Le Petite Blog: August 2017

As many of you know we went to Iceland this last month and it really was the most amazing thing. Being a geography and geology person, it has been a life long goal to go there and so I was really made up to be able to do that this summer. To combine my love of Scandinavian and Geology, well match made in heaven and so off to Iceland we went. We were able to fly to Manchester and next day go to Iceland, although we nearly missed the flight because of the madness that is Manchester Airport and the que for a) check in and b) security. But all good and we got there and some 2 and half hours later arrived in Iceland and I immediately knew that my travelling clothes were wholly inappropriate. In addition to that, I was stuck with them for the duration, as Iceland is the most expensive place on earth! So no quick shop for things.

Just a quick aside about the weather in Iceland. We had 50 to 70 Fahrenheit temperatures there and I honestly had no idea what to wear to combat the cold! It is damp and cold and then the weather changes in a heart beat. I mean I'm used to the Isle of Man and climates having been living in US but nothing prepared me for the weather. They do the weather report citing the three layers of cloud! That tells you something. So it was damp, it was amazingly foggy at times, it was drenching and quite warm....oh and the sun never set. I mean day light all day, save for half an hour at 1.00am in the morning.

So to say I wasn't prepared is an understatement. In every sense of the word, I wasn't prepared for any of it at all. The scale is the most amazing thing, the weather (already talked of), the light and remoteness, all of this contributed to an outer world feeling and the sensory over load, left you almost unable to take any of it in and I am therefore pleased I took so many pictures. It maybe that this becomes a two parter.....so lets see how we go.

Ok, so you weren't expecting that! Neither was I. Graffiti is everywhere in Reykjavik. Truly the most graffiti ever anywhere I have been.

This takes some working out but interesting

Ok, I've no idea on this abstract

This is our first evening and we are walking towards the concrete Hallgrimskirkja church. This dominates the skyline and can be seen from where we are staying outside of the city, in one of the small towns.

Nod to the maritime theme

This is jewelers work in the window. I was too scared to go into this shop but loved this detailing

The street in Reykjavik

That would be a menu then, grafitti style

The colorful houses almost glow in the foggy air and bearing in mind this is night time!

Leif Ericsson..boy you got splaining to do!

It really is an amazing church and far less imposing than I had thought. It really is a lovey building

I spotted this turf roof on a building across the street

So again, bearing this in mind, it is evening in the city and really light, what is a teenager to do! That would be go on a scooter, no helmet with a friend and bring a tag along and by the way, they are heading for a hill...they just happen to be at the top of it. I particularly liked the onlookers expressions!

This is what my guys are doing and we're outside the church. Don't know what the minder is doing!

Inside it is huge ceilings and smooth beautiful lines, all concrete

This is when we came out and the light as you can see is still there!

Nice door in the city

More graffiti in a precarious place!

But what about this one wrapped around the building

Ok enough of that and this is the scene as we head out of the city

pretty church as we hurtle by

Yup, that's them Icelandic ponies we hear so much about.

Just this scene, times a thousand

That is the head of a glacier, not a cloud

the open road

I have included this as you can see the scale of the area we are in, with the cars in the bottom right corner. Talk about expansive

OMG that is lava!!!!

We are looking out at the pingvellir National Park. This is where their Tynwald (and top marks to those remembering the blog before last!) where their clans would meet and discuss the laws. It is also the site of the Mid Atlantic ridge!!!!! Two tectonic plates meet here and are pulling away from each other or spreading.

That huge cliff is one of them and there is the other and those dots are people walking between them. Remember that thing I said about scale!

More of the park and snow covered mountains in the distance and the water is from the glacial melt. In the foreground those dots again, you got it, they're people.(Officially not able to take in the scale nor more importantly, convey just how huge everything is there and how small you are looking at it.)

That's better small picture of lava boulders and if you have massive mountains as scenery and waterfalls in Iceland, the rest is made up of ginormous lave fields like this. They have moss on them that has taken hundreds of years to form and it quite bright in color in places. It is like an ocean of lava when you see it stretching as far as the eye can see, in all directions.

More from the Mid Atlantic ridge and spot the Fozard in the yellow coat

So at the top of one of the walls of the ridge, the boys pointed to this stone, just resting! It's a massive boulder and goes to show that this is ever changing environment and they mean those statements on sticks that say, entering at your risk!

