Adventures with Julia

July 25, 2017

The weather continues to be clear, warm, sunny and windless. Great luck for us as well as the locals who are especially enjoying their short summer.

Yesterday morning we enjoyed sitting outdoors on the patio of our hotel overlooking downtown Akureyri, whose population is about 18,000 people, when not swollen by tourist ships.

Such a treat. Clean, clear air that felt, as well as smelled, good. The evening before, the patio was crowded with people soaking up the balmy air, while we had a delicious dinner including a seared raindeer starter and a mixed seafood platter at Rub 23 across the street from the hotel. We recommend reindeer meat. This was cut very thinly and was succulent and tasty.

Mid morning, the 24th, we decided to drive back to Christian’s farm to see if we could find him and his Uni-wrap machine.

He was driving it through a field beside the road making covered bales as he went, so we stopped and took some photos. He stopped and chatted with us awhile. His family has had 600 hectares

since the early 1900’s and they have done very well because this particular land has deep, rich soil that produces quality grass. They grow hay on 80 hectares to feed the 100 dairy cows the family owns. The money is in the high grade milk the cows provide from eating the good hay. They can afford to own a 180K tractor and the 250K Uni-wrap machine. No wonder he and his brother keep both machines spotless. The rest of their is rocky hillside that the government is threatening to take away from them if they don’t do something with it.  The government takes this position because they pay no taxes on this land.  So they are considering putting sheep on the hillside to add value and pay some tax for it.  This is the same area  where his mother planted trees.

After Christian went back to work, we drove to the airport and visited the Aviation Museum. It gave a history of aviation in Iceland, which got started in 1928 with a mail delivery service. The only unusual plane we had not seen before was one called a “Junker’. There was an interesting display of stewardess uniforms going back to the 70’s. I really felt old realizing there were no uniforms going back to my era, the mid 60’s.

At 12:30 we boarded a Twin Otter for Grimsey Island, and flew right over Christians fields on our way to the island.

 

 

We landed at precisely 1:05 and were met by a local guide who drove us around the island in search of Puffin and Arctic Tern, but insisted on taking our photo at the Arctic Circle first.  Did not have to look far for birds. They were everywhere.

The prize, however, was on the bluffs. Puffins sitting still and nesting. We took many photos and here is the best of our catch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All too soon, we had to catch the 3:05 flight back to Akureyri. As soon as we landed, we jumped into the car and began the long drive Southwest to our next stop, Blonduos, and the Brimslod Atelier Guesthouse. Had we not gone to Grimsey Island, we would have had plenty of time to stop along the way and take in a few hikes and sights. As it was, Mark drove 280 kilometers in 4 hours and 36 minutes of driving time. We went through 4 tunnels one after another — 4 km, 7km, 4km and 1km. The two 4km tunnels were single lane and a bit nerve wracking as we had to pull into a turn out every time we saw head lights. There were lots of turn outs, fortunately, and they were all on our side of the road, so it was clear who had the right of way. By going through the tunnels we avoided driving around several small fjords.

I had hoped to get to the Emigration Museum in Hofsos to learn about the thousands of Icelanders who left the country between 1870 and 1910 due to years of famine, extremely bad weather and natural disasters. We arrived at 5:50 and they let me stay until about 6:30. I did not have time to read much information, but I saw walls of formal family photographs and learned that 37 Icelanders managed to get free passage to Brazil, while 450+ others waited in vain for the Brazil government to send a ship for them. Another 20,000 people, mostly poor and suffering from famine were provided passage to Manitoba, Canada by the British Government. Today, Manitoba, has the second largest population of Icelanders outside Iceland. Another contingent went to North Dakota, but I do not know how or what happened to them. Given that the population of Iceland was around 80,000, the departure of 20,000+ people made a significant change for the people who remained in the country. Conditions improved and there was less reason to leave. The young staff person I talked to was Canadian of Icelandic descent. He is here for the summer to learn more about his roots and to develop more connection to Iceland. He told me emigrant descendants arrive at the museum frequently wanting to learn more about their family roots. Most all of them get connected with someone who is actually a relative.

