Iceland Day 3 (Seljalandsfoss and other things I can’t pronounce)
Oh my. Where to begin. We had the most exceptional day. Well, let me start with last night. I finally went to be after 11pm but it was still daylight. And the party was happenin’ upstairs. The beat of the music was so much that I hooked up the rooms Bluetooth speaker to my phone and we listened to soft rain (with occasional thunder) all night. I think after 1pm it stopped, but we let the Zen sounds still fill the room. When the alarm went off at 6:30, I got up to reset it for 7:15. Let me just say the 6:30 alarm was optimistic just in case we were awake we were going to eat at the local bakery. I was NOT ready to get up, so 7:15 meant Guy would run to the bakery and bring back goodies. That’s what happened. The donut was exceptionally greasy, but delish and the coffee was just right. Our tour to the south coast began with pick up outside our hotel at 8:30pm. And we had to be all packed up because when we came back we were to head directly to the ship. And that’s what happened. We stayed at the 101 hotel, a sister in the SPG family. It was a great location and very very clean and modern, but be warned, if you are going with a friend the glass shower is kinda in the room. So there can be no secrets in there. ;)
Our tour group was Saga tours and our driver and guide was Jon Pall. (John Paul). He was great but he drove pretty fast, passed on curves (with one close call causing the oncoming car to HOOOOONK at us) and once he went down a one way street...the wrong way (ok, maybe twice). But we are alive to tell the story, so all is good. He narrated the entire way and we got so much information about Iceland there is absolutely no way I can document it in today’s blog!
After picking up all the passengers, there were 12 of us, we headed to the south shore. On the way he talked about how ALL homes in Iceland have to incoming lines of water. One cold, coming from the protected mountains (protected to keep the water pure) and was wonderful to drink. The other line was that of natural geothermal hot water coming from the ground, hot due to the island’s volcanos. Very inexpensive for the Icelanders. So that was good. He spoke of how 2/3 of the population of Iceland lives in Reykovic and the middle section of Iceland is considered to be uninhabitable. There are 300,000 Icelanders and 40,000 of those are immigrants. If you work steadily in Iceland for 5 years you’ll get a passport (or marry a local if you want to speed up the process) ;) The Icelandic currency is the smallest free floating currency in the world, making it very unstable. So how it compares to the dollar swings both ways. There are 2 million tourists each year, but that number is going down since Iceland’s cheap airlines (WOW Airlines) went bankrupt. Housing is extremely expensive and they are on the verge of overbuilding (due to tourism) but since it is going down...they foresee possible bankruptcy problems that made them market themselves for tourism in the first place...Pandora’s box. Exporting fish supports the economy (now tourism does as well) and the only hot house food items can be grown here. Tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries. Lava fields cover the ground in many places that has been there for 1000 years. They imported a plant from Canada that is gorgeous and purple, but is one of the only plants on earth that can grow in a ground with no nitrogen. I didn’t get a photo today, but hope to tomorrow.
Whew, right? So, back to the bus. I took so many photos today ... it was gorgeous. Jon Pall said Rek... has already seen more sun in the past few weeks than it normally does all summer long. So needless to say, many locals have told us how lucky we are. It’s high 50s and full sun. Amazing to sightsee in. I’m going to be somewhat brief on the stops. We hit two waterfalls, the amazing cliffs of the south shore, the lighthouse, a glacier. THE END. Just kidding. The scenery was different at every turn. Giant looming mountains, some snow/glacier covered and others very cold and just rock, and sometimes they were green and lush. Just wait about 15 minutes and the scenery was completely different. Some of the areas were barren with lava fields then on the next turn was the Atlantic Ocean. We passed charming villages and farms. The fields dotted with sheep, most having two little babies in tow. Over 1 million sheep are in Iceland. Now that they have had their spring babies, Jon says they take them all to the mountains where the graze on the lush green land, then in September they gather them all up and separate them by farmer depending on the tag on their ears. He said it’s quite the task. Then they keep some for next year and the rest go to be slaughtered. It is the number 1 meat in Iceland. Sad, but life.
We passed by the first waterfall because he said in the afternoon the sun would be on it and would be better. Boy was he right. I’ll come back to that. So our first stop was the Skogafoss waterfall. It was picturesque and powerful. Fed by the glacier-capped Eujafjallajokull volcano, you could get close enough to get sprayed, but we took some lovely photos with our hoods up. The sun cast a beautiful rainbow on the area and it was stunning. Since we had 30 minutes, we walked up the 500 steps to take photos from the top. You felt pretty accomplished until on the way down there was a group hiking up the steps carrying mountain bikes. We. Were. Humbled.