Just the most beautiful eye restful place

We are whizzing along again in the car and this is just some views I saw

Barn in the literally the middle of no where and yup that is you guessed it, graffiti..did I mention the youth, I'm guessing that long summer nights means mischief

But enough of that, we're on our way to Geyser. This is where the word for the phenomena of water coming out of the ground in a hot whoosh came from! Hence we are going to Geyser to look at you got it Geysers....The smell is what hits you first, sulfur and that is one hard smell to ignore. Think rotten eggs and chemistry lab at school. But the colors in this picture, the heather and pines...well amazing and a steaming ground..

It does actually bubble and the water, well that's hot!

They are waiting for it to go. I personally wouldn't stand that close myself

This is into one of the hot pools and we are looking into the earth. That dark spot is one deep hole

So it went and I wasn't too close but got an ok shot. It really does go quite high amazing and that's every coupe of minutes....wowe That is some force to make it do that.

Boiling water in the ground, it's that hot!!!

Lovely cotton grass and I saw this in the Isle of Man too....It really is a delicate and beautiful plant and I was surprised to have just seen this in the Isle of Man and then there it was next to a geyser

This is stream from one of the geysers and look at the way it has changed the rock and caused deposits and made a mud.....that's a whole heap of chemicals right there

I liked the roofs of these buildings

amazing skyline

Gullfoss.......Just breathtaking and amazing. The dots in the top right corner, yes, they are people....

This is an immense waterfall

Just truly massive

The water spray coming back up is like a heavy mist

I liked the design of their pylons....

The open road there is just immense

That would be an old volcano. I was properly excited see that.

Sky and the open road, pretty amazing

The land is steaming and again, the smell is present and this landscape is littered with these vents

Just everywhere in the geothermal area outside the city of Reykjavik

It's just too amazing for words

There are waterfalls big and small everywhere. This is a small one

Driving on the top of the mountains in the geothermal area, along fields of moss covered lava and you can't tell the difference between cloud from the sky and cloud from the ground, steaming vents

This became a "thing", coffee and cake Kaffi og kake, is very as I know it Danish and so mid afternoon you can get this everywhere. (As Iceland was under danish rule until 1944, makes sense that some things rubbed off and this is a good one. Although I believe Icelanders have always done this. What ever the case I enjoyed it and they like their coffee strong! probably because they are awake for 24 hours!)

On the top of the mountain the lava fields and the fog!!!!

Up high on the mountains and I spot some ponies....

After all that sightseeing we were more than ready to sit down and eat! Not sure Isaac is too happy with the huggy brother. But there you go...

Yes more graffiti and this is going to be covered very soon by the building next to it. What we started to wonder is, are these commissioned pieces?. Some of them must have been

But then you're not sure. But surely someone noticed them making this one?

The houses in Reykjavik are corrugated iron and painted and while taking some building pics, spotted this couple. Love their coats!

The style of house or shop often had this front piece over the door....the corrugated iron reminded me of Australia of all places. But again they had restricted building material.....ooh connection

This was a sweet one

I think this is a substation for electricity?

Look at that Mural

And this one

Boat in a car park and painted graffiti, in fact in this car park it warned drivers that their cars were at parked at the owners risk, for graffiti!

Great window and yes the fence is painted? graffiti?

Down by the harbor the buildings are quite colorful

This was a seat for smokers...they are propeller blades, ingenious

I loved this....speaks for it's self (same shelter as the seats)

Part of the harbor area

This man-made hill is a sculpture called the pufa (if I had an Icelandic keyboard that word would look different. Like the National Park with their Tynwald in it at the Mid Atlantic ridge the p is not a p but a mixture of a p and d.....) . The sculpture was being worked on, as in maintenance, so we just had to see it from afar

This graffiti will soon be covered by a building. I'm seeing a diver?

I love this picture. The curve of the building line and the fence at the bottom. The mix of building heights and the 60's low building in the middle is very American. But the best bit, the blue boat in the middle. That's in the dock and being worked on and shows you how the natural world here is mixed in with the man made.

Great door

Great artichoke light!

