We made it to Selfoss, Iceland!
There are a lot of fish in Iceland.
A foreigner decided to plant Lupin to stop erosion but our guide says it’s invasive and doesn’t like it.
Did Tolkien come to Iceland? That sure looks like a Hobbit house. It is a traditional house that no one lives in any longer. They lived inside with their animals, breathing smoke from their fires and didn’t live very long.
We ended our evening joining the community to watch the World Cup Final.
We visited a wools studio and met a former Ag professor who now makes traditional dyes for her wool. She explained which plants made which colors. Don’t quiz us on this. The woman who has the wool studio has it in her house so that she can work 24/7. She knows all about plants (other than mushrooms) and the dyes she can make with them. She is committed to organic dyes but says the colors do not last as long as those colors we can get so readily.
Nordic knitting is a bit different and they think it’s easier. Kate opted to try it.
Although it wasn’t on our program, our guide wanted to take us to a hydroplant.
They had a fun interactive museum. This wall said you are energy and we could change the patterns and size as we touched it.
Next we went to see a famous Geysir— pronounced gay-seer. We were waiting for it to erupt for our photo op but it was so rainy and foggy it was a bit of a photo bust — but Kate took the best photo.
Finally we visited the Gulfoss waterfall. The waterfall flows into a hundred foot deep crevice. Our book said on sunny days you can see beautiful rainbows in the mist. Oh well. We still enjoyed it.
DAY 3
Do you have the stereotype that Icelandic people are tall, blonde, Viking-like and Lutheran? Well, they used to be. They are still mostly Lutheran but just at Christmas and funerals. Churches are never very full. These days 20% of the population is composed of immigrants. The biggest group come from Poland and work in the fishing industry, the next biggest group come from the Baltic states and tend work in hotels. The third largest group comes from the Philippines and the mainly work in healthcare. Our guide pointed out an Icelandic man with an Asian-looking wife and little kid. Siggi, our guide, says you never used to see mixed marriages.
Today we visited Seljalandsfoss waterfall —-
Along with most of Europe with a few Americans thrown in. Ok, a slight exaggeration, and we are here at tourist season. Melting glacier water pours over a rocky cliff , creating a 180 foot waterfall. This waterfall is the result of climate change — a symbol of Iceland perhaps some day being iceless.
We’ve learned that Iceland is a volcanic island. Apparently, there are small earthquakes every day and periodic volcanic eruptions. Unlike San Francisco that gets quakes from two plates pushing against each other, Iceland is on the North American plate and the Eurasian plate that keep pulling apart, causing quakes and volcanic eruptions. There are currently 34 very active volcanic areas across the country. Most of us think of volcanos as exploding from mountains, but in Iceland there are no huge mountains. The volcanoes explode from fissures in the ground. The cliffs you see above with the waterfall are part of a ring of small mountains and cliffs —- and here’s surprising part — this used to be the seacoast. Hundreds of years ago you’d walk into the ocean, but when the volcano exploded the earth upheavals created this wall of rock.
We stopped at this little store that is across the street from a farm that was destroyed by volcanic eruptions.
Next, we’d all heard that western Iceland was famous for its puffins. The trip offered a pre-trip to see thousands of puffins. Our guide said there was a spot where there were often puffins in the rocks. We were lucky. They were here today, along with a fierce Islandic wind. A few pics and we were happy to go.
After lunch at a local hotel restaurant, we went on a super jeep tour over the rugged Icelandic landscape.
This was a 16 person jeep with enormous tires and air hoses connected to them. As we drove over different terrain, our jeep guide would inflate and deflate the tires. I think this was everyone’s favorite day so far. We drove out to walk on the glaciers. They warned us this would not look like our image of glaciers. No white ice. No bluish clear ice. These glaciers are covered in volcanic ash.
The stripes are ice and volcanic ash.
Our glacier guide broke off a piece of the mountain and rinsed it in water and you can see, it’s a big chunk of ice.
Nobody lives in this area because it is a flood plain. And when he says flood plain, when a volcano explodes beneath the ice, it sends 50-80 million gallons of water every second over the land. That’s not an exaggeration. I checked with him that it wasn’t minutes — which would still be hard to fathom. The water reaches enormous heights. As you can see, we were off by ourselves with no other tourists. It was a wonderful afternoon.
