In the afternoon we drove over to the small village of Reydarfjordur to visit the Alcoa Aluminium Smelter. The factory is enormous (the main exhaust stack is said to be the tallest building in Iceland). They produce 1,000 tons of aluminium every day. Alcoa built the plant here due to the fjord nearby and the cheap electricity produced by nearby dams. Due to a strong magnetic field in some of the buildings, we couldn’t take any electronics with us, so we only got a few pictures of the outside and of us in our personal protective equipment.
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| Alcoa Aluminum plan |
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| Aluminum plant, "tallest building in Iceland" |
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| Touring the Alcoa Aluminum plant |
After the plant tour we drove over to the small village name Eskifjordur. The town had previously been hit with avalanches, so they have built massive avalanche blockades. Everyone spent some time walking around and climbing on some of the mounds.
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| Avalanche blockade |
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| Avalanche diversion blockades |
We ended the day back at our hostel/restaurant. One of our students gave an impromptu opera singing concert for us (he has a great voice). In the evening someone visiting showed some of the entries from the Copenhagen Film Festival. Most were strange, to say the least.
Wednesday, July 3: Today was mostly a driving day. Our first stop was at Fossa, which translates to “Falls River”. After snapping a few pictures, we continued our drive, winding through the Eastern fjords. The mountains in this part of the country are impressive and come right up to the ocean. For lunch we stopped at the picturesque fishing village of Djupivogar. In town they have an art installation that features large stones that were shaped like the eggs of different species of birds from the region.
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| Along the eastern fjords |
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| Fossa waterfall |
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| Djupivogar |
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| Giant Eggs |
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| Paul the Puffin finally found his puffin egg! |
We then pulled out along a cliff and watched some sheep make their way up the cliff and over the road.
Thursday, July 4: We drove a few minutes from our hotel and went to Jokulsarlon, also known as the glacier lagoon. The lagoon is at the base of a glacier and is filled with chunks of ice that have calved off of the glacier. What makes this lagoon unique is that it runs right out to the ocean, which causes the ice to pile up on the beach nearby. First we took a duck boat tour of the lagoon and got (somewhat) close to the huge pieces of ice. It was raining and cold and we couldn’t see the glacier, but the weather gave the whole place a mystical feeling.
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| Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon |
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| Duck Boat tour |
After the lagoon we went over to Diamond Beach. This is just across from the lagoon where all of the ice flows out to sea. When we got there it was low tide and there were huge beautiful chunks of ice all over the black sand beach. We walked around all of the various pieces of ice and took lots of pictures.
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| Ice chunks on Diamond Beach |
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| "Diamonds" on Diamond Beach |
In the afternoon we drove a bit further west and went to Skaftafell National Park. We first went for a hike out to the edge of a glacier. We let the students go wherever they wanted to and hoped they wouldn’t follow us out to the glacier. They found us anyway. After climbing up and down on some of the ice, we decided to go hiking somewhere else.
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| Glacier in Skaftafell National Park |
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| Matt out on the glacier |
Next we hiked up to Svartifoss waterfall. Being one of the most popular places in the park, there were a lot of people on the trail. The waterfall is very unique, with basalt columns flanking it on both sides.
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| Svartifoss Waterfall |
On the drive back to our hotel we drove past Diamond Beach again. The tide had come in and most of the large chunks of ice had floated off to sea.
Friday, July 5: The sun came up this morning and we finally had a clear view of the Vatnajokull ice cap and all of the glaciers coming off of it. As we started our drive, we kept getting amazing views of each glacier.
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| Vatnajokull ice cap and glaciers |
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| Our next vehicle purchase |
We stopped at the glacier lagoon and this time it looked completely different. With clear skies, we could see most of the lagoon and the glacier. We took some group pictures and moved on.
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| Glacier Lagoon with the sun out |
During the drive we made various stops. We stopped at a monument made up of broken pieces of a bridge that washed out during a volcanic eruption in 1996. Along the way we drove through huge expanses of black sand that had been deposited by various glacier run-offs due to volcanic eruptions.