Next we gazed upon the black sands of Reynisfjara Beach. The main attraction I wanted to see was the basalt sea stacks that tower above the beach. Of course there is NO WAY I could get a photo without tourists in it, but it looked just like the pictures I’ve seen of it. Amazing. There we stopped for lunch. Guy went inside for a bite but I stayed out to photograph as much as I could. Afterwards we took a little unexpected visit to the island’s only lighthouse and the majestic cliff it sat on. From there I got amazing panoramic views of the rocks below, the glacier in the distance and Reynisfjara beach.
Next on the list was Solheimajokull Glacier. Jon Pall said when he was a kid you could park in the parking lot and within 10 steps you were on the glacier. Now it’s a 20 minute walk away. It was pretty cool and melting as we stood there and admired the volcanic dust covered ice. It honestly wasn’t pretty, but just knowing you are looking at ice that is hundreds of years old is pretty amazing. Check out the pictures and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Pretty cool, indeed.
Next was the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. This is the one we passed in the morning and I’m so happy we did. The sun was in perfect position for not only photos, but rainbows! The best part? This one you could walk behind it! Hoods up y’all ....we did the short walk around the entire falls and it was just something I can’t quite explain. Again you’ll need to see the pictures to get a glimpse of what we saw. As usual, photos don’t do it justice. I think Jon Pall was saving the best for last. My day was complete. :)
The ride back was about an hour and a half. We met an Australian who lived in San Francisco with his wife and he and Guy talked non-stop all the way back. I mooched an iPhone cord from a young dude from Canada as I had brought a power stick but forgot the cord. I repaid him with a mini bag of chips ahoy cookies and he was a bit more excited than I think he maybe should have been. Wondering if the lil dude didn’t eat any lunch. He reminded me of my nephew Nick. In his twenties and traveling on his own...enjoying life.
Back to the hotel we gathered our bags and caught a cab to the ship. The cabbie was an older fella and I warned him my bag was heavy. He exclaimed “I’m a VIKING!” Indeed he was. He told us funny stories during our 10 minute ride to the ship and he was a treat. Gonna be brief here because its 11pm and we have a 7:15 tour to catch. We checked in, I cleaned the room with Lysol (one entire large can and an entire large tub of wipes) and we ate dinner. It was good, but will go more into the food tomorrow as it was the least of the main points of the day. I’m in the laundry room right now and my clothes are almost done drying. Afterwards, shower, and sleep...in a place where darkness still eludes us.
Our tour group was Saga tours and our driver and guide was Jon Pall. (John Paul). He was great but he drove pretty fast, passed on curves (with one close call causing the oncoming car to HOOOOONK at us) and once he went down a one way street...the wrong way (ok, maybe twice). But we are alive to tell the story, so all is good. He narrated the entire way and we got so much information about Iceland there is absolutely no way I can document it in today’s blog!
After picking up all the passengers, there were 12 of us, we headed to the south shore. On the way he talked about how ALL homes in Iceland have to incoming lines of water. One cold, coming from the protected mountains (protected to keep the water pure) and was wonderful to drink. The other line was that of natural geothermal hot water coming from the ground, hot due to the island’s volcanos. Very inexpensive for the Icelanders. So that was good. He spoke of how 2/3 of the population of Iceland lives in Reykovic and the middle section of Iceland is considered to be uninhabitable. There are 300,000 Icelanders and 40,000 of those are immigrants. If you work steadily in Iceland for 5 years you’ll get a passport (or marry a local if you want to speed up the process) ;) The Icelandic currency is the smallest free floating currency in the world, making it very unstable. So how it compares to the dollar swings both ways. There are 2 million tourists each year, but that number is going down since Iceland’s cheap airlines (WOW Airlines) went bankrupt. Housing is extremely expensive and they are on the verge of overbuilding (due to tourism) but since it is going down...they foresee possible bankruptcy problems that made them market themselves for tourism in the first place...Pandora’s box. Exporting fish supports the economy (now tourism does as well) and the only hot house food items can be grown here. Tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries. Lava fields cover the ground in many places that has been there for 1000 years. They imported a plant from Canada that is gorgeous and purple, but is one of the only plants on earth that can grow in a ground with no nitrogen. I didn’t get a photo today, but hope to tomorrow.
