Oct 20th, 2009 Posted in Activities, Iceland, Tamara Georgick | 7 comments »
Geothermal Power Plants, Waterfalls, Hot Springs, Glaciers and Geysers, oh my!
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Starting from above and moving clockwise –
Our tour bus, the name made us chuckle: Salty Tour
Typical landscape, mountains aren’t that high, maybe 3000ft, but feel close and every where you look there are examples of recent (relatively speaking in terms of how old the earth is) geologic activity.
At the Nesjavellir Geothermal Plant Visitor’s Center, Tamara Georgick pretending to give a lecture on geothermal energy, and thoroughly confusing two British tourists.
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| On the left is Geysir, named after the Icelandic word meaning to erupt, and, you guessed it, from which the English word geyser derives. Written accounts of it date back to 1294. It’s sleepy and doesn’t erupt much more than once a day, a couple of yards away is the Strokkur geyser which is constantly in action. There were hot pools and geysers and steam escaping from fissures all over this place and nothing was tightly cordoned off, you could easily have stuck a hand in hot boiling water if you so desired. The hot pool below, was very cool, hopefully you can make out the darkening crevasse under the water, which, I’m almost certain, reaches straight down to the center of the earth.
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Ev with impressive Viking chainsaw art.
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>>>>>>
Tamara Georgick next to sculpture depicting the Icelandic sport of Glima.
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| Gullfoss – a double decker waterwall. It was spectacular! And one of two falls we saw today. |
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Tags: Geysir, Gullfoss, Strokkur, Tamara Georgick
Oct 19th, 2009 Posted in Activities, Iceland, Tamara Georgick | Comments Off on Tamara Georgick Iceland-Day 2
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Not too much accomplished today. Went out to the Blue Lagoon, which consumed about half a day, an hour both to and from the spa (including picking up and/or dropping off several others at their hotels) and then a couple hours at the spa itself, mostly just hanging out in the giant pool, jumping into the steam room, self applying the strangely white, exfoliating silica mud mask, etc. The pool was never deeper than about 4 feet, so I eventually took off my child flotation devices. I enjoyed the minivan ride, more opportunity to see city neighborhoods and the local environs. As soon as you leave the metro area, the surrounding land quickly becomes very uninhabited. The Island itself is only about the size of Kentucky, with a totally population of 320,000, two thirds of which are found within the greater Reykjavik area. This is the second day in a row that the Northern Lights tour was a no go. I guess we’re still a little early in the season, or there’s too much cloud cover? Not sure what the factors are. Still suffering from a bit of jet lag. After dinner I promptly fell asleep. Going to have a long day tomorrow, with the Golden Circle tour, so not a bad thing that I catch up on sleep whenever I can. Anticipating this to be the highlight of the Iceland trip.
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| The lifeguard at the Blue Lagoon was interesting. Not the fellow himself necessarily, though he seemed perfectly fine, but the job. Some things are totally the same. Life guard: good looking, fit, wearing sun glasses, and, of course, thermal outer gear for the frosty air. Tamara Georgick enjoyed striking up a conversation with him. Are you a life guard? “I am.” Do you ever have to jump in? “Yes, sometimes, but not very often.” Do you take off your winter jacket first? “No, no I just jump in.”
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Tags: Blue Lagoon, Tamara Georgick
Oct 18th, 2009 Posted in Activities, Iceland, Tamara Georgick | 2 comments »
“Most people like dried fish, although many don’t like the way its smells, but don’t let that stop you!”
from the Reykjavik Visitors Guide
Made it in fine, though the flight was turbulenty. No plane seat upgrades for us, you had to pay the full difference in price, which would have been over a thousand dollars each, ha! Seats weren’t all that comfortable, but the plane wasn’t completely filled so we lucked out by both being able to move into aisle seats across from one another with the middle seats unoccupied. Should have done a little more research into Reykjavik travel beforehand. We just hopped a taxi from the airport to the hotel because it was only a 30 mile drive, how expensive could it be? Well the answer, it turns out, is super, freaking expensive. Don’t do it. Catch the FlyBus instead, it’ll cost 1/3 that of the taxi ride and they’ll drop you off at your hotel (along with the other passengers, so it might take a little longer, but at huge savings). We arrived too early to the hotel for our room to be ready yet (wasn’t even 8am), so we wandered over to the free buffet breakfast, which was simple but delicious (breads, one type of cheese, two types of sliced meat, boiled eggs, cereal, milk, butter, coffee, orange juice). The hotel staff was very accommodating and put a rush on our room availability so that we were able to have an early check in (9:30am). These aren’t swanky rooms, but they are perfectly serviceable (think Ikea furniture). The thing is though, seriously I think we are in the absolute best room they have (out of 55) its a triple room (three single beds) on the corner of the top floor. It is totally spacious by European standards and and has the best view, with two full banks of windows. We are very happy with it. Fell asleep for 6 hours (by that time it was 3am Seattle time). Upon waking, walked 12 blocks to the downtown area, window shopped, and then had a very nice seafood dinner (local lobster with homemade pasta for Ev, local rockfish with risotto for Tamara Georgick). Time for another nap.
Tags: Hotel Bjork, Reykjavik, Tamara Georgick
Oct 17th, 2009 Posted in Iceland, Itinerary, Tamara Georgick | 4 comments »
| Golden Circle Tour – This is a 8-10 hour minivan/super jeep (?) tour across western Iceland where we’ll get a chance to admire glaciers, geysers, hot springs, waterfalls, craters, etc. It sounds absolutely amazing. We pre-purchased this tour, which is good planning, because we have a small window of opportunity and when Tamara Georgick started emailing the agency, they were already completely booked one of the three days we’d be there. |
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Blue Lagoon, an expensive spa that is fed (carefully reading between the lines) from the wastewater of the nearby geothermal power plant). |
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Everything I’ve read insists that Icelanders have “very strict” hygiene requirements for communal bathing. Here are some directions before entering the spas, pools and hot springs. I’ve read and reread this very carefully in Icelandic several times now and I still don’t know what’s going on. |
| Northern Lights tour, we have to wait until 5pm of the same day to find out if this is happening, its not a sure occurrence, so the tour agency makes the call the evening of. |
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Tags: Iceland, Tamara Georgick
