On December 18, 2023, a volcano near the Blue Lagoon in Iceland decided to erupt. The eruption didn’t last long, but it did shutdown the Lagoon. Over the next 80 plus days, the Lagoon opened and closed, based on the volcano’s mood. With less than month before our departure, the volcano shut the Lagoon down for at least the near future, by flooding the road leading into it with lava. Fortunately, there is another closer Lagoon that is open, and safe from the current eruption. Another bright spot is, we may get to see this eruption in person.
We flew out of Indianapolis for JFK International in two groups, on different airlines. Then on Icelandair into Iceland. Our problems started with getting to JFK… Okay, that is not entirely true.
Let me back up a bit. Group 1, the Mill Race Center group, met here in Columbus, where we boarded a bus for Indy. Arriving at the airport, I found I had a knot in the upper calf of my right leg, which I was sure I could walk off. Right. We, the entire group stepped onto the walkway, Sandi and I, almost at the front of the group. Arriving at the end of the walkway, I attempted to step off, and my right leg told me to go to hell. I had less than a foot to decide what I could do. The truth was, no matter what I did, it was sure to be the wrong thing. Gravity decided for me. “Attention airport travelers, 25-person pile up at walk way 1.” Lesson number one, always know where the emergency stop button is, and does it have safety cover over it. I am not kidding. From that point on, whenever I stepped on a walkway, I noted where the emergence stop was, and noted whether or not it had a safety cover. Thank God no one was injured. So, of course, during the rest of the trip, when someone said, “watch your step,” everyone was looking at me.
Weather at JFK delayed our departure, but we got there just in time. We had to get our baggage, run to Icelandair, check in, and then go through security to get to our gate. Icelandair has no contract with other airlines to transfer baggage from other flights to theirs. Security for international travel at JFK was easy.
Even had Icelandair operated with the other airlines, thereby saving us time, the layout of JFK is not conducive to getting from point A to point B efficiently. Well, not if you are a senior citizen, anyway. Sandi and I, for the first time in an airport, availed ourselves of the use of one of the carts to get us as close to our gate as possible.
Coming back was worse because we had to go through domestic flight security after checking in with our flight to Indy. Security screening for domestic flights it seems, is designed to be as slow, and inefficient as possible at JFK.
I had always heard O’Hare was the worst airport to navigate through, JFK makes O’Hare a walk in the park on a sunny day.
Someone needs to tell the airlines their passengers are not Hobbits. Flying to and from was the only negative of the entire trip.
We flew all night, arriving in Reykjavik at sunrise, then an hour or so bus drive to our hotel in Selfoss, located southeast of Reykjavik.
The Hotel Selfoss is nice. The staff is attentive and helpful. We got 2 room key cards, which seems standard fare, right? But one room key acts as a master switch to the room’s power. There is a key card slot which turns on the power for your room.
Another thing, there is no AC in the rooms, or the entire building for that matter. We were told there is no AC use in Iceland, and I never saw any indication of their existence. The rooms are heated with radiators. Too cold? Open the valve to the next mark on the dial. Too hot? Close the valve, and open a window. Summer temperatures in Iceland average 50 to 55 F, but can reach 77 F at times. Who needs AC in a climate that cool?
As I said, the staff are attentive and helpful. When it comes to any staff working anywhere, they are always willing to help, and they are always doing something, as in, they are not standing around talking. If there is an influx of customers, staff show to help in minutes. Our hotel in Selfoss had a sign-up sheet for the northern lights. Put your room number down, and if the norther lights are visible, you will be notified. Not sure if other hotels provide this service, but do check if you ever visit Iceland.
English is spoken by some 97% of Icelanders, so, communication is not a problem for Americans. Now, learning to speak Icelandic is a skill. I still believe Icelandic is based on random Scrabble Tiles being tossed on a board, and whatever comes up, is how a word is spelled. How it is pronounced, is another thing entirely. Actually, it comes down to how the word is used in a sentence. Sandi bought a Christmas ornament with Merry Christmas written in Icelandic on it. As I typed the words into a translation program, the translation changed with each letter added, when I started the second word, it changed the first word. The first word in Icelandic is Gleoileg. It translates as awesome. As I type in Jólin the first 2 letters of the second word, I get awesome yeah. Then Happy new year and finally Merry Christmas. I saw several people using a translation app for purchases, so they knew what was written on a shirt or object. Scan the word and get the translation. I bought a hat with the outline of Iceland, under which it says ISLAND. Now I get to explain that Island, is Icelandic for Iceland. Hey, I speak Icelandic.