Whew, right? So, back to the bus. I took so many photos today ... it was gorgeous. Jon Pall said Rek... has already seen more sun in the past few weeks than it normally does all summer long. So needless to say, many locals have told us how lucky we are. It’s high 50s and full sun. Amazing to sightsee in. I’m going to be somewhat brief on the stops. We hit two waterfalls, the amazing cliffs of the south shore, the lighthouse, a glacier. THE END. Just kidding. The scenery was different at every turn. Giant looming mountains, some snow/glacier covered and others very cold and just rock, and sometimes they were green and lush. Just wait about 15 minutes and the scenery was completely different. Some of the areas were barren with lava fields then on the next turn was the Atlantic Ocean. We passed charming villages and farms. The fields dotted with sheep, most having two little babies in tow. Over 1 million sheep are in Iceland. Now that they have had their spring babies, Jon says they take them all to the mountains where the graze on the lush green land, then in September they gather them all up and separate them by farmer depending on the tag on their ears. He said it’s quite the task. Then they keep some for next year and the rest go to be slaughtered. It is the number 1 meat in Iceland. Sad, but life.
We passed by the first waterfall because he said in the afternoon the sun would be on it and would be better. Boy was he right. I’ll come back to that. So our first stop was the Skogafoss waterfall. It was picturesque and powerful. Fed by the glacier-capped Eujafjallajokull volcano, you could get close enough to get sprayed, but we took some lovely photos with our hoods up. The sun cast a beautiful rainbow on the area and it was stunning. Since we had 30 minutes, we walked up the 500 steps to take photos from the top. You felt pretty accomplished until on the way down there was a group hiking up the steps carrying mountain bikes. We. Were. Humbled.
Next we gazed upon the black sands of Reynisfjara Beach. The main attraction I wanted to see was the basalt sea stacks that tower above the beach. Of course there is NO WAY I could get a photo without tourists in it, but it looked just like the pictures I’ve seen of it. Amazing. There we stopped for lunch. Guy went inside for a bite but I stayed out to photograph as much as I could. Afterwards we took a little unexpected visit to the island’s only lighthouse and the majestic cliff it sat on. From there I got amazing panoramic views of the rocks below, the glacier in the distance and Reynisfjara beach.
Next on the list was Solheimajokull Glacier. Jon Pall said when he was a kid you could park in the parking lot and within 10 steps you were on the glacier. Now it’s a 20 minute walk away. It was pretty cool and melting as we stood there and admired the volcanic dust covered ice. It honestly wasn’t pretty, but just knowing you are looking at ice that is hundreds of years old is pretty amazing. Check out the pictures and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Pretty cool, indeed.
Next was the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. This is the one we passed in the morning and I’m so happy we did. The sun was in perfect position for not only photos, but rainbows! The best part? This one you could walk behind it! Hoods up y’all ....we did the short walk around the entire falls and it was just something I can’t quite explain. Again you’ll need to see the pictures to get a glimpse of what we saw. As usual, photos don’t do it justice. I think Jon Pall was saving the best for last. My day was complete. :)
The ride back was about an hour and a half. We met an Australian who lived in San Francisco with his wife and he and Guy talked non-stop all the way back. I mooched an iPhone cord from a young dude from Canada as I had brought a power stick but forgot the cord. I repaid him with a mini bag of chips ahoy cookies and he was a bit more excited than I think he maybe should have been. Wondering if the lil dude didn’t eat any lunch. He reminded me of my nephew Nick. In his twenties and traveling on his own...enjoying life.
Back to the hotel we gathered our bags and caught a cab to the ship. The cabbie was an older fella and I warned him my bag was heavy. He exclaimed “I’m a VIKING!” Indeed he was. He told us funny stories during our 10 minute ride to the ship and he was a treat. Gonna be brief here because its 11pm and we have a 7:15 tour to catch. We checked in, I cleaned the room with Lysol (one entire large can and an entire large tub of wipes) and we ate dinner. It was good, but will go more into the food tomorrow as it was the least of the main points of the day. I’m in the laundry room right now and my clothes are almost done drying. Afterwards, shower, and sleep...in a place where darkness still eludes us.
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