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Easter in Siena (2024)
I flew from Stockholm to Milan following my Arctic Albatross tours and took the train to Siena (via Firenze). I really did not do very much in Siena. I needed a rest after so much snowy activity! I washed lots of clothing, wrote some blogs, and did a lot of walking round the streets of Siena. Siena was an important banking center in the middle ages and has a very old University, founded in 1240 AD (or CE if you prefer). Siena also houses the oldest continually operating bank in the world, the Monte dei Paschi bank, which began operation in 1472. The center of the city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site with several 13th and 14th century buildings, the Piazza dei Campo, the bowl shaped medieval marketplace, and the Cathedral, “a masterpiece of Romanesque-Gothic architecture” according to Wikipedia.
I had a charming little apartment on Via delle Cerchia, overlooking the Botanic Gardens. The street was a canyon of apartment buildings that echoed any car or scooter engine noise, but the apartment had no windows on that side, so I was not overly disturbed. There was a well-stocked little supermarket on a small piazza at the top of the street, so I could lay in supplies for my time there.
My first destination was the Cathedral, begun in the 12th century and with the façade completed in 1380. There were plans to expand the building with a new nave extending from the current transepts (the current nave becoming a transept) but this was not completed. The Black Death and a war interfered – but there is one wall and a row of columns extant, leading from the east transept, that gives an idea of the scale of the project. Part of one aisle has been infilled at the far end and houses a museum.
Inside, the Cathedral is amazing! I spent over an hour in there looking at everything. The internal columns are black and white marble in layers. The floor is inlaid marble in different patterns, but also has elaborate pictures made of marble. There are pictures of saints in the side aisle on the right and a representation of the slaughter of the innocents near the altar in the left aisle. The bell tower is accessed from inside the Cathedral and appears an integral part of the structure – in most Italian cities the Bell Tower is a completely separate structure.
There is a beautiful chapel of the Madonna del Voto designed by Gian Luigi Bernini tucked in behind the bell tower. Near this are some cabinets with the treasure and votive offerings given to the Cathedral. To the left of the main altar is the pulpit, octagonal with lions and biblical scenes carved by Nicholo Pisano in the 13th century. The tomb of Bishop Pecci, with a cover slab by Donatello is in the floor behind the pulpit. A statue of St John the Baptist by Donatello is in a small side chapel. It is a bronze statue dating to 1457.
Next to this chapel is the amazing Piccolomini Library. This is one big room named for Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who was a diplomat and Bishop, and in 1458 was elected Pope Pius II. The Library was built under the direction of his nephew, who later became Pope Pius III, in memory of his uncle and to house the manuscripts he had collected. Wikipedia tells us “The Library walls were painted by Pinturicchio and his helpers including a young Raffaello Sanzio. The ten frescoes represent important events in the life of Pius II. The perspective in each scene is handled masterfully and the figures are richly dressed within detailed scenes”. The ceiling is equally impressive. Around the room, beautifully crafted manuscripts are on show and there is a copy of the Three Graces, a sculpture that is based on a Roman copy of an original from the Hellenistic period. It is an incredibly beautiful room.
After walking through and admiring the Piccolomini Library, I felt that anything else I saw in the Cathedral would be colourless and ordinary. However, there was a rather nicely carved altar outside the library, the Piccolomini Altar made by Andrea Bregno between 1481 and 1485, but he did not finish it. It was commissioned by Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini who expected it to become his tomb, but he was elected Pope (Pius III) and so was buried in the Vatican. I discovered (from Wikipedia) that Pope Pius III was elected in 1503, but died after only 26 days! The four saints in the side niches of the altar were added later, sculpted by Michelangelo (in 1501 to 1504). Michelangelo had many other contracts and so he did not complete the remaining ten sculptures that were supposed to adorn the altar. The contract was finally annulled in 1530 by another Piccolomini, Archbishop of Siena, Francesco Bandini Piccolomini.
The carving on the columns each side of the main doors inside the Cathedral are also remarkable for the amount of detail included. Quite exquisite.
From there, I walked round the outside of the Cathedral and through an opening in the wall of the uncompleted extension and part-way down a long stairway. The rear of the Cathedral hangs over edge of the hillside, and it is supported by the Crypt under the chancel and beneath that, the Baptistry, facing the Piazza San Giovanni.
Inside the Crypt one would usually find coffins, sarcophagi and/or religious relics. The crypt of the Cathedral in Siena is thus comparatively empty, not having these. However, here the walls of the Crypt present a colourful illustration of the last hours of the life of Christ. The frescoes are thought to date from the second half of the 13th century. It is possible that the area was sealed off after construction of the Baptistry in the 14th century. It was only re-opened during some structural work in 1999, it had been forgotten for centuries. The frescoes have suffered from the neglect of the years, and my photos did not really do justice to them, partly due to really bright lighting. Access to the Crypt also provides a view of some of the structural features of the Cathedral. I was interested in the intrusion into the space by the dome of the apse of the Baptistry beneath the crypt.
The Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistry) was built between 1316 and 1325, with the Gothic façade begun in 1355 and interrupted in 1382 and remains unfinished. Somehow, I missed taking a photo of the façade! Unfortunately for me, much of the inside of the Baptistry was concealed due to restoration work being carried out on the font – a huge, elaborate font in marble, bronze and enamel constructed in 1417 to 1431. In one of the side aisles I saw a lovely polyptych of the Madonna with Saints and stories of St Stefano, by Andrea Vanni, which dates to the 14th century. There are wonderful frescoes on the ceiling and walls, as well.
The other important sight to see in Siena is the unusual main piazza. Siena’s piazza, Piazza del Campo, is in the shape of a shallow half-bowl, focused on the public buildings of the city administration at the lowest part of the piazza. Twice a year (July and August) a horse race, the Palio di Siena, is held in the piazza. The ten entrants represent 10 of the 17 city wards, or contrada. The riders ride bare-back and wear the traditional colours of their ward. The three-lap race is fast and there are no rules! It is highly competitive and preliminary festivals last for days, as does celebration for the winning contrada afterwards, I imagine. The Palio is a banner with a picture of the Virgin, which is awarded in the Cathedral and held by the winning area until the next race. Since I was there in late March, the Campo was not very crowded. There is a fountain in the middle of the upper edge of the bowl, and lots of restaurants around the piazza, I enjoyed a pizza while crowd watching.
