Land of the Midnight Sun

I mentioned in my last post that Eric and I took a trip to Iceland. It was a trip of beautiful scenery and almost endless sunlight. We began by exploring some of the geothermal features of the island. There are numerous hot springs which create an eerie steamy landscape.

We saw the famous Geysir (for which all geysers are named). 

Nearby was an impressive waterfall flowing deep into a ravine.

Part of Iceland sits on the division between the Atlantic and Euro tectonic plates, which are are separating at a rate of 2 cm per year. A large valley and some very deep, water-filled crevices have formed as a result. We went snorkeling in one of these crevices. The water just above freezing, so we wore 'teddy-bear jump suits' and dry suits over the top. The water was incredibly clear (and tasty). 

Throughout the trip we did a lot of driving in our tiny Chevy Spark. Luckily we got 50 mpg!

Despite it's small size, we drove through some pretty rough terrain in this car. The roads in rural Iceland are unpaved, steep, and very narrow. There were a ton of these signs. I'll leave it to you to interpret the meaning. 

We decided this would make a good car ad photo:

Snow capped mountain? Check. Rocky terrain? Check. Alpine lake? Check. 

We stopped at said alpine lake for a lunch break with some Appelsin pop (appel means orange?). Yum!

Since we were doing so much driving along the coast, we stayed in a different guest house every night. Many of them were quite cute, like the mini-cabin in the center of this photo:

The owner of this guest house also owns the adjacent land on which a huge lava tube sits. He gave us a guided tour of the 1.5km long cave. The entrance is a spectacular opening in an otherwise very flat lava field. 

In addition to numerous lava formations, the cave also houses Ice Elf City, a series of ice stalagmites that form and melt each year according to the season.

Settled primarily by the Vikings, Icelanders had some curious customs. One was the stone carrying test that was used to test a sailor's strength. I was only able to lift the smallest of the 4 stones. 

Eric tried the second stone:

Whew, made it! But even that wouldn't cut it for the Icelanders. In order to pass the test, a potential fisherman was required to lift the 3rd stone onto the platform. 

We stopped at the famous bird cliffs in the West Fjords, which span 14 km and reach heights of 441 m. The drop was truly dizzying. What made this even more scary was that there was a very very very strong wind (had to be at least 40 mph) which felt like it was attempting to rip you right off the edge of the cliff. 

The wind made it very difficult to get a good view of the cliffs themselves. There was a lot of crawling going on to get a peek over the edge.

Told you it was windy! At one point the saliva was blown (directly horizontally) out of my mouth!

The entire country was covered in these violet-blue flowers. Whole hillsides were completely blanketed - gorgeous! 

With only 300,000 residents and a population that is moving out of rural areas, it was common place to find abandoned buildings. I thought this old hangar provided a very interesting focal point for this photo.

One of the guest houses that we stayed in had a hot spring-fed swimming pool. The water was VERY hot. (By the way, it was about 10pm in the photo below.) By midnight the sun would no longer be visible in the sky, but twilight would fade slowly into dawn rather than full night.

 
We ended our travels with a trip to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa whose waters are fed by the adjacent geothermal power plant. A very nice place to soak in some relaxation time before the end of vacation!