Goodbye Iceland!

Our last day in Iceland was like any other day here: overcast and cold, but fun. After packing we headed out to say goodbye to the city (and to Mr. Stuffed Polar Bear).

We could not leave the city without walking on Skolavordustigur Street. It starts just off of the main street, Laugavegur - where we were staying - and ends at Reykjavik's most famous church.

The street is just a few blocks long, but it's filled with nice cafes, art shops and specialty stores.

I really liked it because of its nice artsy vibe and it's low profile - most of the tourists end up hanging out on Laugavegur.

And finally we visited the Hallgrímskirkja (the church of Hallgrim). This church is Reykjavik's post card and the sixth tallest architectural structure in Iceland. It's 73 meters tall.

 Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran Church.

From Wikipedia: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, also called the National Church, is the officially established Christian church in Iceland. The church professes the Lutheran faith and is a member of the Porvoo Communion.

The church is organised into one diocese headed by the Bishop of Iceland. The current Bishop of Iceland is Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir, the first woman to hold this position.

From Wikipedia: State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson's design of the church was commissioned in 1937. He is said to have designed it to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland's landscape. It took 38 years to build the church. Construction work began in 1945 and ended in 1986, the landmark tower being completed long before the church's actual completion. The cryptbeneath the choir was consecrated in 1948, the steeple and wings were completed in 1974, and the nave was consecrated in 1986. Situated in the centre of Reykjavík, it is one of the city's best-known landmarks and is visible throughout the city. It is similar in style to the expressionist architecture of Grundtvig's Church of Copenhagen, Denmark, completed in 1940.

 I like the simplicity of its interior. I am used to seeing Catholic Churches in Europe covered with gold, images and paintings. This one is very modest but yet beautiful.

In the back of the church you can see a humongous pipe organ. 

It is 15 meters high and weights 25 tons. 

 Right across from the church is the Café Loki, a famous restaurant in Reykjavik. It has great reviews and is well-known for Icelandic delicacies like sheep-head jelly, dried fish and smoked meat. 

This was my choice and my review:

Rye bread: good, light bread. Very thin, but tasteful.

Smoked lamb (on the right of the picture): I liked it, but the smoked taste is a bit overwhelming, so you can't really taste the lamb, normally one of my favourite meats.

Dried fish (in the middle): it's very hard and difficult to chew, but once it's in your month for about 30 seconds, it gets really moist and delicious. You are supposed to eat it with butter. It's a great snack. I would buy it and just carry it in my purse.

Smoked trout (on the left top of the plate): it was good, but I still prefer smoked salmon. It was a nice combination though, with the rye bread and the sauce (some kind of cheese based sauce) on the top.

Fermented shark (the small cubes with the Icelandic flag): no, no and no! I really didn't like it! It has a very strong smell and taste. It tastes like an extremely strong cheese that penetrates into your nasal cavity and travels all the way to your brain. Not for me.

Mashed fish (the yellow one on the bottom left of the picture): I loved it. That's was by far my favourite. It's a mix of mashed potatoes with shredded fish. Very flavourful and leaves you with a "I want more" taste.

Mike's choice: Icelandic pancakes filled with jam and whipped cream.

Like I mentioned before, fermented shark is NOT for me. And I guess I am not the only one:

From Wikipedia: Rotten shark is chosen instead of fresh shark meat because the meat of the Greenland shark is poisonous when fresh, due to a high content of urea and trimethylamine oxide, but may be consumed after being processed. Allowing the shark to fully decay and cure removes retained uric acid from the flesh, making it edible. It has a particular ammonia smell, similar to many cleaning products. It is often served in cubes on toothpicks. Those new to it will usually gag involuntarily on the first attempt to eat it because of the high ammonia content. First-timers are sometimes advised to pinch their nose while taking the first bite, as the smell is much stronger than the taste. It is often eaten with a shot of the local spirit, a type of akvavit called brennivín. Eating hákarl is often associated with hardiness and strength.

My "trying-to-be-Icelandic-little-girl" enjoying some dried fish, holding the Iceland flag and wearing an Icelandic thermal hat, very popular among kids here.

