School Hiking Trip in the White Mountains

From a school hiking trip in the white mountains during a mod break:

Everyone looks pretty bundled up, but I think they all had a good time. We did hear that they ran a little short on food (eek), but nothing that a few solid meals back in Lexington could not remedy.

A Week in Iceland

Here is a blog post about our recent week-long vacation trip to Iceland, arranged (as always) by Amy.

Saturday:

New airline experience for the flight out to Iceland: WOW Air (corporation based in Norway I think? but with an Icelandic crew for this jaunt). WOW features purple-themed airplanes and purple-clad flight attendants, all of whom look as though they were taken straight out of the 1950's (very formal jackets and skirts, high heels, hair up in a bun, lots of makeup, etc).  Minimalist in-flight service; everything costs money, not even the water is free. With that said, they were very efficient in getting us to our destination. I caught a couple of catnaps, but in general I don't think there was much sleeping.

Sunday:

At the airport (arrived around 5am) we collected our bags, raided the duty free shop (enormous outfit) for some wine and chocolate, and had breakfast at the coffee place. As is often the case, we faced a big gap between our early morning arrival and the check-in time for the rental apartment, but Amy came up with a good solution, which was to go for a swimming expedition at the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal-springs swimming place not far from the airport. We took a bus over there around 7:15, stashed our luggage, and had a really nice swim. Water is indeed quite blue, with sort of chalky overtones from the silica, and was on the order of 100 degrees, quite comfy. The bottom of the pool is mostly stone but some sandy sections as well (the sand is actually pitch black, even thought the water is an almost milky blue/white). Lucy and Scott joined us for the swimming session also, which was nice.

After getting collected we got on the bus back to Reykjavik and managed to make it to our rental place to drop off our bags. We had a bit of luck -- the cleaning crew was just finishing up, so we were able to settle in as opposed to having to wander around for another couple of hours. Apartment (our first experience with AirBNB) was great; very sleek, contemporary furniture and fittings, lots of space and light. Somewhat minimal kitchen, but not totally devoid of basic supplies. The view to the east is of the city hall, with the spire from Hallgrimskirkja visible off in the distance up the hill.

In the photo below, the big concrete building on the right is the Reykjavik City Hall, and the one just to the left of it is the building with our apt:

Inside:

Handy to have drying racks:

View from our apt of City Hall. The odd-looking walkway out into the pond is actually a staircase down into an underground parking garage.

Kitchen:

After unpacking a bit and exploring the apartment we set off to go find some lunch, since we were all pretty hungry.  It was actually kind of tricky to find a place to eat-- my sense is that the city is pretty full of tourists at the moment (almost all of the places we tried had waiting lists or were visibly overcrowded). We did finally locate a spot with an open table down near the Marina: Cafe Haiti. I had a very nice bowl of fish soup, Amy had vegetable soup, and the kids had sandwiches + lasagna. After that we hiked to the local grocery store and stocked up on provisions (lots of vegetables!).

Food in Iceland is not cheap, I can say that much. Even a very modest restaurant lunch for four will set you back a minimum of 7000 or 8000 kronor (65-75 bucks or so at the current rates). The prices in the grocery store are also high, but the quality of the food is good, so it feels a bit less outrageous. Icelandic bread and chocolate:

The thing on the bottom left above is a sort of very flat rye bread (almost tortilla-like) that you see all over the place in Iceland (the sandwiches the kids ordered in the airport were made with it).

Later in the afternoon we mumbled around trying to stay awake, then cooked dinner around 5:30 (pasta, bacon, stir-fried veggies, and kale). I had a walk after dinner mainly as a way to stay awake, then we watched the Olympic coverage in the evening until we absolutely had to go to bed. On my walk I went past Hallgrimskirkja:

After that we crumbled. Whew, long day.

Monday:

Amy and I woke up at an approximately normal time, had a leisurely breakfast, and then got ready for our expedition: a fresh-water snorkeling trip over in Þingvellir national park.