The app I found most useful, was a currency converter app. It helps one keep from over spending. 15,700 ISK for hoodie can sound reasonable in the spur of the moment. But a Currency Converter hits you with the reality that the Icelandic hoodie you are admiring, is actually $115 and change. More often than not, the same company supplying the store in Iceland, sells the same hoodie on Amazon for $30. Icelandic made sweaters are a different story. Real ones, made in in Iceland, ain’t cheap, no matter where you buy them. My advice is to know what you want, what you are willing to pay, and where to get it. There were chocolate candy bars available, wrapped in what amounts to artwork that are popular as gifts when you get home. We found them in a grocery store a few blocks from our hotel, for a lot less than any other place we visited.
This brings up the question of the use of Icelandic Krona vs a credit card. Make sure your credit card company doesn’t charge a fee for international use. We bought ISK, (Icelandic Krona) before we left, but for purchases, we used our credit card exclusively in Iceland. The ISK we did spend, was for tipping our bus driver and guides. Google and Bing are helpful in this regard.
I have an ability to know where I am in relation to other places. In an instant, I know my directions, no compass needed. Not so in Iceland. We left the airport outside Reykjavik and headed southeast for the town of Selfoss. I could see the sunrise, and that we were heading into it, but my internal compass, kept telling me we were headed southwest. Except for our coastal tour, our trip to the Blue Lagoon, then to Reykjavik and back, I was never sure of our direction of travel. The night we were out for the Northern Lights was better, I could see the Big Dipper, and Orion, they are old friends, telling me which direction I was looking. Was I lost? I’ll answer with a quote by Brian Keith’s character, Henry Frapp, in The Mountain Men, when a city slicker he was guiding, accused him of being lost. “Lost? Lost? I ain’t never been lost. Might confused for a few months, but never lost.” I never did get my bearing’s while in Iceland. I trusted the bus driver to know where we were. On foot, on our own in Reykjavik, I knew where we were, and where we had to go to meet the bus after we were dropped off, but that is as good as it got for me. It was just a few blocks over and few more down from the Farmers Market.
Which, reminds me, across from the market is a famous Hotdog Stand. US Presidents are known to have eaten at this stand. The line was long, but moved with some speed. Sandi and I bought 2 with ketchup and mustard. The hotdog popped with each bite, and was good, but nothing remarkable. Maybe we expected more because of the hype, but we found we were not alone in our assessment of these hotdogs.
Our second night in Iceland, we boarded a bus at 9pm to head out of the city of Selfoss to see the northern lights. Our guide had us seeing the lights and taking pictures by 9:25pm. And I just noticed my first picture has the Big Dipper behind the lights. We were lucky it was one of few clear nights while we were there.
Turns out even an Android phone takes some great pictures of the northern lights. I do wish I had a tripod, though. I am afraid printing these pictures bigger than 3x5, will blur a bit from slight hand movements.
The lights waxed and waned, then faded out, so, we boarded the bus and headed back to Selfoss only to see a larger, brighter and more active display. One that we watched from our hotel.
I am not sure if Amanda planned it this way or not, but moon rise was late at night and when it did was crescent moon, perfect for northern lights viewing. So, if you go to Iceland, go in the fall to spring, and right before to after a New Moon.
Our guide taking us out to see the northern lights, Hlér Gudjonsson, remarked he was out earlier on a walk, and encountered a Norse Pagan Priest. While Christianity, specifically the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, is the State Church, Ásatrú, or Norse Paganism, is still practiced in Iceland, and is seeing a resurgence in followers.
It seems wherever you look, you see steam venting from the ground or buildings. Some are natural vents; some holes Icelanders have bored in the rock to reach vast hot pockets of rock below to boil water for power and heat. Stay on the paths around geysers and hot pots, lest ye be parboiled.
We visited hot spots and a geyser. They are all worth seeing, and breath taking if you are standing down wind of some of them. Strange fact. I was stationed in Montana for almost 4 years. It is a 3 hour and 50-minute drive to Yellowstone, the largest geyser field in the world, and I never visited the park. I still haven’t. It is on my Bucket List.
The road into the Blue Lagoon was shut down because the road was covered with fresh lava, less than a month before we arrived. The authorities later deemed the road, paved over with the new lava was safe to drive on. Our guide was very upset at seeing cars parked along the new “road,” and people walking out on the still, in a lot of places steaming and venting lava field. Though the surface is solid, no one knows how deep down the moving red-hot magma is. It could be many yards down or less than an inch. One wrong step… Our guide informed us they were breaking the law by being there. One week later to the day, the Blue Lagoon was evacuated because the volcano erupted spewing lava over the same area. No one was killed or injured. More about the Blue Lagoon later.