That's it. Our vacation is officially over. At 5pm we boarded our flight back home.

Iceland: we will miss you!

Leaving Reykjavik.

Flying over a big glacier in Greenland.

 More flying over Greenland: spectacular view. 

Now flying over the Labrador Sea. It's amazing how close Canada is to Greenland and the rest of Europe.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was a fun choice of film on the plane coming back from Iceland.  It's a fun and adventurous movie with beautiful scenery from Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan.

Life's Magazine motto: "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life."

Extended trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp_cxxqOaPM

The moon welcomed us back to Canada.

We are home.

Relaxing in Reykjavik

I woke up feeling sad after realizing that today was going to be our last full day in Iceland. I don't feel ready to go back to Canada. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you are having a good time. We didn't have big plans for the day so we decided to go back to our favourite things in Reykjavik: shopping a bit on the main street (Laugavegur) in the morning, having a hot dog for lunch at one of the kiosks and going back to the sports centre for a last swim at an outdoor pool with the kids.  

The little guy we met at a parking lot.

 Since we still had some time left in the evening, we went to check out the Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach. This is an artificial beach, opened in 2001, with golden sand and hot water. It's so funny to think that Iceland is surrounded by water but people hardly enjoy their beaches due to the cold weather. So, here is the solution: a heated beach.

 The water was not warm when we were there, but apparently it gets up to 19 degrees in the summer.

From: http://www.visitreykjavik.is/nautholsvik-geothermal-beach

The sea temperature varies from around -1,9°C during the coldest months and around 17°C in the summertime. Average temperatures are between 3°- 5°C in the winter and 12°- 15°C in the summer. The temperature of the sea inside the lagoon itself is higher in the summer, averaging at between 15°- 19°C, due to the geothermal heating. It's also significantly warmer during the winter in opening hours when the overspill from the hot-tubs warm the lagoon. Keep in mind that this also depends on the tide. During high-tide when the lagoon floods temperature differences are negligible.

Since I don't have too much to write about today, here are 

SOME OF MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT ICELAND:

1- everything is extremely clean and organized. Nothing is broken or falling apart.

2- Icelandic people are super friendly when you talk to them, but they will not initiate a conversation.

3- during a week here I saw a police car three times only. I never saw a police officer just walking on the streets.

4- everybody, I mean, everybody speaks fluent English.

5- people don't hang out outside too much in small cities. Whenever we drove by small towns, we didn't see anybody walking on the sidewalks.

6- Icelandic people take their personal hygiene very seriously. People have full soapy showers naked before entering any public swimming pool. And shoes are not allowed in the change rooms.

7- there is not a diverse wildlife in Iceland. On farms we saw mostly horses and sheep, not even cows.

8- Icelandic people wear nice stuff. I never saw anyone wearing sweat pants or Walmart-like clothes. (btw, there are no Walmarts, neither Mac Donald's in Iceland).

9- they love their hot dogs and burgers/sandwiches places, but you don't see too many big American chains, except Subway.

10- there are a lot of young and old people walking around downtown Reykjavik. I don't know where all the middle age people hide.

West Iceland: Snaefellsnes

It was a long day - 12 hours! - but one full of surprises. The Snaefellsnes Peninsula is an under rated place for tourists, but is for sure an exciting one. If you are visiting Iceland and have an extra day, I totally recommend a trip there. 

Leaving Reykjavik at noon.

The was a low fog in the morning, making almost impossible to see the top of the mountains. Almost.

For me, the beauty of this trip was the coast. As you can see in the map bellow, you drive along the seashore for half of the time. Also, it's pretty empty and you feel like you have Iceland just for yourself.

You can see the route we took in this map. We drove up on highway 1 and then west on 54, circling all the way around the peninsula, to Olafsvik. Then back south through a short cut, back to 54 and back to Reykjavik. The whole trip should take about 4 hours, but if you want to stop at the many different and exciting natural attractions plan at least 6 hours. 

First we went through a little town called Borganes. To get there we crossed a 6 kilometer underwater tunnel. 