Finally, I was lead out the door. I found Mark with a beer in hand at a local pub. We drove another hour to the guesthouse and were glad to stop. Inga, the owner of the place, knew we would be late and met us at the door with a big smile.

Dinner was ready almost as soon as we dropped our bags. We learned she is a super chef and has written a few cook books. Both dinner and breakfast were excellent, if a little too filling.
We have now realized that “guesthouses” are not our cup of tea. The rooms are small with little if any storage space. We are asked to remove our shoes at the door and sit with the other guests for meals. “Forced conviviality” as Mark likes to say. Our table mates were two women from Shanghai and the 5-year old son of one of them. They spoke fluent English and we did have a nice conversation.

This is our first accommodation in Iceland where we had to walk down the hall to the bathroom. Fortunately, we did not have to share it. There was large claw-foot bathtub with a hand held shower head, but no curtains. Mark had to do sit in the tub and sprinkle himself with the shower head. Not, shall I say, his favorite method of getting clean.

We went to bed as soon as dinner was over, almost 11pm. Rather normal for Icelanders in summertime. We are adjusting to the constant daylight.

After breakfast on the 25th, we waved good bye to Inga and continued southwest toward the Snaefellsnes peninsula and National Park. We continued to enjoy warm, sunny, clear weather with little to no breeze. We passed over a dozen waterfalls during the day, but stopped to photograph only one, Kolugjufur Falls in the canyon with the same name.

We stopped at the town of Stykkishholmur to buy gas, clean the windshield and buy shoelaces to replace the shredded ones on my hiking shoes. The car collects so many bugs that we have to stop every 100 or so kilometers to get a clear view.

There was a pretty old church and a grand new one as well. The view from the new one was pretty good and we were hungry, so we picnicked on the hillside next to the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving the town, we entered the peninsula and park and noticed a change in the scenery. Somehow it was prettier, more interesting and grander. Soon we realized we were driving around the Snaefellsnes Glacier, which had created the peninsula, and the massive amount of fallout from it.

The mountains nearby were beautiful, the beaches were large and black, the lava fields were huge and moss covered and the cliffs along the ocean were full of squawking and nesting birds.

We stopped at Kirkjufell Mountain standing tall and barren directly out of the beach. Further along the road, we stopped to walk to a large black sand beach and later, at Arnarstapi camp ground, to walk along stunning, bird filled cliffs.

The sun was just right to get some nice close ups of mothers and their chicks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark was exhausted from the nine hours of being in the car, including our few stops.

 

 

 

The Hotel Burdir came none too soon. Still in the Park, it is set on a bluff and has a commanding view of the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely spot for our last night on the road. We had delicious green salads, lamb for me and cod for Mark.

Not much variety in the menus of most places. Good though. Although not late, Mark crashed early and I am about to stop writing.

 

 

 

We have one more day in Iceland. We changed our tour called “Inside the Glacier” from noon to 10am so we can get to Reykjavik in time to see a few sights that we lost by missing our first day. It means getting up early tomorrow. So, good night.

July 22, 2017

Now I will write about July 21st. It feels better to be back in sequence. I was getting myself confused. Hope it did not disturb you.

As we climbed up the hill from the Sifurberg Country Resort, actually a small guesthouse, we were immediately engulfed in fog with a temp of 11c, until we were over the hill and down in the next valley. The temp rose to 15c and then by noon it was 18c. Very comfortable.

We stopped to buy gas and lunch things in the small town of Egilsstadir and then began what is called the “Diamond Circle” loop enroute to Lake Myvatn.

Right away we came upon a large waterfall beside the road and stopped with a bunch of other tourists to see it. While hiking up to the view point we met up with two couples from Isreal, who offered to take our photo. We had a pleasant change and I learned how to add captions to the bottom of photos. Nice trick. The falls are called Rjukandi.
Then we headed for the first stop of the Diamond Circle, Dittifoss waterfall.  It is considered the largest falls in Europe with a volume over 400 cubic meters per second. It is small compared to Niagara Falls which is 212,000 cubic feet per second. You do the conversion. It was a good hike to get to the falls and they were well worth the effort. The path was crowded with people coming

and going. About a kilometer down the road we cam on a much smaller falls below Dittifoss, called Hafragilsfoss. To get to Dittifoss we have traveled 28km on a dirt road and we continue another 30km on dirt to get to the next stop, a canyon called Asbyrgi, which was very interesting and difficult to photograph.