A man from the outdoor place collected us at about 9 and drove us out to the park (took about an hour, maybe less). Raining lightly; the scenery reminded us a lot of Scotland (the rocks, the rain, the shades of green). We spent a little while quizzing Val, the guy from the outdoor place, about Icelandic sports teams and life in Iceland. I had assumed that pretty much all of the food in Iceland was imported, but it turns out that they grow a fair number of vegetables in greenhouses (the fruit on the other hand is almost entirely imported).  Sure enough, on the way we saw a couple of small greenhouses, tucked in behind big rows of trees planted as windbreaks.

The snorkeling was an interesting experience. The designated spot is called "Silfra"; it is apparently a fissure or crack that runs along the line between the North American and Eurasian continental plates. Fresh water, very cold (just a few degrees above freezing), runoff from a glacier locate about 30 miles to the north, then filtered through the rock until it emerges just north of the big lake in the park. Outside the meetup spot:

It took us quite a while to get "geared up" -- first a sort of jumper-style set of long underwear, then a dry suit, then very tight hats, gloves, and finally a mask, snorkel, and fins. The dry suits are not totally comfortable, I have to say, but for a half hour it wasn't a big deal. After getting attired, we trooped down to a sort of metal platform that leads to some stairs down into the water, and headed out.

Kids partially geared up:

"You tied a rubber band around his neck!?" -- kind of weird, but necessary to keep the water out.

More suiting-up:

Very clear water, albeit with a few floating bits from the divers that have been there before. We stayed on the top of the water, but way down below we could see a set of scuba divers who were making their way along the same route but at the bottom of the fissure (down at 30-40 meters for some of the way) -- that was neat. Photos from the instructor leading the group:

Although you are wearing a "dry" suit, in fact your gloves and your neoprene balaclava fill up with water fairly early on, so you can definitely feel the cold in those places.  It was a fun experience, but I think overall I would have to say that given the choice I'd pick Hawaii over Iceland for my next snorkel :-).

After the drive back we had lunch in the apartment -- Amy bought some tasty stuff from a local bakery including "curry rolls" (a hit), and Lydia cooked scrambled eggs.  I actually skipped the meal (I was feeling sort of weird for some reason after the dive).

In the afternoon the kids decided that they wanted to "veg", so Amy and I headed down to the Iceland National Museum to take it in (only a few blocks south of the apartment). It was definitely worth visiting; lots of historical exhibits on the early history of Iceland from 800-1900 or so. Good archaeological exhibits with artifacts and things dug up from burial sites, etc. They went into a fair amount of detail on the relations between Iceland and Norway, Denmark, etc (for a long period of time Iceland was in the unenviable position of being bossed around by whichever of the Scandinavian kingdoms happened to be in charge of the area at the time). In spite of being an independent country in all the ways that mattered, it wasn't until 1944 that it was made official. It was also surprising to learn that the city of Reykjavik itself is really a very modern creation (in spite of the fact that Iceland itself has been inhabited for well over a thousand years).

After the museum, I made another run up to the grocery store ("Bonus") to buy provisions for tomorrow night's dinner, then before we knew it, it was time to head over to Lucy and Scott's place to meet up before dinner. Only problem: the kids were still running around exploring the city. After much texting and manipulations of phone I finally managed to get one of them to answer. Amy headed over around 5 and then I collected the free-range chickens, who finally turned up about 20 mins later; we eventually joined up with the rest of the group. Lydia had some cool cell phone pictures from the walk; they had been checking out local graffiti artists (Iceland has just as many as Toronto, apparently). Photos from their walk:

Dinner at the "Fish Company" ("Fiskfelagid"), a well-reviewed restaurant about midway between our two apartments. Food was quite tasty -- heavy on the seafood (of course) but with a few lamb dishes as well. I had the fish special (arctic char, skate, and catfish), and most everyone else order fish as well (Ethan was the only holdout, he tried the lamb). Catfish: it turns out that this doesn't mean the freshwater thing; there is a species with the same name that is local to the Iceland area.

