-Icelandic cheese, my favourite was Hofdingi (the waiter wrote the name down for me) which had a slight blue flavour but no blue through the cheese.

During the rest of our time the only other different food we tried was smoked puffin, a local delicacy, which I could certainly live without, cold smoked and tasting like liver!  Neither the puffin nor guillemot had the fishy flavour I was expecting.

Of course being Iceland the best, and most reasonably priced food was the fish, langoustines, which they call Norwegian lobsters and are not much smaller than a lobster, large wonderfully fresh scallops, monkfish, large tiger prawns, cod is still their main source of income and the most used fish, but haddock is increasing in popularity.  When we were in Norway we tasted the salt dried cod they produce, the memory of it was enough to put us off trying the Icelandic version made with haddock!  They also like most countries in that part of the world they are very fond of pickling herring, Hubby thoroughly enjoyed tasting it in all it’s various forms. 

This brings me on to one of the strangest tastes I have ever encountered.  An Icelandic version of a Toffee Crisp, sorry I seem to have mislaid the wrapper so can’t tell you the actually name of it.  Laying all the way along the middle of it was a strip of liquorice.  On reading other sweet wrappers it soon became obvious that by far the majority of Icelandic sweets contain liquorice, and it is also a popular ingredient in cooking, I passed on the lamb with liquorice sauce, and the pickled herrings with liquorice!  Apparently sugar was late in getting to Iceland and they used liquorice as a sweetener.

Any saga about Iceland’s food would not be complete without a mention of the ‘Autumn Soup’.  Traditionally an Icelandic Autumn staple using up the last of the fresh vegetables and lamb, it reminded me of the soup my mother used to make on a Monday when we had had lamb for the Sunday roast.  It can probably best be described to those who have never tasted it as Scotch broth without the barley.  Each version of it was slightly different, but if you every venture to Iceland and need heated up it is definitely not one to be missed.

Oh and by the way, if you order chips in Iceland, don’t expect them to come with salt and vinegar, because they don’t, instead they come sprinkled with paprika.