It is a huge box canyon created by a volcanic eruption and massive flooding that moved through the are in 2-3 days eons ago. Amazing how scientists can figure these things out.

On a separate note, we both have noticed and commented on road and driving conditions. First, all the roads are narrow, with no shoulders. Most are paved and in good condition. Gravel roads are in good shape for what they are. There are so few trees that it is easy to see long distances and pass as often as needed. Speed limits tend to be low, and Mark exceeds them much of the time. So far we have seen only one cop and he was busy with someone else. The most curious thing is that we see many cars and lots of people at every tourist attraction, but when we pull out onto the road there are almost no cars and we can travel quickly. This has been the case every day and we are still wondering how they all get from place to place.

The third stop is Husavik, a harbor town known as the whale watching capital of Iceland. We got there in time to have a late lunch of fish and chips. Yep, I finally ate some cod. Must admit it was barely breaded and very tasty. At 4pm we showed up for our next zodiac ride. This time, the weather was sunny and warm, the sea calm, the zodiac large and well appointed and the program well organized.

We did climb into similar suits as on the iceberg trip, but these suits were clean and dry. Our experience was positive even before we started. Twelve of us climbed into the zodiac with a boat man and a guide, who spoke to us over an inboard speaker system. We could all hear every word he said. Lovely.

Mark and I managed to be in the front this time and were happy to be there. Although the driver did speed out to Puffin Island, we did not get a drop of water on us. We, of course, were supposed to see Puffins around the island and they were certainly flying everywhere. However, they were so small we could hardly make them out.

Even when they were floating on the water, we could not get close enough to them to get a decent photo. We were not allowed to approach the island where 100,000 of them are nesting. We learned they can dive up to 60 feet deep to catch fish, but to do that they are built for swimming, not flying.

They mate for life, lay only one egg per season, live at sea the first 5 years of their lives before returning to land to mate. They have hooks in their beaks to hold up to 45 fish. Sorry, I was not able to get even one good shot.

After 20 minutes of “puffing around”, we turned our attention to humpback whales and had much better success. I will share several photos. Our guide thought we actually saw only 4-5 whales, but we saw each of them several times. No matter, we were happy to get so much time with them.

After 2.5 hours in the bay, we finally returned to the dock, thanked our boat driver and guide and headed for Hotel Laxa in Lake Myvatn. Mark had driven 377 kilometers in 5 hours and 15 minutes. A long day filled with great activity and sights.

Hotel Laxa is quite large and take in bus loads of people. The dining room was filled with long tables set for crowds. Fortunately, we ate early at the head waiter’s suggestion and escaped the crush. We have a nice corner room with windows in two directions and a lovely view. There is room for our bags, but still no place to sit. We happily went to bed early, so no need to sit.

This morning we woke to a beautiful clear, sunny and warm day. The best day yet by far. The temp got up to 23c by mid afternoon and the sky stayed clear, sunny and warm all day. As we are staying in the same hotel tonight, driving will be at a minimum. Nice for Mark.

Lake Myvatn is located at the edge of the interior of Iceland, is pretty rural and has many lava, geothermal and natural features to hike and photograph. We settled on a few that sounded appealing to us and quite early.

The hotel surprised us by refusing to do our laundry, and the sink was so small we could not use it for laundry.   So our first stop was to the laundromat. It is located in a pretty, grass-covered, terraced camp ground. Camp receptionist instructions. Leave the bag of dirty things. Get your clean clothes in 4 hours. That was easy.

Off we went to the Krafla caldera to see a volcanic crater with an opaque teal green lake. Just down the hill from the crater was a thermal power plant that was open to visitors. We met the guide, Susie, who had us watch a short video and then showed us the two turbine.

She was very charming and we ended up having a good discussion about land ownership and family feuds. According to her, most of the rural land is privately held by farming families with too many owners after many generations. If one member does not want to do something, nothing gets done.