Tuesday:

The plan for today was to collect our rental car and drive out with Lucy and Scott to the Snæfellsnes peninsula.

We had originally told Lucy and Scott we would meet them at the Budget place around 9:30, but by then the rental car pickup guy hadn't even turned up at our apartment, so we got a bit of a late start. Lucy and Scott had their own adventure while we were struggling with the car guys -- their car GPS took them to a different Budget office (there are two in Reykjavik), so they had to make a second trip. We did eventually get connected.

Driving in Iceland was not too bad, the first day at least. The roads are single lane (except in Reykjavik) but surfaced well for the most part, and the drivers don't seem too insane. Speed limit 90 kph. We decided to chance it and go without a stand-alone GPS device, but just downloading offline areas to Google maps on my cell phone. Amazingly, this seemed to work OK.

The drive up to Snæfellsnes takes you through a really enormous tunnel (6 kilometers) part of the way north, kind of interesting (also 1000kr toll). We listened to a recording of the science fiction novel "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson on the way (lots of eye rolling from Amy, but I think maybe the kids enjoyed it?). On the road:

We stopped in Arnastapi and hiked from the Bárðar Saga Snæfellsáss Statue along the coastal trail to the Fjöruhúsið café, where we had a late lunch (fish soup!). Typical Iceland weather -- started out cloudy but mostly OK, then a few minutes after the soup arrived it started to rain (we were seated outside), then another five minutes after that the rain had stopped again (meanwhile the whole time a stiff breeze was blowing). We talk in New England about how if you don't like the weather you just have to wait five minutes, but I think this very definitely applies in Iceland as well.

Cate the family photographer:

From there we drove up north over the mountains to Kirkjufell (and the town there). Gravel tracked road for part of it (a bit dicey but manageable). Rain once we got there, didn't really want to get out of the car.

Headed back down to the city after that. Dinner: sautéed lamb with tomatoes and scallions, brown rice, green beans, broccoli, spinach, and a stir-fry with snow peas and peppers.

That's the nice thing about doing your own cooking -- you can really load up on the vegetables (especially handy in places like Iceland, where good green veggies in restaurants are few and far between).

Wednesday:

We had originally hoped to get out of the apartment by 9, but things took a bit longer than anticipated, so we got on the road around 9:40 or so. Uneventful drive, weather a mishmash of rain, clouds, mist, etc. We listened to another big chunk of "Snow Crash" along the way.

First stop: lava tube cave at Raufarholshellir, which is only about 30 mins outside of the city. The complete cave walk is almost a mile, mostly in the dark (they tell you to bring a "helmet and flashlight"), but we had only one flashlight, meaning that we mainly did the first hundred meters of the cave or so (which is lit from above by holes). I went another 75 meters in after that with the light, but decided to turn back so I wouldn't keep the others waiting. Pretty damp + drippy, but interesting lava rocks and and interesting tube shapes. Photos:

Second stop was at the big waterfall at Seljalandsfoss -- this is one of the best known in the country, since it is quite tall, and you can also climb around back behind it on a climbing trail. Pretty neat! Also very crowded.

After that we made it for the black sand beach at Reynisdrangar -- that was also pretty cool. The beach is really more pebbles than sand (except for a small portion up at the top), but it also has a fantastic series of columnar basalt formations (viewable and climbable), as well as a small collection of puffin nesting and hanging out on a section of the cliff.

Hanging out up above on the rocks-- Puffins!

From there we spent some more time in the car, finally stopping at a roadside site in the Eldhraun lava fields. This is an enormous lava field spread across a huge swath of southern Iceland that was created by a big eruption of the big volcano "Katla" in 1784. In this area there is basically nothing but fields of globular lava blobs spread over with very thick moss, giving it a completely alien landscape look. Katla is actually "due" for an eruption -- it last erupted in 1918, based on the geological record it is well overdue for another big blow... luckily this didn't happen while we were there! Photos:

Close-up of moss:

Finally we visited the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, which is a 2-3 kilometer long river canyon with a trail running up along the side. This was one of those situations where in order to get up to to the trailhead you have to drive on a class "F" road, so we decided to park a bit down the way and hike up an extra 2 km. The road in was indeed horrendous (huge potholes, etc), so I am in fact just as glad that we didn't chance it (the rental car places warn you sternly about staying off the "F" roads).

