Earth, wind
and fire
We wake up
to a grey and rainy morning. After breakfast we go back to our room to prepare
our route through the city. Most of the highlights are not that far apart so we
can connect them on foot. Only a museum, Perlan, is a bit further out of town.
It consists of 6 water circular tanks that are nowadays exhibitions rooms. From
the roof you have a nice view of the city. We decide to first finish all the
landmarks in the city and before going to the volcano stop by Perlan.
Our first
stop is the city hall which is located near a lake and the entrance has a
walkway over the water. It looks very nice, although a lot of birds like the
walkway as well to rest. Most of the railing and floor is full of bird poop.
Inside the city hall, there’s an 80m² replica of Iceland. Everything
looks modern and the model is impressive. A bureau worked for several years
on it and every hill or mountain is made up out of different layers of what
looked like plaster. Almost like the whole model is 3D-printed. It’s amazingly
detailed and we can trace back most of our route. They even thought of the
practical aspect and can roll the entire model in a cabinet in the wall of the
room in case it’s needed for an event.
After the
city hall we continue towards the harbour. We pass some cool artwork that
serves public use like little seats made out of rotor blades of a ship or a
bicycle stand from anker chain. The idea was to walk around the harbour to
Thufa, an artificial hill at the seaside of the harbour. The docks and wharfs
keep showing up in front of us and we realise this is actually a pretty big
harbour. Or at least, it takes a while to walk around. With some occasional
rain and strong wind, we hope we’ll arrive there quickly.
Thufa itself isn’t that spectacular. It’s a perfectly shaped spheric grass hill
with a tiny hut on top. We reach the top by a path that swings around the hill
and gradually climbs. In the tiny hut on top there’s dried cod hanging from
ropes. We do get a nice view over the harbour and the city of Reykjavik with
the modern Harpa building just across and the famous church tower raising above
all of Reykjavik.
Since the
way back to the hotel is quite a walk, we plan to take one of the electric
steps that we saw all around town. Of course, turns out that they are not that
popular in the harbour area. So, in the end we ended up walking the whole way
back to the hotel.
After a short rest we looked up the latest information about the volcano. Is
the weather okay? Is the volcano active today? Where to park? Which trails are
still available? Having sorted out most of the information we pick up the car
and drive to Perlan.
When we
arrive to the museum it looks like a really immersive and interactive place.
There is even a live ice cave of minus 10 degrees! At one point, we doubted if
we would buy a ticket for the exhibitions, but then decided that we wouldn’t
have the time. We quickly made our way to the top to go to the viewing terrace.
Perlan is very close to Reykjavik airport which mainly serves smaller aircraft
as the big hub is located at Keflavik. We have a look around and drink a coffee
at the rooftop bar.
It's a bit
after noon when we drive to the active volcano in Geldingadalir. From the
highway we can already spot a cloud above a mountain, but we’re still a bit unsure
if it’s smoke from the volcano or just a cloud. Not much later we can clearly
see it’s smoke coming from the mountain!
When we arrive at the parking lot, we’re lucky to find a free spot. The government
has opened various parking lots in the area to accommodate the high number of
locals and tourists. Most of these area are full of cars. According to a sign at the beginning of the trail we have
to pay a parking fee here as well. Just like in Snaefellsness we try the website,
but our bank app requires us to verify the transaction with a card reader and
the card itself. The parking fee itself was also higher than anything we’ve
seen before, so that’s maybe the drawback from higher prices: people can’t just
pay them quickly with their mobile.
We decide
to take the trail that leads up the volcano to where you can see the crater. There
was another trail that takes you closer to the lava, but then you don’t see the
crater. We hope to see some activity, so we decide to go on the long route.
From the road we caught a glimpse of red flowing lava. Already amazed by this
sighting we were hoping we would still see something similar.
Not too far into the trail we spot similar fresh red flowing lava streams over
the older black hardened lava. It’s an incredible sight!
After around 5-10 minutes we arrive at the bottom of the lava. It’s black, full
of little stones and every now and then it’s still smoking. Despite the various
warnings online we still spot people walking on the lava… It’s unbelievable how
stupid some people are.