She used the example of out houses built for public use on private land. One family member can force the closure of the toilet, even if the other members want to keep it open. The public need does not count. Thus we see “out of order” toilets around. Interesting problem. Other toilet issues include people using them to clean their shoes after walking in mud. All outdoor bathrooms we have seen have flush porcelain toilets that empty into septic tanks. Just near the power station was an outdoor shower that constantly sprayed warm water. That would be a good place to clean one’s shoes.

We made a quick stop at Namaskard Pass to look at a bumbling black mud pot. The place pales in comparison to Yellowstone so off we went to hike up to the top of Hverfjall, a huge tephra (volcanic ash) cone crater overlooking the whole area. It was very desolate looking, but we climb a steep hill to see it anyway. We had planned, once at the top, to walk around it, but having seen that the inside was just as desolate, and “boring” as Mark put it, as the outside, we took a few pix and hiked back down.

Nearby was the most popular sight, Dimmuborgir. It is a huge lava field with formations that inspire creative imagery. There are hiking trails with a wide range of difficulty. We chose a medium trail and enjoyed the dense vegetation that has grown up in and around the lava formations as much as the unusual formations.

Bus loads of tourists all in huge groups was too much for us. Off we went to find a quiet place for our picnic. We found a spot called Hofdi that had wooded trails leading to and around a river basin and a small car park. We grabbed our food and started walking.

What a pretty place-narrow wooded trail-pretty trees-purple and yellow flowers-crystal clear water, lava formations left alone in their spender and us. Having driven around the lake and completed the plan we set for ourselves, Mark dropped me off at the hotel and went to get the clean clothes. I spent the rest of the day catching up on the blog.

For dinner we drove half way around the lake to a place called Vogafjos Cowshed Cafe. Susie had recommended it to us. What a delight. The restaurant is attached to a dairy. We watched, through a glass wall, the cows being milked while we waited for our dinner.

Apparently the woman milking the cows, with what looked like very modern equipment, owns the whole property including the restaurant and a guest house next door. Very creative way to make a living. Our waitress told us the restaurant is packed every night even in winter. As we happened to be there during milking time, we were treated to a small cup of fresh warm milk. Delicious.

Good night.  Sweet dreams.

July 20, 2017

We stopped for the day at 4:30 in a small place called Silfurberg Country Resort in the Breiddalur valley in eastern Iceland. The setting is lovely and the place spotless, but very small. There is no room for our bags and no chair to sit in. Strictly a sleeping space and a small bathroom. Fortunately there is a living room sitting area and an outdoor hot tub near our room. I want to write about today before I forget things. I will write about the 19th when I can.

This morning we left the Smyrlabjorg Hotel and drove east into the east Iceland Fjords. The day started out a pleasant 14c under a pale blue sky. We even felt comfortably warm, especially after the deluge we suffered all day yesterday. Except for yesterday, we have had reasonably good weather in the low to mid 50’s with clear to overcast skies and little precipitation. However, light to heavy breezes seem to follow us everywhere. So in addition to along sleeved shirt, a vest and, often, a fleece, I have needed my wind breaker. Mark is wearing long pants everyday, not his usual get up, as well as a vest and sometimes his wind breaker. As usual, I brought way too many things. If I ever return to the same place, I will know what to do next time.

Shortly after leaving the hotel, we saw more glaciers.  At one point we could count 4 at a glance.  All  are in retreat with lush pastures and farmhouses between them and the sea.

 

 

 

We drove to the small, ocean side town of Hofn to find a post office. After sending a few post cards, we drove out to the point and enjoyed the view and the calm air. From there we drove 250km through the scarcely populated, stark, yet beautiful, even spectacular scenes along the East Fjords of Iceland. As we drove along the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. So much for our sunny day. We were grateful there was only a few sprinkles. The clouds made for some interesting photos.