Very lovely, although we also managed to get rained on a fair amount (it was mostly clear when we set out, then clouded up and started to drizzle, then came down a bit harder).

Finally we made it to the Klaustur-Hof guesthouse (in the village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur), our destination for the day. Everyone was tired -- long travel day, plus a hike, so we were very glad to just grab dinner at a local restaurant and then sit around and read for a while.

Thursday:

Hiking, huzzah! We had the 7:30am breakfast at the guest house, which was mostly OK although it would have been nice to have some hot dishes (oatmeal or scrambled eggs or something). Hit the road not too long after that and made the drive to Skaftafell, which took about 55 mins. The visitor's center was fairly busy but not totally overcrowded.

After a lengthy study session (conducted earlier in the week) Amy and I decided to opt for hiking the so-called S3 trail, which marked "difficult" but not "excruciating" or "life-threatening". Total of 16 kilometers, elevation gain of about 600 meters.

After all of our previous weather experiences in Iceland I was virtually certain that we were going to get rained on, since there were banks of threatening clouds rolling in steadily, but miraculously the most we ever got was a light sprinkle, and even then only for a minute or two. Naturally, due to the workings of Murphy's Law of Hiking I left the sunblock container in the car, but I think the stuff we applied at the start seemed to hold up OK.

The route follows the outline of a large mountain directly north of the visitor's center; this mountain has mostly reasonable terrain but is flanked on both sides by very steep valleys -- a huge glacier to the east and a river valley to the west. The trail ran to the north along the eastern edge, giving us amazing views of the glacier down below, the mountains beyond that, and then another higher set of glaciers beyond that. At the northernmost tip of the hike the trail then jags south, then west around the central peaks, and then north again until it hits the eastern boundary. Then there is a long climb down to the south with views back to the north and cool stuff to the east as well. Map:

A half hour in:

Cool mushroom on the trailside:

View to the west from the lower elevations:

View to the east:

The glacier to the east of the hike. The trail took us north along a ridge overlooking this monster:

View to the north:

This is getting close to the northernmost point of the trail. There is another more "extreme" trail you can make out snaking around the side of the mountain, but we opted not to go that route..

Halfway through, looking northeast:

View to the north west of yet another glacier:

Looking south. The kids are playing frisbee...

Three-fourths of the way through. We were all a bit tired at this point.

Final stretch:

Entire hike was above treeline, so the visibility was fantastic, and the temperature was fine (not too incredibly windy or cold). The whole thing took us about five and a half hours including a lunch break and a number of stops for snacks.

All in all it was a very memorable hike -- high point of the trip for me. Reminded me a great deal of the Ptarmigan Ridge trail that we did (2007?) when visiting the Mount Baker area in the Cascades.

Dinner was at the guest house restaurant -- pretty basic food, but good. Ethan and I had the bowl of pasta, Amy went for arctic char, which looked pretty tasty.

I went for a walk after dinner while the rest of the gang vegged out -- nice clear weather, blue sky, a few fluffy clouds, lovely stuff. The local farmer guy had cut a bunch of his hay meadows in anticipation of the sunny weather tomorrow, and he was zooming around with a tractor and hay rake. With weather like they have in Iceland, I imagine that you have to strike when the iron is hot.

I discovered a local swimming place, but eventually decided to forgo when I couldn't recruit any others. We eventually wound down reading and surfing the internet, listening to a very busy German family get dinner prepared in the kitchen in the adjoining room.

Friday:

Up early to eat the breakfast stuff we had collected the night before, then hit the road on the dot at 7:30 for the drive out to the glacier lagoon.