A final nerdy note: The beginning scene of Star Wars: Rogue One was filmed in front of these mountains beside the glacier.
DAY 4
Today was a travel day with stops along the way. And Kate and I were very happy that we met 4 dogs.
First, we stopped by Whale Fjord. We could see 2 ships docked behind a closed fence. They were whaling ships and that was where they cut up whales. There’s been a lot of protest about whaling. Siggi, our guide ate whale meat growing up because they were poor and needed food. Now, she says they don’t need it and she’s against whaling. A former Prime Minister gave a 5 year permit to the owner of this operation — and later people learned that one of his relatives owns 5% of the business, So there is a move to try to get rid of his permit.
Our first stop was a sheep farm.
Grandma is spinning yarn from wool.
This is the farmer who is wearing the Icelandic flag on his head. He loves sheep farming. It is a family business. Because there are no predators, they can let the sheep graze on the mountains all winter. In the spring, the family members and dogs all look for the sheep to bring them home. They all have air tags so they don’t get lost!
After lunch, his daughter took us into the barn to meet the sheep. They also have pet goats who were very interested in us.
The farmer’s daughter had us meet a sheep that had been born 4 days ago.
This sheep was having a drink.The farm has 600 sheep and very few stay in the barn.They shear them in November and March, though November is when they get most of the wool that they sell.
By the young woman was delightful. Turns out she’s on a swimming scholarship to Towson University which is 30 minutes north of Baltimore. Her English was great.
These are the sheep dogs. This was my unsuccessful attempt to capture the dog on the right trying to pounce on the other dog and herd him. The puppy is only 3 months old. We got to pet all three of the wet dogs. Did we mention it was raining? Again? The farmer told us this was the rainiest July ever. One day without rain. There are 100 words for rain in Icelandic, 100 words for snow, and quite a few words for wind.
All over Iceland we saw these plastic wrapped bales of hay. Apparently, they are wrapped to keep the air out and let the hay ferment to make it healthier. They have an elaborate recycling program for the plastic.
Next we drove to an Icelandic horse farm. On the way, our guide told us more stories about the big debate about possibly joining the EU. There will be a vote on whether to even consider joining it and the whole thing is very controversial. Siggi’s husband who is Norwegian is for it and she is strongly against it! Many farmers get subsidies from the government which will stop if they join the EU. Some people think there will be financial benefits from joining the EU. Siggi thinks the country didn’t get Independence from Denmark until 1944 and doesn’t think that they should go back to someone else telling them what to do.
We met a sweet dog at the horse farm. Then we met a week old horse and a one day old horse.
The guide demonstrated the 5 different gaits of the Icelandic horses. Though we might think that they are ponies, folks get very offended if people call them ponies. The horses have much stronger bone structure and muscle mass than ponies. They also have 2 layers of fur and can spend the winter outside with no blankets on them.
Our guide was from Holland, lives in Sweden, but comes to the horse farm in summer to lead horse groups. A popular group is the knitting and riding group though they don’t do both activities at once!
DAY 5
Here are the highlights for today!
GOOD DAY SUNSHINE!!!!
Of course, we did some fun and interesting activities, but truly the star of the show was the sun. Finally!!
To give you more of a sense of our whole journey, we flew into Keflavik airport which is on the peninsula to the west of Reykjavik. Then we traveled southeast to Selfoss and went to glaciers in Vik. Those waterfalls we visited were part of the Golden Circle. Then, yesterday we turned around heading west and north to Borgarfjordur where we went to the sheep farm and horse farm and then today headed north until we arrived tonight in Akureyri which you can see is in northern central Iceland. FYI it is the second largest city in the country with 20,000 people.
The road was lined with poles. It was hard to get a photo from the bus but the yellow pole is to help people figure out where the road was when the snow storms started. We’ve heard several stories since about needing to rescue Asian tourists who decide to drive in the snow but have no idea what they are getting into.
Apparently there are other tourists who have no idea of what they are getting into. We stopped by a waterfall with large outcroppings. We saw a tourist in a very precarious spot. Siggi said people go out there to take a selfie, their last ever selfie!
Our next stop was a grocery store. We were each given the name of a food in Icelandic. We were to figure out what was on our list and put it in the cart. One woman was the banker who had to make sure we stayed within a certain budget. I’ve done this on other O.A.T. trips and its always challenging but fun.
