OwnMyTeam Blog

Until recently, the wonders of Iceland went largely unnoticed. Today, this small North Atlantic island is blossoming into a destination noted for its wealth of natural beauty — explosive geysers, gurgling mud pools, snakelike lava flows, majestic waterfalls, towering glaciers, steaming thermal baths, and magnificent northern lights.

On November 1, 2002, thirty travelers journeyed to Iceland with TravelQuest and Sky & Telescope to explore this exotic land of the Vikings. During the six-day tour, we discovered that it’s true — Iceland is an amazing place. And despite clouds that came and went every evening, we saw beautiful auroral displays on each of the four nights we were under dark, rural skies far from Reykjavík.

The Blue Lagoon

After an overnight flight from the United States, there’s nothing like a soak in the Blue Lagoon, a mineral-rich pool of hot (40°C, 104°F) water that rejuvenates everyone who takes the plunge. Local patrons swear by its curative powers. The pool is fed by runoff from the nearby Svartsengi power plant, which pumps the geothermally heated water up from below ground. After being used to generate both heat and electricity for nearby Reykjavík, the excess (absolutely clean) water is ejected into the lagoon for the enjoyment of all. The Blue Lagoon opened early just for us, and after a relaxing 45-minute dip followed by breakfast, we set out to explore Reykjavík.

Iceland was first settled in the ninth century by the Norse Viking Ingólfur Arnarson, who built his farm at a place he named Reykjavík (”Smoky Bay”) because of the steam he saw rising from the earth. For centuries, the area remained home to only a few farms. In 1703 an official census revealed that a mere 400 inhabitants resided inside the current city limits. Today 170,000 people, more than half the population of Iceland, live in Reykjavík, the country’s largest city and the most northern capital in the world.

Reykjavík is dominated by Hallgrimskirkja, a church that took almost 40 years to build. Although its interior is modest, the balcony houses a grand 50-foot-high organ containing 5,275 pipes. Outside the main entrance is a statue of the Viking explorer Leifur Eiriksson — the real discoverer of North America. There is a fine view of the city from atop the church’s steeple. The heart of Reykjavík lies between Tjörn (”the pond”) and the harbor and includes the Althingi (Parliament) that faces onto Austurvöllur (the old town square), City Hall, the National Gallery, and several fine museums. Fortunately, the city center is small and everything, including the shopping district, can be easily reached on foot. All of this is a short taxi-ride from our hotel — the Loftleidir. Most of the shops and houses are of recent construction; only a few old wooden structures, now usually covered by corrugated tin, remain. Also present in and around the downtown core are many good restaurants. In fact, no matter where we went in Iceland, we found the food to be uniformly excellent.

Our tour guide (Martina) and driver (Beggi) were marvelous. During the course of the trip Martina plied us with plenty of interesting background information about the country. For example, Iceland was very poor until the Second World War, when the influx of American and British troops caused Reykjavík to suddenly transform from a sleepy little town into a larger city. Martina also tried, with mixed results, to teach us some Icelandic. She explained that it’s actually a living language that doesn’t allow the influx of foreign words.

So when new words are required, they’re formed from what’s available in the old language. For example, the word for computer (tölva) was created by combining two Old Icelandic words: tala (number) and völva (prophet) to produce a word that, when literally translated, means “prophet of numbers.”

Reykjavík (and all of Iceland, for that matter) runs on geothermal power. More than 250 geothermal fields are scattered throughout the country, providing hot water and pollution-free power to every city, town, and village. One interesting side effect of having readily available hot water: swimming is a national pastime, and every city, town, and village has a geothermally heated, outdoor public pool.

While nearly half the group strolled Reykjavík during our free day, the rest took the opportunity to explore…… (click the link below to finish)

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/auroras/3306931.html?page=3&c=y

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1. Meet Jon Stefansson and Iceland
2. My IBL Report: Conclusion
3. Blaze Report: Blindfolded Map Pointing
4. OMT Updates
5. What Could Be….