Iceland

Eyjafjallajökull eruption 17-April, 2010

Somewhere around 20 countries closed their airspace, and 10 million travelers were affected during the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. Fortunately, nothing so exciting happened when we stopped off in Iceland for three days on our way home. Icelandair makes it incredibly easy to layover for up to 7 days flying between the US and Europe. We jumped at the opportunity.

Iceland is an active volcanic island just south of the Arctic Circle. The earliest evidence of human settlement dates back only about 1,300 years. The settlers were Nordic and Celtic. During the first half of the 20th century, Iceland was a Danish dependency until April 1940 when Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. Because of Iceland's strategic location on a great circle route between Europe and North America, Great Britain, followed by the United States, occupied Iceland during the war to prevent a German invasion. Iceland became an independent republic on 17-June, 1944.

Today, sparsely populated and geologically active Iceland felt to us like a national park. The scenery is stark and beautiful. The small city of Reykjavik is vibrant and charming. We had a great time. Here are some of our pictures:

Goðafoss

 Goðafoss

Strokkur Geyser

The Strokkur Geyser and surrounding hot springs, and the Goðafoss waterfall are part of the Golden Circle, a popular touring route in western Iceland near where we were staying. 

We stayed at the Hotel Rangá, about 90 minutes south of Reykjavik. Everything in Iceland is expensive, and so are meals and accommodations at the Hotel Rangá. After all, it is an island and most things need to be imported - except geothermal energy. In Iceland, over 90% of all heating and hot water is provided by geothermal hot springs. Large pipes can be seen crossing the landscape transporting hot water from the hot springs to the populated areas.

During the summer, one cannot wait until after dark since it never gets dark. While we were there in early June, the sun set at 11:45 pm, but it hardly got below the horizon before it rose again about 3 1/2 hours later. In the winter, it is dark most of the time with only 3 or 4 hours of daylight. I noticed that the hotel has a live web cam accessible from the web site. This is not particularly exciting on your average summer day, but has the potential to capture the spectacular aurora borealis (northern lights) during the winter months.

aurora borealis at the Hotel Rangá
(from their web site)

Reykjavik

Hallgrímskirkja  
Lutheran church in Reykjavik

view from Hallgrímskirkja

Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre

The Harpa Concert Hall is an architectural marvel.   Designed by architect Henning Larsen and artist Olafur Eliasson, they won the 2013 European Union prize for contemporary architecture. The project was almost derailed the 2007-8 banking crisis, but government funding came to the rescue. Today, the beauty and elegance is difficult to overstate.

The story of Reykjavik would be incomplete if it did not include Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, the famous hotdog stand that opened for business in 1937 and has been operational since. After all the build up (best hotdog in Europe, best hotdog ever) we had to try one. First, we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes. We finally got our dogs, ordering them "with the works". In our opinion, the real hero was the condiments, particularly the crispy fried onions.

Iceland was great. I recommend a visit, particularly if you have the time while traveling to or from Europe.

Footnote:  Fly Iceland Air. Avoid WOW!