In my wanderings around Siena, I found the main administrative building of the University of Siena, founded in 1240 AD. The building, the Rectorate or Palazzo del Rettorato, became the seat of the University only in 1815, but it has a much longer history. The area was a Camadolite Monastery from the middle ages with the Palazzo Trecechi next door. The Monastery was taken over by the Jesuits in 1561, who also bought the Palazzo and the whole area became a college. A renovation project in the 18th century transformed the buildings into much the look that it has now. I went into the central courtyard created from the bones of the Palazzo Trecechi. The walkway behind the arches held a lot of information about the building and the University. Opposite the entrance is a beautifully decorated area known as the Oratorio of the Artists, with paintings by the Sienese artist Niccolo Francini dated to 1735.
I took a random walk through the back streets, found a synagogue and enjoyed the narrow alleys and typical red brick facades draped with washing. I came across the Piazzetta Arrigo Pecchioli, where there was a view across to another wing of the city, and an elephant! Nearby I found a wall painting, probably of a saint, but there was no explanation anywhere.
During my wanderings through the city, I found many Palazzo of different eras, repurposed mostly for living space, but with other functions as well. The Palazzo Borghesi (14th century) has wonderful doors. The Torre Forteguerri was the earliest that I found dated to the 12th century.
The Palazzo Chigi-Saracini (16th century but with a 12th century tower) has an interesting curved façade along the street. I walked in and found a statue of a seated Pope Julius III in the entrance tunnel (or atrium), a café in the courtyard, along with a well and busts and paintings in the loggia. The building is now a music academy and has a splendid auditorium (which I did not see).
Water features occurred here and there, both old and modern. There was a fishy fountain near my apartment, on Via di Fontanella. An interesting and much more modern water feature was found in in the Piazzetta Arrigo Pecchioli (near the aforementioned elephant). Then there was a 20th century (1951) bronze of a boy and a turtle, by Bruno Buracchini, ‘Contrada della tartuca’, located in a side street.
I found the Palazzo Patrizi-Piccolomino (18th Century), clearly the family remained wealthy! I found some quaint features on another building which did not have a plaque telling anything about it. Still, I liked the hitching rings with dragon heads. Tucked away near the local supermarket I frequented, was a Venetian Lion. I have seen a lot of these on the other side of Italy, relating to the old Venetian empire, but it is dated 1954. It states ‘Alla contrada della Chiocciola’ that translates as ‘to the snail district’. I remain bemused.
My stay in Siena was very relaxing and quiet, I avoided crowds and Easter parades (I am sure there were some!) and generally ate in my little apartment. Just as well I had a rest, the next three weeks were manic. Stay tuned!
Sweden: 20 to 23 March, 2024
The Albatross Northern Lights tour left Kemi and very soon crossed the border into Sweden. It afforded us great amusement that almost the first building we saw was an Ikea store. The scenery was snow and forest, much like Finland, as we headed north to Kiruna. We crossed the Arctic Circle again and kept going. We stopped for a break at a roadside cafe and I was intrigued by the way that ice was hanging over the edge of the roof. Now and again, I could see hills behind the trees as we drove, somewhat different to Finland!
It took about four and a half hours to get to Kiruna. We did not go directly to our hotel, rather we stopped at the Sámi village cultural centre nearby. Here a young Sami woman showed us round the outdoor exhibits and explained the challenges of choosing to live a traditional Sami lifestyle in modern Sweden. It is essential to have some sort of employment to supplement the subsistence nature of Sámi life, but only part-time to allow time to carry out all the activities necessary for survival, like hunting, fishing, making clothes, childcare etc. Our guide took us to a reindeer enclosure and gave us moss to feed them. They were clearly used to this and ignored the tourists once the moss was finished!
There were many information boards placed round the area of the cultural centre. They teach about the reindeer, the reindeer migration patterns, reindeer herders, and traditional Sámi homes, food language and songs. There was a summary of the history of the Sámi. They have been hunter-gatherers in this region for the last ten thousand years, moving north out of Europe as the ice retreated after the last great ice age. They have faced misunderstanding and oppression from the nations that took control over the region. I would like to learn more about the Sámi. I have discovered that my mtDNA haplogroup is a subgroup of U5a, only 10% of Western Europeans have this haplogroup, but 50% of Sámi have it. Somehow my Scottish maternal line traces back to hunter-gatherers of northern Europe, from whom the Sámi also derive.
On our arrival at the Ice Hotel, we were met by a guide, Anders, who showed us round and explained how the Ice Hotel came to exist. Again, it was a matter of attracting tourists and adapting the initial idea into a year-round enterprise. The Ice Hotel is built from blocks of ice each autumn, so detail of the hotel is different each year. The basic structure remains the same, a main corridor with branches off for several corridors of rooms. Everything is built of ice, except the bed-frames and mattresses which are covered with reindeer hides.
The main entry way holds an ice sculpture called ‘Lattice’ by two Japanese artists, Kendo Hamaguchi and Taku Ohochi. A short corridor leads to a ceremony room, a bit like a chapel or conference room, all in ice but with reindeer hides to sit on.
There are some themed ‘Deluxe’ Rooms which we looked at, but we actually stayed in very basic rooms. We were also taken to the Ice Hotel 365 section – like the hotel in Kemi, people turn up in summer when there is no ice… so they built an indoor ice hotel, in a set of big cool rooms, and artists designed the décor. We looked through the rooms, they were very like the Deluxe rooms, but some had access to ensuites! There was also an ice bar in this section, so we had a berry flavoured vodka as a welcome drink.
In the Riverside Lodge, a ‘normal’ building near the Ice Hotel courtyard, our suitcases were put into our assigned lockers, where we found our warm over gear – heavy duty warm waterproof pants, jacket, boots and gloves. There was a perfectly normal restaurant nearby where we had our evening meals and breakfasts. After dinner that evening we went out on a lookout platform above the Ice Hotel rooms and sure enough, the Northern Lights appeared. I could just see them myself, but my camera did not pick up the light at all. Luckily, the cameras of other people did and they shared their pictures, some of the best were taken down on the river behind the hotel.