After
having seen the hardened lava from up close, it’s time to start our steep climb
to the crater. The higher we climb, the better the view becomes and the more
you get a sense of magnitude on what this volcano already erupted. In fact, two
days ago there was another trail that just went to the bottom of the lava flow.
As of yesterday, the trail closed because the lava had come further down and
destroyed the track.
The path up is steep and we don’t advance very fast. Every time the red glare
in the fresh lava changes, we stop to take a picture. The temperature of this
stuff is insane and can reach above 1000°C. It’s no surprise that when a stream
of red lava reaches the sand and vegetation it immediately sets ablaze everything
on its path.
At a
certain point we lose the cover of a nearby hill and the wind picks up
fiercely. It’s cold and especially hard to take any good pictures. Because the
crater and lava are far away, we need to use our telescopic lenses to the
maximum and the wind doesn’t help the stability of the shot. Even on a tripod
the camera gets shaken around too much to take a good picture. We see the
crater in the distance, and every now and then there’s some more smoke coming
out of it. The edges of the crater are full of colours, especially yellow and
green like we saw earlier at various places with high geothermal activity. We
stick around, take a lot of pictures and enjoy being at such an unreal place.
Because we don’t think the view on the crater itself will get much better, we
retrace our steps downhill to the car. Unfortunately, there’s no more time to
do the other trail that gets closer to the glowing lava.
On our way
back to Reykjavik we stop at a gas station to clean our car. Some gas stations
have free to use self-carwash which is very practical. Our car has been
stationary for the last couple of days and had seen some rain. However, the dirt
from the last weeks didn’t really wash off by itself. Therefore, in order to
prevent an extra fine by the rental company for not being able to inspect the vehicle
upon return, we gave it a quick wash ourselves. Back in Reykjavik we do some
souvenir shopping and have dinner in a cosy restaurant in the shopping street.
Ann has a classic traditional Icelandic dish for her last night: lamb. You cannot
leave Iceland without having tasted at least one of their famous dishes.
Satisfied we went to the volcano, we go to bed. The next morning will be
painful as we need to get up early to catch our flight back to Brussels.
All fairy
tales come to an end
It’s still
night when our alarm goes off. The reception desk of the hotel is open 24/7 and
we can easily check-out. They don’t serve breakfast this early, but they’ve
prepared a bag with about 8 little croissants for us and a cup of orange juice.
Amazing! Because this is the only night where there’s a reasonable chance to
see the northern lights, we check the website/forecast again when we leave. It
should still be possible to see them, but the sky is partly clouded and in the
city there’s definitely too much light pollution. Maybe once we’re on our way
to the airport and we’re in the middle of nowhere.
Once we’re
on the highway the artificial light gets less, but unfortunately for us, this
seems to be the only highway where they’ve placed street lighting on the entire
highway. With the partly clouded sky we quickly give up any hope to see the
northern lights and wonder how the volcano would look at night. It must simply
be amazing to have that extra bit of glow and contrast of the lava in the pitch
black dark. Not much later we get an impression of how amazing this must be: the
sky in the distance has a red glow. Just like the sun is about to rise! How
cool is this?! Even from the highway we’re still stunned by this volcano and
mother nature.
There’s no
one at the car rental office at this time of day (or night) and we have to
leave the keys in a box. Curious if we’ll hear anything from them about our beloved
car we go to the airport. Fingers crossed they don’t find anything seriously wrong,
or the sounds start coming back during a test drive.
Spoiler alert: we didn’t hear from them, yet.
When it’s time to board the aircraft the first daylight reaches the island. As
dawn breaks, we leave this magnificent country behind us. We’re both sad it’s
over, but truly grateful we look back on a trip full of amazing experiences and
breath-taking views.
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I hope this
blog may inspire you to one day visit Iceland. The title of this last blog post
is not only a good music band, for me it’s also fitting for the country. The
earth with all its contrast in colours and mountains. The elements of the
weather of which wind is especially something to be prepared for. And last but
not least, fire, of a never-ending looming danger beneath this island.
Thank you
for reading!
Laurens
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