Next we took our food to the local Search and Rescue Team where we had a buffet lunch from our store adventure and learned about the work that they do. First, we continued to take in the weather.
Here’s what’s crazy. There are Search and Rescue Groups all around the country but they get no money from the government. They have to raise all of their own funds— through donations, fireworks sales (fireworks are very big in Iceland, especially at New Years.) and some corporate donations. They sell cute key chains every year. All of their rescuers are volunteers. The one good thing is that if they have to go off on a rescue mission, their employers are required to pay them their salary — whether they are gone 1 day or 8. The organization started to help with drownings with the fishing industry but now they deal with snow, floods, car accidents, and falls from rocks.
We were pleased to learn that O.A.T.‘s Grand Circle Foundation is one of their donors. They purchased this gurney which they’ve already used to rescue a woman who fell off a mountain.
We were back on the road again but stopped briefly to visit an old farm that looked like the shire from Lord of the Rings.
Snow capped mountain outside of Akureyri. Siggi thinks the snow may last all summer.
Then we had a delightful treat. Siggi took us to her lovely home. Her husband had prepared snacks for us.
Then we checked into our hotel and before dinner, we had the perfect day to walk to the Botanical Garden.
DAY 6
If you look carefully at this traffic light, you can see that it is in the shape of a heart!
Today we drove to Godafoss waterfall.
The story behind the name which translates “waterfall of the gods,” marks the time around 1,000 when the country decided to adopt Christianity as the official religion. Supposedly one member of parliament threw all his statues of the Norse gods into the water to mark the change. Hence, the name waterfall of the gods.
This forceful rushing river that flows down from the waterfall and is usually a deep blue. It has been so warm that the melting glaciers are picking up mud and sand turning the river brown. Siggi said her son was planning to fish from the river today but it was too muddy to see the fish.
This forceful rushing river that flows down from the waterfall and is usually a deep blue. It has been so warm that the melting glaciers are picking up mud and sand turning the river brown. Siggi said her son was planning to fish from the river today but it was too muddy to see the fish.
We didn’t get a blue river but we got another reward.
From there we drove to the Lake Mytvan area, sculpted by ages of volcanic eruptions
Unfortunately, for some reason google is not letting me access my videos so you just need to imagine all of the bubbling mudpots. You could tell that they were extremely hot.
Volcanic eruptions from 1975-84 closed off these caves until the water temperature went down. Now you can explore caves. Game of Thrones was filmed here.
Then we visited the “black castle”, lava formations of Dimmuborgir. A lonely troll is supposed to live here.
If you look carefully, you can see cracks in the lava from earthquakes.
The photo below shows a fissure between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate.
We walked around the pseudocraters. They look like volcanic craters but there is no bottom connection under the earth.
Our group went to a farmhouse that was stunning inside.
This is our amazing host. She not only cooked for us, she actually caught all of the fish she cooked, she grew all of the salad vegetables in her garden and made bread, served us ice cream she bought but with a thick rhubarb sauce that she made from rhubarb she grew.
She is also a family therapist, a knitter, she works cutting back woods, and collects art. We had a great discussion about books. Iceland has the highest percentage of authors than any other country. The whole country reads (in those long dark winters) and for Christmas, which is a huge deal for many days, everyone gets books for presents. We all enjoyed ourselves very much.
DAY 7
Yesterday I was too tired to mention how important Trolls and Elves are to Icelandic culture. The trolls are huge, mean, and will eat people. Elves are tiny and can see us but we can not see them. They are very smart. They live in stones. Siggi told us stories of issues when a road needed to be built and there was an elf stone in the way, they built the road around the stone! According to surveys, about 50-60% of Icelanders believe in Elves (or at least don’t rule them out), which even surprises Siggi. She said her mom definitely believed in Elves and she clearly did not.
This is Gayla, the troll mother of the Christmas lads, 13 troll Yule lads who descend from the mountains one by one from December 12-24 and leave small gifts or rotting potatoes in children’s shoes. They go back to the mountain one by one until January 6. She also is the troll who lived in the caves in the “black castle” that we visited yesterday.