Later in the evening we prepared for bed and claimed our sleeping bags from the desk. My room was at the far end of the furthest corridor and I had to carry my bag and lining all the way there. I settled in for the night and actually slept quite well, until about 5 am. I had to walk all the way back to the locker area to use the bathroom, and once I got back to bed I just didn’t warm up again, so I gave up. It wasn’t long before others appeared as well. I got washed and dressed and headed up to the restaurant for an early breakfast!
That morning, we went on a dog-sled excursion out along the frozen river to a hut where we stopped for warm berry juice and biscuits, then back on the sleds to return to the hotel. It was a half-hour each way, three passengers and a driver to each sled pulled by ten dogs. They were very enthusiastic dogs, barking until given the order to run, and then they bounded away happily and silently. It was fine on the smooth river, but in a couple of places it was like we had to go over ‘speed bumps’, so the sled would tip upwards then slam down onto the ice as it went over the hump.
When we got back from our excursion, our ‘warm rooms’ were ready for occupation. These were normal hotel rooms in groups of four to six to a chalet. I luxuriated in a hot shower when I got into mine. Then I sat with a fresh cup of tea and looked out at the snow, while writing up my diary and checking photos. This led me to go out again to take a few of places I had missed. That evening we all met up for a drive out along the river on snow-mobiles. I really enjoyed that. They are quite easy to drive, being essentially automatic, no gear changing required, and releasing the throttle resulted in sufficient slowing that the brakes were not really required either. On the way down the river we went past a small reindeer herd and then on through forested banks to a stopping place with a set of stairs up to a couple of cabins where we had a meal, half the group in each cabin. We were served hot cranberry juice and moose stew with sour cream, cooked on a gas stove next to the fire burning birch logs in the middle of the hut. We sat at tables facing inwards. Our dessert was pannacotta with berries. Then we were back down to the snow-mobiles as a second group arrived for their meal. It was getting dark by then and as we walked down we noticed that the northern lights were showing again. We stopped to take photographs and admire the green streaks in the sky. Then we had another run on the snow mobiles back to the hotel. It was great fun and the northern lights really enhanced the night.
The next morning we walked up to breakfast in gently falling snow and ate looking out at the snowy trees and I saw a squirrel leaping about in the snow outside. I had a restful morning and packed up. Shortly before midday we set off for the airport through the snow; it was not far. Our plane to Stockholm was full and the flight took a couple of hours.
We were met in Stockholm, piled onto a coach and were driven into the city. There, we picked up a local guide and were given a quick tour of the city as the sun slowly set.
We had a farewell dinner in the evening, and I left very early the next morning to catch my flight to Italy. More on that later.
Finland: 16th to 20th March 2024
I flew to Helsinki to join the Albatross Tours: Northern Lights, Ice Hotels and Huskies tour. Three of my fellow travellers from the Iceland tour did the same and made our way into Helsinki by the airport train. We met with the rest of the tour group at our hotel, but did not spend any time in Helsinki, flying out the next day for Rovaneimi. Once there and our bags were collected and loaded onto the coach, we were taken to a shopping centre to have lunch and buy any snacks we thought we might need while staying at the Santa Claus Village. After that we went to the Arctic Museum -or Arkticum. We were shown round by a guide, who was actually from the Netherlands, but he was married to a Finn. There was an interesting exhibit on the polar ice cap, a stuffed juvenile polar bear, a fake ice cave, and a room dedicated to the history of Finland. I didn’t know much about this, so it was interesting that the guide seemed concerned that we know why Finland invited Nazi Germany into the country during WWII. Finland was desperate to keep the USSR out of their country, and Nazi assistance was considered the best way to achieve this, also it appears that there were Nazi sympathisers in the Finnish Government at the time. Finland was not treated like an occupied country by the Nazis, because of this invitation, so in some ways Finland was better off than, say, Norway. Incidentally, a blue swastika was part of the Finnish Army insignia until quite recently. Also in the museum was a display about Sami (or Lapp) culture. Our visit finished off with a video of the scenery of Finland.
We were driven north to the Santa Claus Village, about 25 minutes out of Rovaneimi and situated right on the Arctic Circle. We were assigned to chalets, and mine seemed to be a long walk away from the reception building, where we had dinner and breakfast. There was a good foot of snow that we crunched over to get to our chalets. Each had a kitchenette and living area, double bedroom and a bathroom – with sauna! After breakfast the next morning we were fitted out with a snowsuit and boots, to keep us warm. Turned out my snow-boots were better than theirs and I swapped back later. Our first activity was to be driven to a reindeer farm where we had a ride in reindeer drawn sleighs. Two people per sleigh and five sleighs harnessed up, the reindeer simply took us on a short jaunt round a fenced track. Blue sky, snow laden conifers, it was quite beautiful. Once we each had a ride, we were ushered into a Sami tent-like structure where we had warm blueberry juice and biscuits while the reindeer lady told us a bit about Sami life. She sang us a couple of Sami songs, and marked all our foreheads with charcoal to indicate where our antlers would grow when we were reincarnated as reindeer in her herd!
Shortly after we returned to the village, we were off again. We were taken out into the forest in three 4×4 vehicles along snowy roads and tracks. At an activity base (and restaurant) we were fitted out with snow shoes and went for a walk in the forest and back across a frozen lake, which took about an hour. It was lovely to be out in the serenity of the forest. There were no obvious trails, we just headed out with a guide who seemed to know where he was going. Luckily it was a beautiful clear day – it would not be so nice in wet or windy weather!
Back at the base, we were offered sausages, warm drinks and biscuits. I visited a couple of horses and a pony in a paddock and I could hear dogs in the distance. Apparently the same place offers dog-sled rides but they had a rest day today. We seemed to sit about a bit, I think that we were booked to do a three hour excursion, but half the group only wanted a short walk and even the fitter group only went out for an hour, however our time slot had to be filled. It worked out well for the bar. Later, we were taken back to the Village where we had the afternoon to explore, but I found it all to be crassly over-commercialised and a total tourist trap. After taking a few photos, I retired to my chalet to write!
The following day we had a free morning, and about mid-day the coach re-appeared and we set out for Kemi, to the south on the shores of the Baltic Sea. It was about a two hour drive through snow covered landscape, mostly forest, sometimes a frozen snow-covered lake, river or open field. About half-way we had a short stop at a service centre. In Kemi we had chalets again, this time with two glass walls and a glass ceiling. Because it had been a sunny day, and the curtains had been open, the cabins were stiflingly hot. The chalets overlooked a frozen inlet of the Baltic Sea. This hotel complex boasts an outside ‘ice castle’ in winter, and also an indoor cool-room allowing an all-year-round ice playground. Apparently, people would turn up in summer expecting an outdoor ice-castle so the hotel organized something indoors. It seems mostly designed for children, with ice sculpted animals and cartoon characters, and ice-slides. A guide showed us round and explained the history of the hotel, started in an effort by the town to attract tourists year-round, which has succeeded quite well!