About 11am we drove off the highway to a place called Viking Cafe. They sold coffee and tickets to visit a nearby aging film set for a “sometime in the future” Hollywood movie about the Vikings. The ticket was also an entry fee for the private reserve and black sand beach. The Viking film set was curiously interesting as it was quite different than the reconstructed Viking home we saw earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove out to a lighthouse overlooking a long black sand beach to take photos and nearly got swept away, with gusts up to 30-35mph. Our picnic lunch was an ocean side, in-the-car affair with cheese, crackers, sardines and water. Really exiting. Cracker crumbs everywhere.   At least we did not spill the sardines. I suggested we buy something different for the next lunch and Mark suggested we stop at a restaurant. Novel idea, if we can find one on these lonely roads. At one point we drove through a tunnel that made a constant turn to the left for about 1km. We stopped several times for stunning scenery.  Occasional farms along the coast were photogenic too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid-afternoon we reached a small village called Breiddalsvik. As we drove around the village, we realized that the wind had died down and the sky was clearing. A lady in a local hotel, gave us directions to a waterfall we wanted to see before reaching our hotel for the night. She told us the the East Coast often has high winds.

 

Mid-afternoon we reached a small village called Breiddalsvik. As we drove around the village, we realized that the wind had died down and the sky was clearing.

A lady in a local hotel, gave us directions to a waterfall we wanted to see before reaching our hotel for the night. She told us the the East Coast often has high winds and to look for better weather tomorrow.  Hope she is right.

The Beljandi Waterfall was in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. Good thing we had directions. It was very different from the other falls we have seen in Iceland, but very sweet. No high hills, just a broad low land waterfall. A half hour later we pulled into the Silfurberg Country Resort. Once a large sheep farm, it has been converted into a 5 unit guest house. The couple who own it are very friendly and answered a number of my questions about Icelandic farms. We learned that all horses in Iceland are Icelandic horses. No new horses are allowed into the country and no horse that leaves, can come back. Apparently the horses stay healthy that way. They originally arrived as small horses with the Vikings in the 8th and 9th centuries and have been bred to be strong and long lived, Icelandic sheep are also very hardy. They get sheared twice a year regardless of the weather and do fine. By the way, winter in Iceland is not as cold as you might expect. It rarely gets below freezing and animals do very well outdoors. Now for the truth about the bales of hay. Our first informer was a 16 year old boy. Now we have the word from an elderly seasoned farmer. The color of the plastic around the bale makes no difference in the hay. Yes, pink and blue represent charitable donations. Otherwise, the grss is cut and spread on the ground for a day or two to dry out. Then it is baled and wrapped with plastic in one operation. The baled and wrapped hay remains fresh for up to two years.

Before dinner we had some Oban scotch Mark had purchased at the Duty Free.  Been nipping on it most every evening.  Enjoyed a delightful home made lamb dinner. Sat in the outdoor hot tub for awhile and are now in bed writing and reading.  The WiFi here is very slow.  Hope this get to you soon.  God bless you all,  Julia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 18, 2017

For those of you who wanted more info on the volcano on the 16th, it is called the Blue Mountain Volcano.  The colorful walls are made of iron, copper and sulphur that oxidize into the many colors you see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, yesterday, July 17th,  we headed out early on a round trip adventure to the highlands, an area called Landmannalaugar.  Near sea level, where we started, the land was lush, green and full of recently cut hay all baled and wrapped in plastic material.  We learned that white and green plastic were commonly used for animal fodder, except horses.  Horse fodder is wrapped in black plastic so it will get warmer.  Does it sweat more and get mushy?  If you horse friends know the answer, please tell the rest of us.  Now and then we saw pink and blue plastic and learned that farmers buy plastic in those colors as a donation to cancer research.  I have included a couple more pictures of the landscape to give you a better idea of the place.  Where the ground is level, the soil is lush and creeks and streams are everywhere.  The hill sides are generally volcanic rock.  Gradually we began to climb and the grasses gave way to exposed rock and volcanic ash.  Here and there we saw small forests of planted evergreens.  Here is a small cluster near a charming one lane bridge.  As time goes by there will be more and more forest as there is a push toward environmental consciousness.  For example, we have seen no disposable plastic water bottles.  All the water is potable here, and in Greenland, and is served from glass carafes.