Building painting

Examples of the houses in the posh bit of the city

Now that is Jamie's, as in Jamie Oliver. British Celebrity chef ....yes he has a restaurant here. Now I wan't expecting that!

Liked the building lines and the roof

Great door and color

They do have some slate roofs and siding made of slate

Fabulous tower and the colors are great

Building painting

More of the same. I think this must be stamps and maybe this building was previously a post office.....

The lake down town

this building seems to float on it

Another great light

corrugated building and that funny substation thingy

Great example of the building types

This was a sweet one

I liked the door friend

The city of Reykjavik right on the harbor and the mountains behind. But if an ugly picture but shows the natural landscape is never far away here. Also no idea what time of day it is, could be literally any time?

This is a sneaky picture through a shop window in a designer area, of a dress and this is the close up of the dress material. I couldn't believe it. Violent expression I suppose for an extreme place of climate, landscape and so it comes out in some interesting, if not disturbing ways. At the end of the day it is only an image but it made me feel uneasy just seeing it.

Funny guy in a hidden corner

Now this was a beautiful image on the side of a building. I took this as we passed in the car

It was excellent. The red paint although the color was lovely on the green/blue the word sprayed (badly) was ugly....interesting what people see

Still night in the harbor

Lovely old building in the city

The horses are like sentinels in the landscape....

As we rushed onto another location, we passed many fields and this one with the white bales, was I thought quite the image. They stretch as far as you can see.

This is the only waterfall you can walk all the way round and under, apparently, in the world. The weather was foul this day and we got drenched before we even got near the water fall! See the person on the right hand side?

The dots behind the waterfall are people and some of those people were the boys! I didn't go behind the falls. I thought it might be too slippy. Damian said it was fine. But soaking wet and then we got hot chocolate to heat ourselves up and the wind (yes wind) blew Isaac's hot drink all over me!!!!! That was the day I fully appreciated the Icelandic weather and my woeful sartorial choices. But I at least wasn't like one tourist I saw with an umbrella...I'm telling you, water was coming in all directions and her umbrella lasted about two seconds! But the photo is good

and we are the wettest things ever!

But you know it is very tiring being driven places and seeing amazing sights. Early evening and it's blindingly bright...exhausting...

But everywhere we went, just amazing views and fog and water and slopping mountains

Did I mention low cloud

The mountains were just amazing formations

The waterfalls were immense and we didn't get out of the car for this one

These are bales, not sheep. But that's a close call and this view is over the flats they turn in the sea

The waterfall closer and with tents!!! I can't imagine camping there....Look at the top right of the waterfall and the viewing platform, they are dots! (people)

The path to the said viewing platform (as stated, we were already wet, grumpy and fed up, we didn't get out of the car for this one)

But driving away this image was quite startling

In minutes the mists had cleared

As we sped past on the main road you could still see the waterfall and it truly was huge!

The settlements at the bottom of the mountains show the scale here really well.

I can't believe I got this picture and we were driving past this. So I'm sure there is some blurring. But wow and wow

Further along we saw this waterfall and it is actually not falling but blowing back up again because of the wind! It is something to behold that.

All along the Mountains have these waterfalls. There are an amazing amount of them

Huge river bed to take all that water off the mountains coming down from the glaciers.

Was so pleased to get this shot of one of the glaciers...

OK so for Iceland hay bales are my Water Tower thing obsession. But this is a great picture!

This is a rock in the middle of the river! What!

Geothermal Power Station. It makes it's own steam. We visited this on the tops of the mountain on another day when you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face! Now I see the odds were against us seeing it then or ever, with the combination of steam and low cloud!! We drove past it on a previously heavy mist day. Talk about low cloud

and that's the power lines, marching across the landscape over the moss covered lava.....

I'm thinking your funny....

Ok complex explanation coming up and we're awaiting Kaffi og kake

Hello!

This is the scene from down by the lake in Reykjavik and looking back towards the mountains...breathtaking. The light play on the mountains is sublime

What a great mural

and another one

Tired now and yes he's wearing a sleep mask....he was exhausted and the blinds in his room didn't shut the light out fully. Well did I mention that it never goes dark. By this point (couple days into the holiday) eyes are set to fully open and needing cocktail sticks to hold them open as it is sooo tiring.