The next day we had time to walk about in the snow before being taken to the port area to board an icebreaker for a ride out into the Baltic, and a swim. Once we were underway, we were given a quick tour of the ship: up to the bridge, through the engine room and into the engineer’s control room, then we were shown the change rooms, where we would get our ‘dry-suits’ later in the trip. The ship chugged along while we took photos and explored the decks. After about 90 minutes, the ship stopped and fidgetted about, making a swimming hole in the ice. Down in the changing room, we removed our boots and over-coats and then were assisted to put on ‘dry-suits’ over our clothes. The suits had integrated boots and gloves and sealed up with a long zip and tight wrap around the face. They were effective in keeping us dry while in the sea. We waddled down the gangplank and were helped to slide off the ice into the water. It was quite pleasant to float about drifting a bit. I sculled about using my hands, but accidentally splashed my face, which led to me gradually feeling cold all over, so I headed to get out. We were hauled out of the water although I was sufficiently inept that I nearly slid my helper in with me, but we were both rescued by a large man who heaved me out and set me on mt feet. I went aboard and got helped out of the suit and then went back down onto the ice to take some photos.
On the way back to port, the café/bar opened so we had a convivial return voyage. On our return to the hotel there was more free time to play in the snow, walk out over the ice, or partake of refreshment in the hotel bar. Dinner was again in the hotel. They have a very good chef! The next day we set off for Sweden.
Reykjavik area 13th to 15th March 2024
The Albatross tour of Iceland, having explored the north and south-east of the island, now proceeded to cover the tourist route known as the ‘Golden Circle’. This route takes in some wonderful historic and geologic features of the centre of the island, east of Reykjavik. We drove through hills to descend into the rift valley that has formed as the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates gradually pull apart. This stretches the earth’s crust and results in magma build-up and all the volcanic features of Iceland’s geology. In fact, that is why there is Iceland. The middle of the rift valley holds a lake, þingvallavatn. The ‘þ’ symbol is the old ‘thorn’ letter, which sounds a bit like ‘th’. The name derives from the place to the north of the lake where early Icelandic clan gatherings were held, the Alþingi, out of which developed lawmaking and the parliamentary process. Established in 930 CE, the Alþingi is considered the oldest Parliament in the world. However, it was not truly democratic in nature. The Clan Chiefs represented each clan and while this was not strictly hereditary, it tended to be. Also, only free men attended sessions. Iceland was ruled by Norway from 1262, and Denmark from the late 14th century, so the nature of the Alþingi changed to being a court of law and consultative body. At some point meetings were moved to Reykjavik. The site has great significance for the Icelandic people, and official celebration of 1000 years of settlement took place here (1874). When independence from Denmark occurred in 1944, the formal declaration was signed at the Alþingi site. The area is part of the þingvellir National Park.
Our first stop in the area was at the Alþingi site. The meetings were held on a rock outcrop, on the North American Plate side of the rift and backed by south-facing cliffs. Thus there was protection from cold northerlies and warmth from southern sunlight. We approached the site from above, where there are great views over the valley, then made our way down a cleft in the rocks.
There was an opportunity to head off the path to take a look at the view about half way down, and take more photographs.
The meeting place itself is marked by a flagpole and Icelandic flag. Nearby are the remains of the stone walls that formed the bases of the Clan Chiefs’ tents or ‘booths’, temporary shelters rebuilt each meeting but on the same site, so the base was left for future use.
There were a number of information boards about the kinds of offences covered by the laws and the punishments meted out if found guilty. If execution was prescribed, men tended to be beheaded while women were drowned. There is a pool in a stream below the meeting site where legend says such drownings took place. For lesser crimes, a perpetrator might be exiled or fined. We continued down the slope and were met by our coach. We drove out of the rift valley on the Eurasian side, where there was another cliff face.
We travelled on to go to a tomato farm for lunch. The farm produces tomatoes grown in greenhouses which are heated using water from a nearby hot spring and the electricity used is thermally generated. It was very warm inside, I think they said it was kept to 25 C. We all had to remove our outer layers, having dressed for an outside temperature of 5 C or less! The farm must have a lot of greenhouses because we were told that their farm supplies 40% of Iceland’s domestic market in fresh tomatoes. We had a tomato juice aperitif while being told about the farm. We were also shown a hive of bees, they have many bee boxes about the greenhouse to fertilise the vines. Our lunch was tomato soup and bread, followed by green tomato ice cream (basically vanilla with bits of green tomato in it). Quite tasty! It was amazing what a turnover of people there was, with several bus-loads coming and going while we were there.
Back on the road again, we headed for Gulfoss, a big, famous waterfall. It was saved from hydro-electric exploitation by the efforts of a determined young local woman. We walked to a couple of different lookouts over the huge falls, not so much high as wide and over several levels. Then the river falls into a narrow gorge and away at a right angle to its direction of flow on the upper level. There was a strong cold wind that must have come off a nearby glacier, all the colder for us having just arrived from the warm greenhouses! We soon retired to the souvenir shop to warm up again.
Our next stop was a back-track to the Geysir park, a geothermically active area with a number of bubbling pools, lots of steam and one geyser that still blows a high plume, called Strokkur. The word geyser is derived from the name Geysir, the biggest geyser here, but that no longer blows. We saw Strokkur blow (if that is the right verb) but the plume was a bit flattened by the wind. Still impressive!
We headed back to Reykjavik. I had an early night exhausted by our exertions! The following day, 15 March, we left Reykjavik by coach and headed south to the Reykjanes Peninsula. We passed a pyramidal mountain (or large hill) on the way through a very barren looking landscape of lava rubble and dry grasses. Our tour manager told us that the pyramid is a popular hiking site, but it can be a difficult climb because of the loose scree on the slopes. We were heading towards Grindavik but our destination was the Blue Lagoon. To get there, our coach had to drive over the lava from the February eruption. Workers had constructed a ‘bridge’ by depositing a thick layer of dirt (lava pebbles?) over the still-hot lava flow. They had also constructed large banks of earth (lava ash?) to deflect further lava flows from the important geo-thermal power station right next to the Blue Lagoon.