This is the famous Yule cat who accompanies the lads. Everyone in Iceland knows this story and celebrates the lads arrival. Siggi read us folktales during our long bus rides. They have many folktales and they seldom have a happy ending.
One thing you will never need to buy if you move to Iceland is a hot water heater. Everywhere is heated by underground geothermal water. Sometimes the pipes are underground but we saw many above ground. If you’ve ever wondered when you travelled, even in the US, if you will get enough hot water for a long hot shower, fear not in Iceland. Just make sure you get enough cold added so you don’t get scalded.
Today we went whale watching and Siggi instructed us to wear long John’s, water proof pants, everything warm and that they would give us a suit to put over our clothes. We could barely move!
Finally ready for departure.
The boat.
The water.
A lovely, freezing day, close to the Arctic Sea. If you’ve ever wondered what the ocean is like near Iceland in July, it is freezing and salty. One of the guys working on the boat said this was the roughest day at sea all summer. In fact, when we returned to get our lunch buffet at the local restaurant, the woman there didn’t think we’d be coming because she assumed we would not go out to sea. We had tons of water fly into the boat and on us. Later, I could actually wring water from my gloves.
Mostly it was a trip of not whale watching but we did see some humpback tales, spouting and a dolphin.
Nobody was getting good photos but if you look carefully there is a black body in the center of the photo. You can make it bigger.
We were surprised to learn that two required courses in school are knitting and swimming. UNESCO declared Iceland’s swimming Intangibles Cultural Heritage. Every town has a pool and it is a big family and community meeting place as much as it is a swimming athletic facility. They have both indoor and outdoor pools, of course, heated by geothermal water.
This pool was across the street from our hotel. You can see how they were dressed. And now you can see how we were dressed as we took the photo.
It was about 42 degrees with a fierce Icelandic wind.
Kate liked this house we passed on our way to dinner. Kate and I went to an Indian restaurant.
Some final street scenes from our walk home. Akureyri is a lovely small city.
DAY 8
One final photo from Akureyi — forgot to post this yesterday — but how could not post this! Seen on a street — perhaps covering a meter?
We flew to Reykjavik on small plane from the tiny airport. There was one other plane at the airport! First stop, the famous Perlan Museum that overlooks the city.
To quote their brochure — “it’s an interactive exhibit that brings Iceland’s unique natural wonders to life from volatile geothermal forces churning away beneath the surface to…icy glaciers”. And that’s a pretty good description. We weren’t allowed to take photos in the immersive volcano show. We really did feel like we were going under the earth in the fiery magma streams and then exploding above ground.
We weren’t allowed to take photos in the immersive shows but we could in the ice cave. It had real snow and ice and they provided like jackets for us to put on in the exhibit.
If you look carefully, I am sitting on a chair made of ice.
There’s an observation deck that we could get a panoramic view of the city.
After checking into our hotel, we went on a short tour of the plaza and city center.
This is the parliament building. It still has the Danish crown on top which they decided to keep for historical reasons but they are still quite touchy about being under Denmark. On their Independence Day, there are big celebrations in the grassy plaza below.
Some photos from the old neighborhood that is now quite a coveted place to live.
Some of us went to the stunning Harpa music hall to hear a final season performance of free concerts in an open space. Alas, we couldn’t get in to see the concert hall. Photos from the outside and the concert.
DAY 9
In my various travels I don’t think I ever went to a power plant. Today we went to a second power plant. It is the largest geothermal plant in Iceland and one of the largest in the world. As we approached, we could see steam coming from the plant.
The lecturer stood behind this moss covered podium.
I couldn’t begin to explain this process but we were clear it is quite complicated and requires many engineering feats.
They also had several well-produced multi-media presentations.
Then we went to an open-air historical museum to learn about living conditions in the early years.
Those aren’t ghosts. Just shadows of all of us trying to take photos. The grounds are filled with actual houses that were picked up on trucks and delivered. There was a live national show to explain the process and, of course, that was the only time a house fell off the truck!
This is the oldest church in Iceland. Turf roofs were the most waterproof but had to be replaced every 10 years. Once better materials, more waterproof, were developed, turf roofs weren’t used.
Siggi asked her to tell about herself. She is getting a masters degree in folklore and her thesis is on Elves and Christianity. She thinks they are Christian. Siggi was floored and demandingly asked, “Do you believe in Elves???” She answered, “yes.”