Weather had finally cleared up, so we were treated on the drive to beautiful views to the north of the coastal hills, then even more incredible views of the national park and the glaciers that we'd been hiking next to the previous day.

The drive took about an hour and a half -- not very many cars out on the road, but plenty of sheep.

The scene at the lagoon was pretty lively; we arrived with plenty of time to get suited up (we had to wear a sort of jumpsuit/parka) and listen to a very minimal safety lecture, amounting to: "Make sure you hold onto the ropes while inside the boat!".

Our boat had a family of four from Toronto (very genial) and a young couple on their honeymoon, and then our gang of four. It turned out that the couple was from Brighton Mass and that the groom had grown up in Lexington and attended Lexington High School :-).

We did get a short glimpse of a seal earlier on in the trip, but no other wildlife after that.

Photos:

This is looking north from the end of the lagoon at the actual glacier that is producing all of the icebergs:

Oddly, one of the more interesting parts of the tour was when our driver/guide stopped the boat and told us a little about himself and where he had grown up.

He was from a farming family local to the area, so he talked about what happens with sheep in Iceland. Apparently the way that it works is that after lambing in the spring, all of the sheep are essentially turned loose to roam around wherever they want (there are fences, but they are designed to keep the sheep away from the farmland, not keep them in). All summer they roam around, then in the fall (October?) there is a huge roundup in which everyone pitches in to track down every last sheep and bring them all back to the farms in one giant blob. This is a pretty big deal, since the sheep can get up into some very high country -- the roundup involves horses, ATVs, dogs, you name it. Finally there is a rowdy sheep-sorting session in which each farm family wades into the giant mob of sheep and separate out the ones that belong to them (for this part there is apparently alcohol involved?).  From then on until the spring, the sheep are kept in enclosures close to the farm, so that they can survive on the hay that has been stored up for them.

Our driver guy talked very frankly and openly about the big rise in tourism in Iceland -- from his perspective it was a good thing and a real game-changer. Because he has steady work in the tourism industry it means that he can afford to have a house out in the more remote areas (the implication being that otherwise he would have had no choice but to move to Reykjavik and seek work there).

The number of visitors that Iceland gets these days is pretty staggering; more than a million tourists a year visiting a country with only three hundred thousand citizens (compare that with the measly 75 million who visit the US every year). They seem to handle it well, however -- they are all very good sports about the onslaught.

After wrapping up the Glacier tour, we got in the car and made the long drive back to the Reykjavik area. We stopped for lunch at one of the ubiquitous N1 gas stations (yes, you read that right, lunch at a gas station-- they are very popular shops/hangouts/eateries in addition to having gas).

Amy booked us for the night at the Hotel Ork (interesting name), which was about a half hour southeast of Reykjavik, in a geothermal springs area. Nice place, quite modern, with an excellent swimming pool and comfortable rooms. We rolled in around 4ish and had a nice swim and then ate dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Amy and I went for a walk after dinner to explore the nearby shopping area, but the kids at this point were ready to be couch potatoes, so they opted out. I did have a very spirited ping-pong game with Ethan, however.

Saturday:

Amy and I had a leisurely breakfast together at the hotel restaurant while the kids slept in. Fairly international gang at the breakfast-- Australian, Chinese, and a few Americans mixed in as well.

In the morning we decided to go visit the Hellisheidi Power Station, which is only about a ten minute drive from the hotel (and which has a museum + exhibition area explaining the workings of the plant). That was pretty interesting to see-- I was very impressed by the setup. I am actually kind of surprised they there aren't more power plants like it in Japan and in northern California, since as I understand it the geological conditions are pretty similar in some of those areas.

Drove back to the hotel after that, got packed up, and made our way out to the airport to return the rental car and (eventually) make our way back onto the plane for the return flight home.

No surprises on the flight, thank goodness, but I was pretty astonished by the size of the lines in customs & immigration processing in Logan -- huge numbers of people (took us way longer than I had expected). This is probably a good thing I suppose (a positive indicator of economic activity, or something along those lines).

Early bed after that... everyone was ready.