The Blue Lagoon uses the outflow water of the geothermic power station. Originally a worker at the power station decided to bathe in the outflow water and found that after a while it improved his psoriasis. He talked to his doctor about it, who then investigated further, and is now one of the major share-holders in the resort. The resort started as a health retreat for the treatment of skin conditions, but is now a full-blown tourist attraction, with a couple of associated hotels and a huge swimming pool, fed by the geothermic outflow. We had a ‘premium package’ which gave us three face masks and two drinks and several hours in the pool. We were also instructed that if the announcement came that we needed to evacuate then we were to immediately leave the pool, get our belongings and get back to the bus, pronto. If our bus was gone, just get on another one!
Once we arrived, we were given wrist bands with QR codes that regulated our ‘freebies’. We were directed into separate male and female change room – which appeared to be just for us. Lockers were available for our clothes, shoes and bags. We changed into swimsuits and headed down to the pool. There was a ramp to wade into the hot water and then wade through a door into the external pool. It was cloudy blue water (I really don’t want to know what minerals/chemicals are involved) and was just the right temperature, averaging 37C! I did not take my phone into the pool, but others did and shared their pictures. At one end of the pool was a kiosk which we could wade up to and be given a gloop of paste to spread on our faces. There was a metal plate that acted as a mirror opposite the kiosk, and also a water outlet for washing the stuff off again. I guess (I hope!) this was near an outlet for the pool water. At the other end of the pool was a wade-up bar, from where we got our drinks. I favoured the sparkling strawberry wine.
As the time approached for us to leave, it began to snow! By the time we had got ourselves showered and dressed and ready to leave, the snow fall was just beginning to lie on the ground rather than melt. We stopped briefly at the exit from the car-park for one of our number to leap out and take a photo of the altered sign, a reminder of recent volcanic events – Grindavik is no longer publicly accessible. It was also quite clear that the lava flow we drove across was still warm – the snow was melting on contact.
Back at the hotel I regrouped and set out to visit the Settlement Exhibition. This is a museum built around an archaeological dig that uncovered one of the early buildings of the Reykjavik settlement. It is a long house, of the type common in early Norse settings: stone lower walls, turf roof and a central open fire. The exhibition was fascinating, with considerable information about the settlement, development and later history of Iceland, as well as general information about ‘the Viking age’. It is well worth visiting.
That evening we had our farewell meal together at a lovely restaurant in the waterfront area. Our Tour Manager showed us a map of our explorations of Iceland, we had certainly covered a lot of ground. A few days later our tour manager shared a photo from her home, of the light from the eruption of 16 March on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Last year I walked on Mt Etna a week before the latest eruption. Now the Reykjanes eruption was the day after I visited. In mid-April I will be travelling near Vesuvius… I am a little concerned.
South-east Iceland 10th to 12th March 2024
The Albatross tour of Iceland left Vik about midday and headed further east along the south coast of the island. Early overcast magically lifted and we had a sunny, if cold, afternoon. We still had mountains and glaciers to our left, and flat coastal plains to our right, with at least one former island, now landlocked. We also passed some low rounded moss covered hummocks… but we found out more about these on our return trip a few days later. Our first stop was for a late lunch at Kirkjubæjarklauster a small place that once had a Benedictine convent (hence cloister). We admired a tall waterfall before invading a café for lunch, our Tour Manager, Mandy, had booked ahead so there was a room set aside for us.
The afternoon drive was much of the same, moss-covered lava boulders, cliffs, mountains and glaciers. Now and again, we would pass an isolated bridge. The glacier fed rivers change their course and it is cheaper to build and maintain a road than maintain a bridge, so if they are no longer spanning a river, the bridges are bypassed! Mid-afternoon we stopped at the visitor centre for the Skaftafell National Park, associated with a glacier (Skaftafellsjökull) to which we set out to walk. We got as far as a terminal moraine, glacial lagoon (with ice and icebergs) and tumuli. It was a refreshing walk after sitting for most of the day.
We drove on, with more of the same terrain, except the moss-covered rocks had given way to more flat land with brown grass and occasional farms and villages. Sometimes at turns in the road, I would capture a spectacular view of snow-covered mountains or a tongue of glacier. Unfortunately, I was on the seaward side of the coach. We arrived at our hotel near Hofn in the late afternoon and settled in, met for a meal and stayed up late at the bar hoping to see the northern lights, but they did not appear.
The next morning was Monday 11 March, and we set off just after 8:15, heading back west, so now I had a view of the mountains and glaciers in the morning sunlight. We went past the largest dairy-farm in Iceland with a huge barn for the cows. Some of the sky-line was interestingly jagged and in one place scalloped.
Our first stop for the day was at the Diamond Beach, so named because chunks of ice that float out to sea from the nearest glacier then get tossed back onto the beach appearing like very large shiny ‘diamonds’. On our way here and while we were at the beach, whales could be seen spouting out to sea. Too far away for my camera to catch, but others managed (note to self: update phone before the next trip!)
We moved on, really just across the road, to a carpark and food trailer area, from whence departed the trips out to the glacier, Breiđamerkurjökull. We were up for another glacier walk and ice-cave. The weather looked rather more promising than the previous time. Nearby was a glacial lagoon with ice bergs which we had time to go and admire. We were loaded onto a couple of large 4×4 vehicles and off we went, not quite such a long drive, again over lava rocks and snow, to the carpark and start point for the walk. Crampons and helmets were provided. It was an easy walk up a long gentle slope to a cave that had been carved out of the glacier near a water eroded area. The entrance was covered (as was the exit) to protect the cut, and also to keep out rival operators! A different cave is cut each winter as the glacier is retreating (melting away) by about a 100 metres each summer. One cannot go out on the glacier in summer as it is too unstable.
We entered the cave and clambered down steps into the middle of the glacier, finding an open topped hole where melt water comes in. It has eroded a course through the glacier, which we followed, then climbed out up man-made steps to the surface. The ice of the glacier was a beautiful translucent blue/green, but also had layers of lava-dust so some areas were dirty-looking. The colour and texture of the ice was mesmerizing, but did not really come out in my photographs.