This is one house. the oldest part is the gray building and then they just kept adding on.
Then we went to a building where this wonderful musician played many Icelandic folk songs and explained their stories. She had a lovely voice and got us engaged singing with her. (I still can’t figure out why I can’t download my videos which I’ve done in the past). After the concert, she taught us a traditional folk dance everyone knows.
Before we left, Siggi insisted that we participate in an Icelandic ritual: drinking traditional wine and eating fermented shark!
I decided to be a good traveler and give it a try.
Kate guffawed as she captured my reaction.
Pretty much everyone else’s reaction!
Then we stopped at the large church that overlooks the city. If someone important dies, their funeral is always held here.
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We learned that they can turn the pews around and people often come there for organ recitals.
During free time, Kate enjoyed herself at the National Gallery of Iceland.
We found out friends Candace and Anne were coming back from Greenland and spending the night in Reykjavik when we had a free night. Candace and was staying in a hotel right across the grassy plaza from our hotel. There was a great restaurant there. Fun to get together and share travel stories.
DAY 10
This was our last full day in Iceland. Tomorrow we head to Greenland where we hear that the internet is terrible. It may be several days until I send out another blog.
First, a few photos from our drive out of Reykjavik.
The photo above is of old lava. You can tell because it is covered with moss. It can take hundreds of years for moss to grow. We headed to the famous Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa The whole area around it, the Reykjanes Peninsula, was endangered from volcanic eruptions in 2021, 2023, 2024, and August 2025.The photo below is me, with sun in my eyes, pointing out the huge lava piles that flowed over the land.
This wall below, between the lava field and the mountain was built by some very brave men. And after they built it during the earlier eruptions, they had to make the wall higher, while the lava was rolling toward them.
This wall protected the Blue Lagoon but there was some controversy because the Blue Lagoon is a commercial enterprise and government funds were used to build the wall. There is a new spa, Sky Lagoon, that many people think is nicer but when O.A,T, took some travelers to the other spa, they got complaints that they hadn’t been taken to the famous Blue Lagoon!
One of our travelers had a waterproof case on her camera and took a few photos. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any of the whole lagoon that is filled with many, many bathers from all over the world. I heard Chinese and Japanese, Spanish, and probably various Nordic languages. Not Icelandic as they don’t go there! Too expensive. You can get a mask to soften your skin. You leave it on for 10 minutes and then wash it off,
And we enjoyed our free non-alcoholic drink.
After the lagoon, we drove around the town of Grindavik. The eruptions were a disaster for the town. One man disappeared in a volcanic fissure and was never found. Many houses were destroyed and others were abandoned. The government bought some of those houses. People are living in other places but want to return home. It is controversial since government bought some of the houses and since there is still volcanic activity. It was a lovely, not expensive, community with good schools.Now it’s blocked off from visitors.
Iceland no longer believes there is such a thing as an extinct volcano. They knew the area had been volcanic but it hadn’t erupted in 800 years so they thought it was safe to build there.
This is the famous building where Reagan and Gorbachev met to end the Cold War—except it was secret that Reagan had Alzheimer’s and really his staff did the negotiating.
In one of our hotels I took a photo of this sculpture. We heard that the artist has work around the country.
Today when we went to a lovely restaurant by the harbor, Siggi told us as we headed to the bathroom to take a look around.
And we found another one of her sculptures.
A bit of whimsy for sure!
After lunch we went to the Settlement Museum close to our hotel. It told the history of Iceland with some cool presentations.
But we zipped through the museum as our brains were full!
After our farewell dinner for the Iceland part (7 are going home and 7 are going to Greenland) we went to a church across the street. You can see there is a piano.
This lovely man comes to the church every Tuesday night to play a 30 minute concert of pieces by Bach.
Quite a treat.
DAY 11 - WE DO HAVE INTERNET — AT LEAST TODAY
. We had a leisurely morning in Iceland at The laundromat— best breakfast in town. Loved the decor and books you can borrow.
Map of Greenland. It is closer to Canada than Iceland.
View at the tiny airport in Kulusuk, Greenland.
How we got our luggage.
View from our hotel window. Hotel seems pushing it — more like a camp.
Outside our hotel.
Hotel lobby. I think maybe 15 people are staying here.