Along the way we stopped at a Viking Chieftain’s farm from circa 950AD.  It has been painstakingly reconstructed from foundation and other materials found under many layers of ash from a huge eruption in 1004.   Think Pompeii.  The structure is sculpted from many layers of sod and requires constant care to keep it from rotting away.   There was also a chapel near the house, as the Vikings converted to Christianity in 1000 AD.  Inside the building were several rooms: an entry chamber for removing working clothes, a large room for sleeping, hanging out and staying warm, a similar, but smaller room for the women to weave and make clothes, a food preparation room, a storage room and a large lavatory with drains along the side walls.  No one bothered with doors or privacy.  In addition to the Chief and his family, there would be workers who lived in the house with the family.  There was not enough room to lay down, so everyone slept sitting up with their clothes on.  Can’t imagine living that way.  There was no running water.  No way to be warm or clean and dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very near the Viking house was a small waterfall called Hjalpparfoss.  It flows through solid basalt rock.

 

 

 

 

Then we began to climb more until the ground was more dirt and rock than green grass.  When we were almost at the Landmannalaugar camp ground, we saw that we would have to ford a river to get there.  As many cars had already made it, Mark moved ahead and forded the stream without trouble, while others watched and wondered if they could make it.  The alternative was to park and walk across a foot bridge.  We had an all-wheel drive car, so felt confident.

The scenery was spectacular and other worldly.  My photos do not do it justice as we had fairly flat light.    The terrain was extremely rugged and the basalt rocks very sharp.  We hiked only 3 miles on two trails (one delineated by white markers and the other by red ones), but it seemed like more as we had to pick our way carefully to avoid stumbling and the path was not always obvious.  We eventually climbed to an elevation of 2281 feet.  As in the volcano, it was step a few, stop, look around and step a few more.  We started the hike from the parking lot without thinking about getting information, a map, water or anything except our fleece.  We expected a short walk about, but once we got into the trail, we thought it would be shorter to keep going than to retract our steps.  Man were we wrong.  We passed many people going the other way, but they were mostly tourists who spoke little English and did not know much more than we did.  By the time we got back to the car, we were very thirsty and hungry.   Never mind.  It was a very interesting hike that topped out at a large thermal steam vent.  Heading down hill on the red trail, we felt more confident that we were headed in the right direction.  In the camp ground were hundreds of people camping all together in tents, buses, RV’s.  They were mostly European tourists.  We crossed back over the river and looked for a quiet place to picnic, marveling at the scenery we had just experienced.   As we headed out of the highlands we stopped at one more scenic spot, Lpotipollur Crater.  It had the same wonderful colors on the side walls with deep blue water in it.  Reminded me 0f Crater Lake in Oregon only much more colorful.  By the way, in case you are wondering how to pronounce these Icelandic words, I cannot help you.  They are impossible to say even when an Icelander says them slowly.   I have given up trying.   After the crater, we headed for a restaurant by the ocean we had heard served great langoustinos.  It took almost 2 hours to get there from the highlands, but we enjoyed the meal, a good Icelandic beer and headed for the barn, about 2o minutes away.  The rain was just starting as we went to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

July 14, 2017

You all have asked for more photos so here are some of the best of the day’s take.  The day was all about icebergs around Ilulissat.  There is more to tell than these photos, but I need to go to bed.  Will write more tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 15, 2017

We are in the air flying over Greenland back to Iceland. The ice cap below us is 3000 meters thick and is the highest point in the country. The cap is so heavy that the ground underneath it has been sinking for eons. Melting glaciers on the west coast are causing the land there to rise—very slowly. The currents on the east side are very cold and flow south, while the currents on the west are warmer and flow north. There is very little settlement on the east side due to the cold air, sea and snow and rough terrain. Settlements are plentiful all along the west coast, including Nuuk, the capital in the southwest. The southern part of the island was occupied by the Vikings between the 800’s and 1200’s.

Remember Eric the Red. Turns out he was not lying about the place being green as I had been told. During those years Vikings settled the area and raised cattle, sheep, and other food products. They never traveled north so did not encounter the Inuit, who did not travel south. By the 1200’s the climate had changed and become much colder. Those Viking who did not die, moved away, just as the Inuit, who liked the colder climes moved south. Thus the two cultures never met of mixed. The Danes did not arrive until the late 1700’s.

