Traveling Fool

We spent our last day, or last half day (11/26/2018), walking around the city, buying souvenirs and trying to soak it all in before we headed back to reality. I wanted to see Hallgrimskirkja, a parish church in the National Church of Iceland, which is Evangelical Lutheran. The church was built in the late 1940s and is the tallest building in metropolitan Reykjavik. We went up to the top, via elevator, which is 73 meters high, to watch as the sun tried to break through the dark morning sky. You get incredible views of the city, the harbor and mountains and volcanoes in the distance. We made a quick stop in the Settlement Exhibition which was uncovered during excavation and contains the remnants of settlers from the 800s. It was very interesting and had several interactive components in English and Icelandic. We really lucked out with the weather on this trip; on most days it was warmer than in Minneapolis, it was sunny most of the time, with the snow and rain mostly happening when we we...

Day four, also known as 11/25/2018, was an all day marathon, starting with pick up at 7:00 a.m. (ugh) going until around 7:30 or 8:00 when we got back to the hotel. It was long, but I'm pretty sure I slept a lot on the coach. We headed out of the city and our guide, Artis, began telling us roughly what the day would be like and what we could hope to see. The main objective was getting to the Glacier Lagoon at Jokulsarlon, but in between Reykjavik and the lagoon were going to be some amazing views of waterfalls (we actually stopped at the same waterfalls we had a couple of days prior); Eyjafjallajökull, which Artis gamely tried to help us pronounce and we stopped to take photos; we took a few breaks at shopping areas for food, bio-breaks, and more photos; and finally arriving at the Glacier Lagoon. I know the pictures do not even capture the awesomeness the I felt standing there on the shore amongst the glacier and ice floes, listening to the sound of the ice and waves, but h...

Our third day was spent on a half day private tour exploring and learning about volcanic systems and geothermal springs. I didn't realize it was going to be just the two of us and our guide, Finn, from Reykjavik Erupts, but it was a nice surprise. Certainly a change of pace from a packed coach. We started off the morning at 8:30 waiting to enter the Volcano House, a small exhibition space on volcanic activity in Iceland that also shows two documentaries on significant volcanic events, one was the major eruption in 1973 on the Westman Islands and then, more recently in 2010, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. It was so early, it was just my friend and I, and the employee, Dario, is a graduate geology student and spent some time with us. The strangest thing was it was 8:30 in the morning and still pitch dark, and as we were walking around, it seemed deserted. After the films, Finn was waiting for us and we took off in his Land Rover, just 30-40 minutes outside of Reykjavik. He pointed...

We opted for several group tours instead of renting a car; mainly, I didn't want to be bothered, and most of the coaches are pretty comfortable, they have wi-fi, and they know where they're going, especially in the dark. Also, a lot of people turn up their noses, but I have been on some very good ones. Anyway, we started off around 9 in the morning, heading out of Reykjavik, towards the south coast and towards our first waterfall, Skogafoss (of course, there is all kinds of scenery out of the bus windows like lesser known/less accessible waterfalls, sheep, mountains, possibly a volcano or two). Regular readers may recall that I have a 'thing' for climbing steps and trying not to pass out, and they may appreciate the hike up Skogafoss, around 527 steps on a somewhat rickety staircase. I did not pass out, and was a little proud of myself. It was a beautiful, even before the climb, with rainbows appearing out of the mist of the water. We were there about 30 minutes. As we ...