River Beauty, National Flower of Greenland.
Cotton Grass
DAY 12
Our hotel in Kusuluk.
On Day 12 which now seems thousands of years ago., we went to the tiny museum in Kusuluk.
We went into their rather chaotic store.
The water really is this color.
Flying on a helicopter was certainly not on my bucket list and in fact it was one reason I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this trip, but it was actually easy. Other than a very long boat trip it’s the only way to get from one fjord to the other.
Kate has on her ear protectors.
We arrived in Tasiilaq , Greenland to this lovely resort.
View of the town from our hotel. This is the big city in East Greenland. It has 2000 people and 96 cars.
On the hotel deck. Haven’t seen anything like this in years.
A hunter’s kayak. Now I mentioned that we were at a lovely hotel resort, but – – – looks can be deceiving. The Internet was terrible, there was no hot water for our shower in the morning, and breakfast was awful. You may wonder how you can screw up breakfast. We think the eggs were powdered, the fruit was over ripe, and the nuts were rancid. We are pleased to report that the next day we at least had warm water for a shower. And the people at this place were incredibly nice and helpful.
We saw a lot of ATV vehicles.
We went into the store and this big city and you can see it looks very different. Organized and well stocked. But here’s the difficult thing, there are no ships delivering goods between October and May. This is because they can’t get through the ice. Sometimes supplies can get flown in, but there are extremely expensive. So they have a huge warehouse where they keep things. Even though the people are not very religious, the children have a confirmation service, but it usually doesn’t happen until July because that’s when they finally have enough food delivered so that they can have an actual party with cakes.
Siggi displays the Nordic salt.
I asked who owns these fancy boats and the answer is the people, and that it’s more important to have a boat than it is to have a nice house. People still do a lot of fishing.
We were supposed to go on an iceberg tour in the morning, but it was completely foggy so instead we did the walk and instead we were supposed to go iceberg watching the next morning, but Siggi convinced them to let us go in the afternoon because it might be foggy the next day. This is our boat.
In the evening, we had a drum dance. Mickey on the right who is a really wonderful man and owns our hotel, explained that this is not a hood on the back of this woman’s jacket, but it’s to carry a baby. She is in a traditional outfit and was about to do a drum dance with us.
It’s a dying art/religious/community ceremony but she is trying to preserve it.
FINAL THOUGHTS - FINAL ADVENTURES
We learned that in West Greenland, people say Imaqa and in East Greenland they say Uppa. They both mean “maybe.” And that’s what they say about any plan you make in Greenland. Not a place for type A people. Things move slowly and unpredictably and always changing. Our pre-printed schedule meant nothing. The order changed, new things got added and the weather affected everything.
This is a map of Greenland and you can see that most of it is not populated. The center is a glacier. Even without the global warming melting of icebergs in Iceland, clearly the two should have switched names.
It’s also the site of the town cemetery.
We continued our walk, unfortunately, you can see there are ATV tracks. Apparently they can last for years. In Iceland, we learned that they like American tourists, but they don’t like the Germans because they come over on boats with their big ATVs and don’t respect the nature in Iceland and cause these kinds of problems.
A small waterfall reward though Siggi said that they wouldn’t call that a waterfall in Iceland.
In the afternoon we went into town and visited a community workshop that exists to preserve and promote carving culture.
Seal claws to be carved. Tools and soapstone.
Hunting of certain animals is on a tightly regulated quota system. This sign on the community building lists the number of animals they can still hunt., including polar bears, whales, narwhals , and more. There is no limit to the number of seals they can hunt. This is a hunting and fishing culture. In Iceland, not much grows but — nothing grows in Greenland.
This statue is a tribute to the last shaman in Tasiilaq. He died in 1972. The tradition is fading away.
They fire the cannon when the first ship with food and supplies arrives in late May.
This is the building where everything is stored for months until the store is bare and the ships return.
This is the first house in Greenland and 25 people lived in it, inside, for months, and cooked and pooped and peed. It sounded horrible!!
This is the Lutheran Church in Tasiilaq. It was much prettier than we were expecting and filled with wood, which is so so expensive here. The service is all held in western Greenlandic even though the people here all speak eastern Greenlandic.