Our time in Ilulissat was delightful. The weather was warm and sunny our first day, sunny and a bit cooler yesterday and overcast and cool today. No rain, no freezing temps. While there we managed two good hikes along the glacier fields of Jacobshavns Isfjords, a very pleasant boat ride among the icebergs flowing out of the glacier, during which we saw many icebergs, a humpback whale and had a long conversation with the boat captain, who happens to be the German step father of the Sri Lankan waitress who served us lunch the day before. No wonder the girl was so charming. Her step dad was very engaging and knowledgeable about the area, having lived in Greenland for 30 years. HIs Sri Lankan wife owns the Inuit Cafe we enjoyed so much and her daughter, due to her eclectic family background, speaks 5 languages: Danish, English, Greenlandic, Sri Lankin and German. What a rich heritage. Makes me wonder how many other people in the area have such interesting backgrounds.

Ilulissat, Greenlandic for “Icebergs”, lies slightly north of the 66th parallel, which demarks the Arctic Circle and the land of the Midnight Sun.

So we had no darkness while there, but slept fine anyway. Too tired to notice. I included photos of Ilulissat, our hikes and the boat ride to give you a fuller picture of our experience.  Here are a couple more from our second hike the next morning.

 

Although the town is small, the place is very hilly so we got a lot of exercise walking around. We visited the local museum, which showed the history of the Inuit people who have lived in the area for centuries. We saw the oldest building in Ilulissat dating from 1741 and built by Jacob Severin, who received permission from the Danish King to developed a trade monopoly with the Inuit. We saw the largest fish processing plant in Greenland next to the harbor and learned that halibut gravitate to the area and are very plentiful, along with cold-water shrimp. As we wandered around and chatted with people we learned that native residents speak Greenlandic and most also speak Danish, but little English. Danish transplants all speak English, including a number of college age Danes in town for summer jobs. We had no trouble communicating.

Out on the boat, our captain shared a lot about the life of the glacier and the fjords. The glacier is named Sermeq Kujalleq, which means “Fast Glacier” in English. It is the largest and most productive glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. Jacobshavns Isfjords refers to the flow of Icebergs from the glacier. It has been in recorded retreat since 1850. During the last forty years it went from retreating 22 meters per day up to 40 meters by 2011. Since then it has slowed down, but it is not known why. Also, the icebergs were twice as large when he first arrived in the area and are not getting smaller.

The icebergs at the mouth of the glacier field get bunched into a large mass as they scrape the bottom of the shallow inlet and get stuck until enough pressure pushes them into deeper water. When jagged bergs become top heavy, they will roll over and expose their smooth bottom. When this happens they create a small tsunami that can capsize small boats that happen to be nearby.

Since the glacier has been in retreat since long before global warming became an issue, he is inclined to believe that the forces of nature have played a larger role than anything else. There is evidence, he said, that the glacier has gained and retreated several times during the last 10,000 years.  As far as we can tell, there are no trees on Greenland.

There is only a tiny bit of soil, with mosses and small alpine-like plants covering the volcanic rock and large exposed granite boulders, which blew out of the earth during the many volcanic explosions.  We saw a couple of cemeteries that looked like dirt had been brought in to make graves.

July 12, 2016

We got up this morning to learn that the travel company, Iceland Unlimited, expected us to arrive this morning, while we have been expecting to arrive tomorrow morning.  What went wrong?  Too many people making assumptions.  Bottom line is we miss out on our arrival day plans to spend time in the famous Blue Lagoon and see the sights in Reykjavik.  We will now attempt to catch our scheduled flight to Greenland as soon as we land in Reykjavik.  Will be very close.  As there is nothing we can do at this point, we are going with the flow….so to speak.  We have arrived at Sac airport and are waiting for our flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines.  Two hours there and on to Reykjavik on Iceland Air.   If all goes well, we will arrive there at 6:45 am local, grab our bags, meet our driver who has our trip documents, and dash to the domestic terminal for the flight to Ilulissat, Greenland.   Cannot tell you why the flight to Ilulissat, which is in a different country, departs from the domestic terminal.  Maybe we will learn on the way.

So, although it is not starting out at all as we planned, it is already  very much an adventure.   Mark is a “remain calm” kind of guy and I am choosing to follow his lead.  Nothing else to do anyway.  More when we get wherever we are going.

Enjoy a happy day in sunny Northern California,  Julia