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| Bridge washed out by flash floods |
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| Paul taking care of his students |
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| Miles and miles of black sand |
Right before the town of Vik we drove past Hjorleifshofdi, a mesa-like mountain that rises from the surrounding black sand. This was where the opening scenes of “Star Wars: Rogue One” were filmed. We stopped at Vik for lunch. Paul, Becky, and I decided to hike up a hillside and try to take a picture of the church that is on the cover of the Lonely Planet guide book.
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| Filming location for opening scene of "Rogue One" |
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| Church in Vik used on Lonely Planet book cover |
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| The book and the real thing |
Our next stop was at Reynisfjara, also known as the black sand beach. The place was extremely crowded. We walked around and looked at the amazing basalt features and watched the birds flying around the cliffs.
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| Basalt columns at Black Sand Beach |
Next we stopped at Skogafoss waterfall. Again, there were a ton of people here. This waterfall was in the movie, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. We walked around and up to a viewing platform to get another view. There was a lot of spray from the falls and you would get soaked if you got too close.
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| Skogafoss |
Our last stop for the day was at Seljalandsfoss waterfall. No surprise, there were a ton of people here as well. Paul took us over to another waterfall that was hidden in a crack. Then we went back to the main waterfall and walked around the back of it.
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| Seljalandfoss waterfall |
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| Trail behind the waterfall |
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| Hidden falls |
Once back on the bus we made our way back to Reykjavik. Since it was the first weekend of the month, everyone was heading out to town to go camping. The on-coming traffic was very slow and backed up in places. Fortunately, we were heading the opposite direction. We arrived back at Fisherman’s Village and unpacked our stuff.
Saturday, July 6: Today we mostly took it easy. We went over to Costco and Ikea for lunch. We had to buy some Krap, which is like a slurpee. Mainly we got it because of the name. Afterward we went over to the botanical gardens in Reykjavik and looked around. The weather was clear and sunny, so there were a lot of people out in the park enjoying the weather.
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| Buying some "Krap" at Ikea |
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| Krap really cools you off on a warm Reykjavik day |
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| Reykjavik Botanic Gardens |
In the evening Paul, Becky, and I went over to Arsaell (our tour guide) and Katla’s house for dinner. They made an amazing meal. We started with grilled Atlantic Char (which was the best fish I’ve ever eaten). Then they brought out a leg of lamb, which is a traditional Sunday dinner dish in Iceland. After eating our fair share, they brought out ice cream and a tasty dessert that was made of blueberries and skyr (an Icelandic yogurt). We sat around and talked for a long time before it was time to head home.
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| Arsaell and Katla's house |
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| Arctic Char with mango salsa |
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| Blueberry Skyr dessert and ice cream |
Sunday, July 7: This morning we went to church at the Reykjavik branch. Afterward the three of us decided to take a bus north of Reykjavik and hike and climb Mt. Esja. It took us a little bit over an hour to reach Steinn. The locals say if you can reach Steinn in less than an hour then you are in good shape.
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| Hiking up Mt. Esja |
From there we continued on to the top of the mountain. The last part gets steep and has chains to help you climb to the top. Mt. Esja tops out around 914m (about 3000’). From the top the view of Reykjavik and the surrounding area is amazing. We continued walking along the top of the mountain until we reached a point where we could see off to the north. It was extremely windy and pretty cold at the top.
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| Almost to the top |
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| View from the top of Mt. Esja looking over Reykjavik |
We eventually started making our way down the mountain, caught a bus and made our way back to Fisherman’s Village. Since we were a little sore, we got in the hot tub for a few minutes to relax.
Monday, July 8: Today we decided to go into Reykjavik and look around some of the side streets. We walked around the old part of town and went over to the Cathedral. We then did some souvenir shopping. We met up with Paul and went to a cafe to meet Berglind, who used to be Paul’s tour guide.
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| Reykjavik Cathedral |
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| Oldest house in Reykjavik |
Afterward we looked around at a few more shops and then went home for dinner. Overall the weather was either overcast or drizzling for most of the day.
Awesome week! You got some great pictures of the Ice!
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