We walked easily back to the vehicles from the cave and loaded up. As we returned to the meeting area the clouds began to close in. We had time for something to eat (the fish and chips were good but expensive) and to take another look at the lagoon. This time I counted five or six seals in there, catching fish. Luckily, others on the tour shared their photos.
As well as the sky clouding over, the wind had picked up, so we were all getting cold and returned to the bus early. We drove on a bit further west to our hotel outside Oraefi. This is a new hotel, especially built for tourists coming to Diamond Beach and the glaciers.
On the 12 March, we returned to Jeykjavik, backtracking along the same route we used when heading east. There is no other road, really, linking the villages and farms of the south. It promised to be a long day on the road and unfortunately raining most of the time, so I didn’t get much chance to take the photos of mountains and glaciers that I had hoped to (being now on that side of the coach). It had snowed overnight, so our initial drive was through land lightly dusted in white. We crossed the out-flow plain (Skeiđarársandur) of the wide glacier front of Skeiđarárjökull. We went past some truncated ridges, perhaps ground away when the ice of the Vatnajökull ice cap was more extensive. There were farms huddled against the mountains, often with a nearby waterfall. We stopped briefly at the Visitor Centre at Kirkjubæjarklauster. Then we re-entered the weird lava field of lumps of rock swathed in moss. This time we stopped at a lookout. The information boards noted that the moss family was the first plant species to settle on dry land, 400 million years ago.Moss absorbs water and nutrients through its leaves, so can colonise rocky areas with ease where other plants cannot survive. It is bright green in wet weather, but in dry conditions becomes dull and greyish. In this area, Eldhraun, the dominant moss is ‘woolly fringe moss’ which forms a thick moss carpet and can be up to 60 cm deep among the rocks.
About an hour later we drove through Vik, without stopping. Our guide told us about the Westerman Islands, an archipelago to the south and their evacuation when a volcano erupted and the difficulties of maintaining a ferry service between harbours that are silting up. We stopped just after midday at the Lava Centre at Skogar (I think) which had some interesting interactive displays on magma formation, volcanic eruptions and lava flows as well as a simulated earthquake. Driving on, our late lunch was at liberty in Selfoss. I discovered that the town is recreating historic buildings from all over the south, as commercial space and as a tourist attraction. I walked down to the river and found a carved fishy-looking thing near the suspension bridge.
From Selfoss the road climbs back up to the plateau over which we had to cross to get to Reykjavik. As we went up, we got a good look at the steam coming from the geothermic vents outside town. At the top of the rise there is a rock formation with a round hole, it is supposed to be good luck to catch sight of this, lucky I was ready to click! The geothermic power station is nearby, venting steam.
We got to the Borg Hotel in Reykjavik about 4:30 pm. I was back in the same room as on our first night for this three night stay. I went shopping for souvenirs, including an Icelandic pullover.
Vik, Iceland 8th to 10th March 2024
The Albatross Iceland tour had an early start on Friday, 8 March, in order to get to the airport and check in our bags. The flight to Reykjavik was uneventful and I was in an aisle seat so did not have the opportunity to view the scenery. A coach and new driver picked us up at the airport and we headed generally south and east. We went past a couple of geothermic power stations, with zig-zag pipes over the surface on their way to civilization. They are laid out like that because the steam therein expands and contracts the pipes depending on the temperature (or I think that is what we were told). We soon got to the edge of the plateau and descended in a series of hairpin bends. The coastal plain is volcanic ash from relatively recent eruptions, which pushed the sea back from what were once coastal cliffs. There was a lot less snow than in the north!
Occasional towns, farms and villages dot the coastal plain. We passed many systems of drainage ditches and streams taking melt-water to the sea. One river that we crossed had sheets of ice floating gently seawards, too. Shortly after, we also saw a volcanic cone, with an unpronounceable name.
Our first stop was at a very impressive waterfall, Seljalandsfoss, which falls 60 metres from the uplands of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier (according to Wikiedia). In the summer months one can walk behind the falls, but it is treacherously icy in winter. Instead, I walked further, along a well marked path to look at a couple of other waterfalls nearby. One of these was Gljúfrabúi (there was a sign at the start of the path) but I am not sure which! The furthest away was worn right back into the cliff in a very narrow chasm.
As we drove on we passed several other waterfalls, although not with the volume of water that Seljalandsfoss had. We had an extra stop, to look at the 62 metre waterfall of Skógafoss. This carries water from the Eyjafjallajökull and the western edge of the Myrdalsjökull glaciers. An information Board informed us that the river has over twenty waterfalls along its course, but this, the last, is the most impressive. There was a walk to get to the waterfall, over lava gravel washed down from the heights. The river has worn a depression in the hilltop as well as eaten into the hillside in a wide arc. Legend has it that a settler, þrasi, hid a chest of gold behind the waterfall. For a while one end was still visible and three men tried to retrieve the chest, but only managed to tear off an iron ring on the side of the chest – a ring which is now in the Skógar folk museum. There is no longer any sign of a chest! We were told that the folk museum started off as a random collection put together by a man who simply collected things that other people were throwing out. He began at the age of 14 and he recently died at over 100 years old. As the collection developed, he was given items to preserve, and eventually the museum was born. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit, but it sounds like it would be very interesting!
As we drove, the land to the left remained mountainous, and we saw a glacier or two as well. To our right the coastal plain stretched fairly flat out to the sea. A particular kind of grass has been imported and planted in an attempt to bind the ashy soil and add nitrogen to raise fertility. However, we were told that it has got a bit out of control. A familiar story to Australians, these things tend to get out of hand. We turned off the coast road to visit a headland, Dyrhólaey, that used to be an island, until volcanic eruptions dumped enough lava to push the coast out and the sea away. On the landward side the outcrop slopes but there are towering cliffs on the seaward side. We drove out as far as a parking area, then walked in a stiff wind to see the view. There are sea stacks off the headland and lots of lava gravel.
From Dyrhólaey we could see the headland beyond which lies the town of Vik, our base for the next two nights. It was still a bit of a drive away as we had to go back to the coast road and detour inland to cross the Hvammsá river and get round the uplands of Reynisfjall, which had some interesting rock formations on the sky-line as we passed. Our guide informed us that these were trolls who got caught out in daylight. Vik is a small but growing town, with new buildings in the process of erection. We were staying in a modern, somewhat soul-less but quite comfortable hotel. It has a great chef; we had a lovely meal that night!
