Adriatic Bear: Ísland!

Well, my friends - I had grand plans. I was going to post a whole photo diary with descriptions and everything. I had not bargained on having to upload almost 300 photos one by one. Instead, I'll give you some highlights to whet your appetite and then point you to my shutterfly gallery where you can see the rest.

Roll camera!

We arrived early in the morning on a very very foggy day. It meant that we didn't get to see very much, but I did get some pretty cool pictures. This is Hallgrimskirkja ("kirkja" means "church"). It sits at probably the highest spot in Reykjavík and you can see it from all over the city. It looks to me like it's about to blast off. However, I think it's meant to evoke some of the remarkable basalt rock structures that can be seen on the south shore of Iceland. I'll have to go back just so I can check those out. The statue just in front is of Leifr Eiricsson.

These shots are from the interior of Hallgrimskirkja. The massive pipe organ was pretty impressive. Overall the interior is very simple and spare.

The ladies of Apt. 401: (l-r) Tania, Sami, Jessica, Diana, Adriana and Beata

I love these two photos. The first is just a bit of grafitti. The second is incredibly sophomoric, but it makes me laugh every time and is quite possibly my favorite photo from the whole trip.

This is a volcanic crater called Kerid. The last letter actually should look kind of like a "d" with a line through the stem. It's pronounced "th" as in "them." The tiny dots at the upper left corner of the photo are people.

Our fearless leader!

One of the sights on the "golden circle" tour.

Gullfoss ("golden falls") is one of Iceland's most popular attractions.

Not far from Gullfoss is Strokkur (meaning "churn"), a slightly smaller cousin to the original Geysir after which geysers are named.

The other letter unique to the Icelandic language looks like a cross between a lowercase "p" and a capital "D" and is pronounced "th" as in "thick." It is the first letter of Thingvellir, the original meeting place of the Althingi. Founded in 930 AD, the Althingi is the world's oldest continuously standing parliament. This area is now a UNESCO world heritage site. Geologically, Iceland is both new and active. It straddles the American and European continental plates which are separating from one another at a pretty decent clip. As a result you can see a black cliff on either side of the valley where the earth split open.

Here's the view from the top of the cliff seen in the first photo.

The Blue Lagoon (Bláa Lonid) is another popular attraction, and justifiably so. Surprisingly, it is the byproduct of geothermal heating. The original plan had been to pump hot water up from the earth to use to heat homes. They drilled down 2000 metres and the water that came up was far too hot and full of sediment to use; it promptly clogged up the pipes. The solution was to pump up the hot water and run cold water alongside it, thereby heating the cold water up to house-heating temperatures. The original hot water gets pumped out into the Blue Lagoon. It's delightful for bathing, and the water is unique. It is composed of 2/3 seawater and 1/3 freshwater and contains a mix of silica, minerals, and blue-green algae not found anywhere else on earth. At some point, folks with psoriasis discovered that their symptoms improved dramatically after bathing in the Blue Lagoon. Last year, a beautiful psoriasis treatment center opened up near the Lagoon with its own smaller pools. The treatment is officially recognized by the Icelandic healthcare system and as well as by three other countries. The area surrounding the Blue Lagoon is a lava field and feels like one might imagine the surface of the moon is like. Below is the view from the sun room at the treatment center.