We visited a tomato greenhouse, kept warm and powered by geo-thermal heat. This particular greenhouse grew a variety of cherry tomatoes, and is set up to serve various of tomato inspired drinks. One item not a drink, is tomato ice cream. I love tomatoes and I love ice cream, so what reason is there not to try it. Plenty, as it turns out. Don’t ask me to describe the taste, because I can’t. I can say, I didn’t taste tomato, and that I’ll never try it again.
But, I am glad I tried it.
Our tour of the greenhouse included an introduction to their bumble bees, imported from, as I recall, Spain. I was told they are more docile and efficient than honey bees, though they import new hives every 6 weeks or so.
One more note about food. I don’t like mushroom. To me they taste like sawdust. So, at our farewell dinner the night before we departed for the states, our first course was, mushroom soup. Not wanting to be “that guy,” I tried it. I didn’t hate it. Actually, it was good, and I finished all of it.
Water flows through the lava beds, and over great and minor drops. Some in steps, some in great falls. Their beauty is there always, and it changes with the seasons and the flow of water. These falls are on private land, but Icelandic law says the landowner has to grant access to anyone who wants to view their falls, or any other view people find interesting. The government doesn’t allow the landowner to charge a fee, but the government helps set shops and the like which helps the landowner and covers needed roads, parking, and paths.
We visited Reykjavik via a bus tour with few stops. We visited the church overlooking the city then drove past the building were President Reagan and Gorbachev held the short summit in Oct of 1986. I thought we would stop, so I didn’t get any pictures.
Reykjavik means Smokey Bay. It was named so, by Ingólfur Arnarson, when he first arrived, because of the steam rising from the hot springs.
This was my first trip east of the US, so I’ve never been to Europe. But the Reykjavik city center, in the old part of the city, had an old European feel about it. Sandi has been to Europe, and when I mentioned the feel of the city, she agreed.
The city felt safe and laid back. It was both dirtier, and cleaner than your average American city. There is graffiti in places, litter, other than the cigarette butts in doorways, is nonexistent, and fines for littering are stiff, starting at 10,000 ISK or about $73 USD, so, don’t drop your empty water bottle, or hotdog wrapper on the ground. You will see recycle bins everywhere, and they are widely used.
The streams there are clear and pure. You can drink from them without having to treat the water. It is so pure, that minerals are require to be added to the water used in greenhouses. The water from hot springs, is a different story and the smell… well, who would drink that?
Horses are everywhere in the country side, and all of them are owned by someone. There are no wild herds roaming the wilds as we have here. They are specific to Iceland, tracing their ancestry to the 8th and 9th centuries. They are between 13 and 14 hands in height, which is the accepted standard for a pony, but never call them that. In Iceland they are horses. They are strong, and gentle creatures, fetching high price when they are sold. They can sell for 1,000,000 ISK or $73k+ USD, and once exported out of Iceland, can never return. This prevents disease in the Icelandic population.
When in Iceland, one stop you must make is to the Blue Lagoon southwest of Reykjavik.
The Lagoon is a depression filled with the outlet water that was used to create power for the area. It is around waist deep, and about 104 degrees F. You cannot see the bottom, as the water is a bluish white from the silica content of the water. Don’t drop anything, you will never find it, and encase your cellphone in a water tight case. If you get it wet with that mineral water, no amount of rice is going to undo the damage.
So, make the effort to go there, that is, if it is open. On Dec 23, 2023 the volcano near Grindarvik erupted, opening a vent almost 2 miles long. This eruption is ongoing, but not continuous. We arrived during a lull in the activities. The road bed into the Blue Lagoon being new lava laid down less than a month before is… was safe. Along the road were places still steaming and venting, though the lava was cool enough to walk on, which is illegal. The hot magma is flowing just below, and you have no idea if is inches or many feet below. Still, I saw a man, a few feet from a steam vent, taking pictures. A week to the day after our visit to the lagoon, the volcano erupted again, shutting down the lagoon. Don’t worry about an eruption while you’re visiting the lagoon. There is a berm to protect the power plant and lagoon, and the lava flow is slow. If the alarm sounds, you’ll have several hours to evacuate. As I write this, it has been two weeks of continuous eruption, unlike the 2 or 3 days of the others. The experts believe this is the beginning of a series of eruptions what could last decades, if not longer. And steps are still being taken to ensure the safety of the power plant and therefore, the Blue Lagoon. So, go, and enjoy it, if it is open.
The beauty of the island is all around you. The island is alive, and desolate at the same time. Those that settled it were a people strong in will, and strong of back. They took their lives in their hands in everything they did. The writer Robert Heinlein often said of man’s expansion into new places, “The cowards stayed home, and weak died along the way.” Iceland, this place of fire and ice, deadly winds and deadlier seas, defines the cowards and the weak, even today. The people of Iceland are proud of their culture. They have spent some 1200 years earing their pride.