The next morning, a Saturday, were bused over the hill westwards, backtracking a little on yesterdays inwards track, but turned left towards the coast just past the Reynisfjall. We were on our way to the beach at Reynisfjara, said to be the most dangerous beach in Iceland because of a wicked under-tow. The beach is fine gravel at the back and black pebbles on the lower beach. The waves crash against the shore, exploding into spray, and the water looks grey from the suspended ash/sand/lava-dust. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to swim there. The cliff-face at the point has hexagonal basalt columns (like the Devil’s Causeway in Ireland but smaller scale) and just off the point is one of the sea-stacks that can be seen from Dyrhólaey and from Vik, on the other side of the headland. A shallow cave, Hálsanefhellir, is nestled under the cliff. To its left there are some interesting patterns in the rock, sweeping lines that didn’t quite make hexagons. Looking west along the beach, I could see, firstly, how steeply the beach falls away into the sea, and secondly, the arch under the headland of Dyrhólaey. There were more tourists than just us, and some were playing King Canute with the waves, several getting soaked as we watched. It was quite windy and the spray obscured the view to the west.
Returning to Vik, we were dropped at the HQ of the glacier expedition company, which shares space with a pizza parlour! Our group was divided up into two four-wheel drive vehicles and we set off eastwards. After a bit we left the main road and headed off cross-country, over the ubiquitous black gravel, alleviated somewhat by white snow and ice. We were told that an eruption under the glacier more than a hundred years ago sent a huge flood of water and gravel down from the mountains and extending out into the sea creating a new stretch of land and linking former islands to the mainland. Our driver also mentioned that NASA sent its astronauts to train here for the moon landings, “and filmed it just over there – just joking”. The scenery has been used in Game of Thrones and in Star Wars, so he played the Star Wars theme music as we drove along. After about an hour we got to a parking area where there were a few other vehicles lined up. We were supplied with crampons and helmets with miner’s lights. We set off over the snow towards the glacier, Kötlujökull, in the distance. It has a somewhat layered appearance, due to the deposition of ash/gravel on the glacier then more snow on top of that. It took about half an hour to get to the glacier across the gravel plain, with some outcrops of rock and some wooden planks to get us over streamlets. Then we had to climb up the lower lip of the glacier, a steep zig-zag path, sometimes assisted by a rope line between poles set into the ice, sometimes with rough steps cut into the ice. We emerged into a valley, formed by the collapse of a cave during the previous summer. Interestingly, the mouth of that cave is still in place, an almost perfect circle of ice. Light rain was falling, softening all the edges.
Some of the cave still exists at the upper end of the valley, and that is where we went, following the path worn into the snow and ice. The cave was formed by melt-water swirling down a break in the ice and hollowing out a path along a fault in the ice. Walking along a short tunnel, we got to the vertical shaft cut by the water, complete with frozen waterfall. The cave or tunnel was a semi-circle, in that we entered, walked round and exited by a different hole.
Then we had to make our way back the way we came; along the side of the ice-valley and back down the face of the glacier, negotiating the path with more tourists coming the other way, then back across the snow-covered gravel plain to the car-park. It was raining gently and I was fairly damp, but mercifully warm given several layers of thermal underclothes! Back in the 4×4 we had an hour or so drive back to base. We took a detour onto the Vik beach, similar black gravel to that which we were on this morning. We got out to take photos and the piercing wind really stripped the warmth out of me. I was glad to get back to my room for a long hot shower.
Sunday (10 March) we had a late start, but even so were early for our first activity. Thus, we had a quick drive up to the Vik church, up on a hill-top behind the town. It was consecrated in 1934. Up until then, the people of Vik had to cross the Reynisfjall to Reyniskirkju to attend church, or else travel a much longer distance round the mountain.
Returning to the centre of Vik, we attended ‘The Lava Show’. This began with a very informative presentation about the dangers of volcanic activity in the region. The nearest volcano, Katla, has a pattern of eruptions roughly every 50 years, but the last eruption was 1918. It could happen any time now. Furthermore, Katla is under the glacier, so eruptions generally melt a lot of ice creating flash flooding. The new parts of Vik are on the flood plain. The presenter told us about the evacuation kits that everyone has ready to go (torch, food, changes of clothes) and the big orange evacuation cards kept in each house, firstly to list all the steps to be taken when evacuation is ordered and secondly to hang in a window to confirm evacuation. There might be only 20 to 30 minutes warning to get out and up the hill. He said that the evacuation point for tourists is the church, which we had just visited, but that for residents it is a nearby pub. He added jokingly that one tourist per hour would be sacrificed to the gods until the eruption ends…
While he was talking, and indeed for the previous few hours, volcanic lava pebbles from the beach had been melting in a furnace behind the wall. The presenter opened a sluice and the molten lava ran out onto a sloping bed of the same gravel. It was bright orange and very hot, about 1100 C, but cools rapidly. It certainly heated up the little auditorium. We were shown how a metal bar can lift up strings of the lava, he called it mozzarella lava. He placed a block of ice on the flow to show how volcanic glass can be formed – but here it does not form obsidian, as that has a slightly different chemical composition (more rhodium and less basalt). Then he lifted up the cooling lava flow to show how the crust is solid but there is still hot flowing lava inside. It was a fascinating presentation.
The contrast in temperature between the lava-heated auditorium and the ambient temperature outside of about 5 degrees C was rather extreme. We loaded quickly onto our coach and set off eastward out of Vik, for more exploration.
North Iceland 7 March 2024
On Thursday 7 March ’24, the Albatross Iceland tour had a day excursion to Gođafoss and the Lake Myvatn geothermic area to the south east of Akureyri. It was a grey, overcast morning as we set off through the snowy landscape. We went through a 7.5 km tunnel on the way to our first stop at Gođafoss, the ‘frozen waterfall’. We were told a story from the Icelandic sagas as we travelled, about the Lawspeaker of Iceland (like the head of the parliament) who had the final say as to whether Iceland should become Christian or remain pagan, one or the other. He finally decided that Christianity would be adopted. The other clan chiefs went along with this, possibly because as part of the conversion process all clan chiefs would automatically become bishops. To make the decision binding, it is said that the Lawspeaker took all of his clan’s symbols of pagan belief and threw them into the waterfall, hence the name ‘God’s waterfall’, Gođafoss. I later discovered that this Lawspeaker’s name was þórgeir Ljósvetningagođi and the year was 1000 AD.
