Iceland

Nathaniel, Casey, and I went to Iceland over Spring break in 1999. We decided on Iceland because we could get there. We also thought it would be nice because not that many people visit Iceland and sure enough we got a lot of, "Where/Why?" reactions. However, Iceland was great. Very stark and beautiful. Excellent seafood. 

We rented a car for the week. We drove and drove. We could have done a lot more if we had gotten a four wheel drive car. The roads in Iceland are "interesting." Their highways are two lane. Their secondary roads are volcanic gravel, and their tertiary roads are impassable without four wheel drive. We went on some very rough roads. Iceland is also quite expensive. However, we enjoyed it immensely and want to go back and take Mom.

	We landed at NAS Keflavik and stayed at the Navy Lodge. We also rented a car there. The first day we drove all the way to the crater "Eldborg." It was a windy snow-swept trip. There was also a 7 mile long tunnel under a fiord. We went to Reykjavik the next day and looked around. We also went to the "Blue Lagoon" on the road to Grindavik. The next day we visited Grindavik and explored a huge park. Then we went all the way to Geysir and Gullfoss, a beautiful waterfall still festooned with ice. Then we did more touring of the Reykjanes Peninsula, both the coast and some of the less traveled roads of the interior.
	We drove in to Reykjavik to look around. There is a Viking Memorial right on the water in downtown Reykjavik. The view across the bay is spectacular (as are most views in Iceland). There had been a big snow storm just before we arrived and our first impression was "The ice planet Hoth."
	Iceland has a huge amount of geothermal energy. Because there is a surfeit of hot water, outdoor swimming pools are located in virtually every town, no matter how small.  We enjoyed nothing more than swimming outdoors in the below freezing temperatures. This is the Blue Lagoon. Actually the effluent of a geothermal power plant, it is filled with minerals from the earth. We went here twice and to municipal swimming pools twice. Since we were untrustworthy, and probably uncouth, Americans, we were told exactly how to clean ourselves well before entering the water. Casey cheated because she felt a little over awed by some "big" German ladies.
	Iceland has great seafood thanks to a large commercial fishing industry. Actually, fishing is Iceland's only large commercial industry. We dropped by a fishing harbor (Grindavik) and had a look at the boats. We found a nice, and relatively inexpensive restaurant in this town. One evening we ate at a very expensive restaurant in Keflavik called the Ráin. It was wonderful. The view across the large bay to Reykjavik and beyond was breathtaking. Nathaniel and I had Icelandic lobster tails, very small but very tasty, and there were lots of them. Casey ordered Caesar Salad only to find out Icelandic Caesar Salad is not the same as ours. She ate little. She did like Icelandic hamburgers. They had tons of a mayonnaise-based sauce on them and on the French fires.
	From the road on our drives we saw many villages that looked much like this. All had a small Lutheran church. Iceland is still quite rural and while the population is busy flocking to Reykjavik, many of these small towns still thrive. Many of them are fishing villages. Others, like this one, appear to be farming villages.
	Another example of Iceland's geothermal nature is the ubiquitous geyser. The original Geyser, for which all other geysers are named, is located here and we visited it. This geyser is in the Reykjanesfólkvangur. This is a large park with a large, very cold lake and oodles of steaming vents, hot pools, and geysers. We walked quite a ways up a snow covered hill to get to one and it was beautiful. The one pictured here, however, was near the road and had a boardwalk around it.
	The famed, and shaggy, Icelandic horses were everywhere. We saw people riding them all the time. We did not manage to go for a horse ride ourselves, but we did meet some of them up close. As you can see, they have a very shaggy coat and are not all that big.