From Wikipedia: It has a population of 1,763 (as of January 2011). The town is located 60 km north of the capital Reykjavík and is connected to other places in Iceland through the second largest bridge in Iceland, Borgarfjarðarbrú.

Borgarnes is the center of commerce for a large part of western Iceland. The town's economy is mostly based on service to people traveling from Reykjavík, farmers and owners of summer houses in the countryside around the town, and also various industries.

At the bottom of the peninsula was our first stop at the Gerdberg Basalt Columns. It's a long wall of columns forming geometrical patterns in the cliffs as high as 3 meters. You can see them from the road, but there is a little side road to get closer to this magnificent wall.

It was so peaceful there. 

It was a nice stop for the kids to run around and play. The rocks are really fun to climb on.

Picnic time!

Like the horses, the sheep are everywhere.

This is one of those trips that you keep driving and keep saying "wow!!!" the whole time. And the landscape keeps changing too. Mountains, seashore, beaches, volcanos, caves, lava fields, waterfalls and even desert like views. Amazing!

Our next stop was at a place called Ytri Tunga. It's a beautiful cove where you can take a walk and appreciate the Atlantic Ocean view.   

Apparently this is a great place to spot seals, but we got there too late. They hang out here in the summer, especially in July.

Behind the beach we could see the Snaefellsjokull Glacier. It's part of the Snaefellsnes National Park and definitely the main attraction in the area. The 1446 meters glacier sits on top of a volcano.

One consistent thing are the waterfalls. No matter what kind of landscape there is, you see waterfalls everywhere. At first we were slowing down the car to take photos, then it just became so common that we stopped screaming with excitement every time we saw one.

 Snaefellsjokul (the glacier) again.

From: http://www.nat.is/travelguideeng/glacier_snaefellsjokull.htm

The Snaefell glacier (1446m) has an area of about 7 km².  It covers a cone shaped volcano, which has been dormant for about 1800 years. In its slopes and around it are several lava fields from the Holocene period. Some of them have run into the sea and reinforced the westernmost part of the Snaefell Peninsula against the pounding surf. The crater on top of the mountain is about 200 m deep, filled with ice and surrounding it are iced cliffs. This glacier is easy to climb, but one has to be careful because of crevasses. The Snaefellsjokull National Park was officially established on the 28^th of June 2001. This glacier became world famous through Jules Verne's novel  "The Journey to the Centre of the Earth”. People living in the vicinity of the glacier claim it to be one of earth's few energy sources and visitors from all over congregate there for a few days every summer to accumulate the energy radiation and meditate. The firm Snjofell hf. in Arnarstapi offers snow scooter- and snowmobile tours, deep sea fishing and bird watching.

Lava fields around the volcanos.

You can take a small road through the glacier, at your own risk. Basically that's what the sign says.

Capturing energy and giving energy breastfeeding at the bottom of  Snaefellsjokul (the glacier).

Our last main stop at the peninsula before heading back to Reykjavik at the town of Olafsvik. It is the most western town in Iceland - and Europe -, with the population of 1,100 people. 

It's a cute little town, but we didn't get to see people outside.

Our dinner at Olafsvik's gas station/restaurant/store/food market/ice cream parlour.

Olafsvik's seashore.

At around 7pm we started our drive back to the capital. Now we took a short cut high up in the mountains. The sun was starting to go down and the view was just even more spectacular.

The light was amazing and I keep thinking that this is a perfect place for a good photographer (not me) and a good camera (not an iphone). But still you can have an idea of the impressive beauty in this part of the world.

Sun setting behind a volcano.

As soon as the sun started to set on one side, one of the biggest moons I have ever seen popped out on the other side, and followed us all the way back to the city. Unbelievable!

N O R T H E R N   L I G H T S

Unfortunately I have no pictures to show our last great experience of the day. I got to see the northern lights for the first time. They were mild, not too bright, but clearly dancing up in the sky. Mike and I could appreciate them while the kids were sleeping in the car, until a strong fog took over and forced us to leave. Still it made me have goose bumps for a good hour. What an incredible day!