Here Goes!

Flew to Iceland on May 20th. Our first impression was a little dreary as we seen the tundra and volcanic rock surrounding us, but this changed to awe as we visited more of beautiful Iceland.

Visited Blue Lagoon – geothermal baths which are fed with 100 degree Celsius saltwater coming from 2000 meters within the earth. Dale & I had mud masks to help us look young again but it didn’t work, bummer!

Was unable to take the road we had originally decided on due to an earlier May volcanic eruption and lava flow. The lava flow had taken the road out on the way to the blue lagoon..the picture shows the recent lava which is black (still warm) in comparison to the surrounding brown lava.

We then made our way down to Vik to stay overnight and visit the black sand beaches.

The following morning we headed to the Golden Circle where we made stops at the magnificent Gullfoss Falls, the Oxararfoss Falls, a Geysir Geothermal and Thingvellir National Park.

We overnighted in Reykjavik, walking the central shopping district. We ate some traditional Icelandic fish soup, very good.

We boarded NCL ship called the Norwegian Prima and headed out for Isafjordur, the largest town in Iceland’s remote Westfjords’s region, a whopping 250 locals! The fjords are impressive…learnt that a fjord is a body of seawater that is surrounded by mountains and is longer than it is wide at its entrance. We took a trip to the Dynjandi Waterfall & a small fishing village.

The most impressive part for me was a 9.3 km tunnel that had a ‘Y’ in the middle. There are many tunnels going through the mountains between fjords as the mountain roads are impassable for a good proportion of the year. (Not a very good picture of the tunnel, but oh well!)

The small fishing village introduced us to spicy raw salmon, fish cakes & dried wolf fish. The locals encouraged us to try some Icelandic delicacies like fermented shark, sheep head and putrefied duck eggs, we respectfully declined. (Those game folks who had already done so, adamantly discouraged us.) Maybe, the most impressive part of the day was the unrelenting rain, wind, and temperature of 6 degrees Celsius! We were both suitably dressed with waterproof gear but even that gear was challenged by the end of the day! A hot shower made it all worthwhile!

The next day in Akureyri, Iceland’s second largest urban area and a center of Icelandic folk culture, nestled in the Northfjords region. Akureyri is located in the Eyjafjordur fjord which is one of the longest fjords of Iceland at 70 km long and surrounded by majestic snow covered flat top mountains. The day couldn’t have been more different as we were greeted with full sun and 18 degrees Celsius.

We visited Lake Myvatn, a volcanic lake in northern iceland.

Skutustadagigar, a cluster of pseudo-craters, a rare geological formation created thru the interaction of lava and water found at one end of the lake.

Near this lake is Dimmuborgir, the volcanic eruption that happened in 1975, lava continued to flow for 9 years. We walked throughout some of the lava formation.

During our time walking through this lava we heard the great folk tale of the Yule Lads, apparently equivalent to our Santa Claus or Father Christmas except in a bad way! They are scruffy lads wearing rags that ate children. Parents would scare their kids with them. In later years a law was passed preventing parents to use the scare technique of these trolls. Now days they are good guys and the tradition is positive. Starting on Dec 12th, a yule guy visits your home at night, the children leave him a gift in their shoe on the window sill. Usually a food item or something that matches his name! There are 12 lads, so this is done until December 24, which is the day they celebrate Christmas.

Godafoss waterfall - probably Iceland's most renown waterfall, they call it the Niagara Falls of Iceland.

Namafjall Hverir, a high temperature geothermal area with fumaroles and mud pots. At a depth of 1000 m, the temperature is above 200 degrees Celsius. The hot springs produce considerable Sulphur deposits which give the surrounding area the cream, pink shades.

We visited a couple of areas where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are moving apart. Interesting but hard to comprehend!

A cool message to finish our blog in Iceland is the story of the heart shaped stop light in Akureyri. In 2008 the financial crisis bankrupted all the banks in Iceland and everyone lost their complete savings. Folks were understandable depressed and angry which was being passed on in their interactions. A local woman in Akureyri came up with the idea of the heart shaped red traffic light to remind people that THEY ARE LOVED AND NEEDED. It was well received and has given folks a little reminder each day of what's important.

Onto Norway

Our first stop was Geiranger, a quaint village nestled at the end of the Geirangerfjorden. An amazing fjord with lots of cascading waterfalls. Geiranger has 250 year-round residents. We decided to climb beside the incredible powerful river cascading down the mountainside into the fjord, the spray soaked us as it roared down the mountainside twisting and cascading over boulders! The path took us up to Vesteras Farm and onto Losta viewpoint at 500 meters (11 km).

Dale ate Norwegian porridge at the farm, oatmeal thickened with goat’s milk until it forms a roux, it is served with sugar, raisins, melted butter, cinnamon, dry crackers and salami. He loved it!

This little goat was playing on the path up to the Losta viewpoint. He was so cute!

Alesund is the fishing capital of Norway. It is built on islands extending to the sea and offers scenic views of fjords & the Sunnmore Alps. Today, we climbed the 500 steps up Mt. Aksla, giving us an incredible view of the city & surroundings. I found out that I have a healthy fear of heights if the path gets too close to a shear drop…unusual ey? 😊 Rode the city bus to Sugar Mountain (Sukkertoppen) & then was rewarded with a nice Norwegian pastry, yum, yum!

Bergen, the second largest city in Norway, has a feel of a small town.  We took the cable car up to the top of Floyen mountain at 320 meters. The cable car, Floibanen funicular, takes 6 minutes from the heart of Bergen to the top of the mountain. It was very steep, not my kind of fun! Thus we walked back to town through a wooded forest..very nice.

We then made our way to Bryggen, the first buildings in Bergen. They are old wooden structures with warped and crooked sides housing restaurants and shops. Dale needed a haircut, so visited the barber and literally got scalped physically & financially..his buzz cut cost 61 US$.

The fish market was amazing, The left picture is dried wolf fish & the balls are sea urchin.

Lunched at Lille Lungegardsvannet (park with a central lake), we passed on the Reindeer hot dog. 

Couldn't help putting this picture in, this is the building that Starbucks is in, crazy hey!

We were unable to see Amsterdam due to rough seas and high winds, not an issue getting in through the locks but leaving through the locks becomes an issue in these conditions. So we continued onto our last port of call, the busy metropolis port of Antwerp (it is the world’s largest port for general cargo). We arrived late in the afternoon, so we decided to walk to the nearby Zeebrugge Stand where we sat and watched the kite boarders and sipped our wine. The wind was crazy strong and there had to be at least 20-30 kite boarders zipping around each other out in the crashing surf.

The next day we went into Bruges, beautiful small medieval city with canals. Belgium is known for its chocolate (the rusty old tools are rich Belgium chocolate) and beers - it makes 1600 different beers.