Then we boarded our helicopter to fly from Tasiilaq to Kusuluk. The pilot warned us that this might not be a sightseeing tour. It was completely white outside and we were amazed that he could fly us and safely land us in Kusuluk.
Unfortunately, the fog was worse and worse and though we landed we were not able to fly out on the plane to Iceland that night and then the US the following night.
Remember those bright blue skies and stunning ocean water? Well, this is what it looked like or much darker and denser for the next few days. After we missed our flight on Saturday night, we learned that the flight we needed which flies once, sometimes twice a day does not fly on Sunday. The soonest we would get out is Monday. We were all a bit glum and our leader had to go back on duty and figure out what to do with us in this town of 240 people. She decided we should go to church.
There were 4 parishioners, plus us for the service. Imagine our surprise to see the minister the next day at the hotel wearing a staff shirt and cleaning rooms! The service is in West Greenlandic even though people here speak East Greenlandic or Danish.
Then we went for a walk in the fog and saw a lot of dogs. Dogs are not pets here. We were clearly informed not to pet them. If a dog would bite, they are put down. Our museum guide said he would never pet another man’s dog because he doesn’t know how he trained them. They are chained and will warn everyone if a polar bear is near.
The next activity was a sauna. The staff had to be asked 6 times to start the sauna. Like I say, not type A around here!
Sauna with foggy view. Probably lovely with sunshine.
The next day, we were totally bummed. We were told we’d fly out on Monday but it was too foggy again. They said there was a slight chance of Tuesday but it would likely be Wednesday. This involved a lot juggling for dog care and everyone trying to put on a happy face. Siggi had to come up with more activities so she sent us to “town” for a photo competition.
I didn’t win but this was my favorite photo I took. We weren’t supposed to take photos of people without asking but clearly these two were posing.
Kate won for funniest photo. Michael who is Danish was driving us around and he and the other Kate (there were 2 on our trip) decided to mug for the camera.
Remember, nothing grows here and they are hunters and fisherman. Since we had been here the day before they caught a whale. The man was finishing up carving up the meat.
The white is blubber. They mostly use seal blubber to heat their house and cook.
The reddest blood any of us had ever seen.
In the afternoon we went to visit a. Canadian woman who married a local Inuit man and worked in the hotel kitchen. She and her husband have a dog sled business. She has 21 dogs but a few we could pet. They all live outside. The house is too warm for them. She explains the harnesses.
Even more final thoughts:
If you like to travel to see wildlife, are a birder, or love trees — Iceland and Greenland wouldn’t be your go to place.
If you love geology, Iceland is your candy store. So many interesting spots.
Iceland is VERY expensive. Everything needs to be brought in by plane or ship, especially anything that grows. We met people from Scotland who said to go there where it was MUCH CHEAPER.
Iceland gets about a million plus tourists a year. There are only 400,00 people who live in Iceland, 300,000 in Reykjavik. There are only 60,000 people living in all of Greenland. Both countries have vast areas where no one lives. Beyond small populations and living on the edges of the country, the two countries couldn’t be more different. Iceland is a well-educated country with free school through junior college. People complain that university tuition is $500 a semester! Almost everyone speaks English.
Greenland is primarily Inuit, although there has been intermarrying, especially in West Greenland with the Danish. The level of poverty in East Greenland reminded me of Native American reservations, except it was worse. They very much feel under the Danish thumb, although there is a movement to be free of the of the Kingdom of Denmark, but really they’d like to be treated as equals to Danes and have the same Scandinavian model of social welfare. It would seem Denmark should support the Greenlanders more if they are so insistent on keeping the territory. It’s hard to understand why Denmark wants to keep Greenland. Siggi says some of her Danish friends get hysterical at the thought of losing Greenland.
We learned about so many controversial issues in Iceland: the EU debate, efforts to bury CO2 in the ground and the possibility of large foreign ships showing up full of CO2, foreigners buying up land (In Denmark you have to live there 5 years or have a job) and farmed Salmon mixing with native Salmon
And we learned, the art of being flexible, Imaqa, Uppa, and the ability to pack in a heartbeat, and tonight we should be home 2 days, not 4 days late!
Iceland doesn't appear to have a lot of ice.
ReplyDeleteActually, in my next blog I’ll write and show photos of ice but the glaciers are not what we expect. They are black!
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