On arrival, our bus driver provided us with crampons to put over our shoes, because of the icy conditions. They were a bit difficult to get on, but were well worth it for more secure footing. We followed the path along the side of a gorge to a viewpoint overlooking the falls. The river Skjálfandafljót carries melt water from the glacier Vatnajökull. Initially the river flows across a fairly flat landscape, but suddenly tumbles over a semi-circular cliff into a cauldron of greenish water. In the deep winter, ice forms at the edges of the flow over the falls, gradually building up so it appears that the whole waterfall is ice. Unfortunately, most of the ice had gone by the time we visited the falls, but there were a few areas where ice remained.
The river flows away through the gorge and over another smaller ledge of rock, a lower fall (Geitafoss). Beneath this fall, the water flow has carved a circular scoop out of the rock. Further downstream the old 1930s bridge crosses the river, just before the current bridge.
The coach took us on towards the Lake Myvatn geothermic area. There are volcanic features including a beautifully symmetric ash cone which we first saw from across the frozen lake and seemed to circle round for the rest of the day. The cone has weathered with gullies running straight down the sides of the cone; these still had snow in them, so the cone has a rather ‘zebra striped’ appearance. We stopped at Námafell, part of the wider Hverir area, around a hill from the lake. This is (and I quote an information board) a high-temperature geothermal area with fumeroles and mud pots. At a depth of 1000 m the temperature is above 200 C. Along with steam comes fumerole gas, such as hydrogen sulfide which is responsible for the characteristic hot spring smell in these areas. The hot springs produce considerable sulphur deposits. In previous centuries sulphur was mined in Iceland to produce gunpowder. (End quote). We followed a well tracked trail across the red mud ground. There was a bubbling pool of water off to the right, then a couple of fumeroles, smelling strongly and belching gas.
A little further and there was a whole bank of sulphur emitting vents, and on our left, several more low cones emitting gases. We were instructed not to leave the path, but some people (not in our group) were to be seen walking in and out of the clouds of gas, possibly for social media purposes! It smelt, and I expect they did too, after that activity and I hate to think what the sulphur might do to one’s lungs. At the end of the trail, there was a built structure of low walls that appears to have been a pool, controlled with a sluice gate. It was in poor repair and full of snow, clearly no longer in use, whatever use it once had.
Returning to our coach and getting the red mud off our shoes with difficulty, we returned to the lakeside and turned left. We had a lovely buffet lunch at the Sel-Hótel Myvatn. They are well used to people coming in from the mud – we had to brush our shoes outside, then wear blue socks over our shoes while inside. The food was great! From there we moved on to Dimmuborgir where we went for a walk among the towering ‘chimneys’ formed by steam escaping from under a magma lake, cooling and solidifying nearby lava as it did so. When the magma drained away, the chimneys were left behind. They are very weird shapes. It would be easy to get lost in amongst the formations. I got a distinct ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ vibe as we walked around, however we all safely returned to the coach.
An information board had a photograph of the area in summer – which had a very different appearance with so much greenery. Our winter visit was very black and white.
We returned to the place where we had lunch, crossed the road and walked out to a lookout over the lake. That ash cone was in the background again. There were quite a few hillocks, called ‘false craters’ because they are not magma eruption craters, but craters caused by escaping steam pushing up a semi-molten surface rather than forming chimneys. We also visited the nearby Visitors Centre where there was a lot of information about the region and various types of lava formations, as well as the local flora and fauna. I was particularly taken by a case of ‘cave coral’ found in a cave near Myvatn. It is almost pure calcium carbonate. The formations look very similar to reef coral, but have a totally different likely formation. The hypothesis is that these formations precipitate over a long period of time (several thousand years) in a high humidity but low thermal heat (under 100 C) closed system. Such formations have not been found anywhere else.
Heading back to our hotel, we stopped for a photo break on the opposite shore of the fjord from Akureyri, so I was able to get a few more shots of truncated ridges and snowy mountains. The next morning we had an early start to fly back to Reykjavik on the way to explore the south of the island.
Northern Iceland 5th to 6th March 2024
The Albatross tour ‘Iceland: Fire, Ice Caves and Frozen Waterfalls’ started with a flight across Iceland to Akureyri in the north of the country. We left from the regional airport very near the city centre. There was a bit of waiting about before we boarded, which provided an opportunity to set up a WhatsApp group to facilitate sharing of information and photos during the tour. Albatross also provided a hot drink from the café. We were not told that we would have to provide our own lunch to eat on the plane, however I travel with protein bars in my hand luggage so I did not starve! I was lucky enough to get a window seat and it was a fairly clear day, so I could look out at the rugged snow-covered landscape. Akureyri is at the head of a long fjord, stretching north to the open sea and our approach along the landward extension of the valley was interesting, as we descended between the walls of mountains.
There was a bus waiting for us, and as soon as our baggage was collected, we loaded onto the coach and set off further north alongside the fjord. Near Akureyri there were some mountains that looked as if the ice of a glacier had scraped off the lower ridges leaving regular triangular cliffs. We passed occasional farms, set in snowy fields, often with a small herd of horses outside. We were told the Iceland horses are very hardy and are so well adapted to the climate that they do not tolerate living in barns and are left out all year round.
There is a long tunnel between Olafsfjöđur and Siglufjöđur making the trip between the two villages far quicker and much safer than the old cliff-side road. The two places are now administered by a single town council (or equivalent) but ancient rivalry apparently persists! We checked into our hotel on the waterfront of Siglufjöđur, where there was once a thriving herring industry. Almost as soon as we arrived, we were heading across the road to a Herring Era Museum. This was a fascinating look at the lives of the fishing industry workers when Siglufjöđur was a herring boom town between 1907 and the 1960s. Herring stocks were over fished and the herring virtually disappeared in the 1960s, shutting down the fisheries and processing plants. Herring populations have recovered somewhat, and there is now a strict quota system. In the museum there was emphasis on the lives of the ‘Herring Girls’ (women of any age) who worked at outside troughs, beheading and gutting the herring and packing them into barrels with salt. The catch would be emptied into the trough and the girls would lift them out, clean them on the small blocks and scrape the waste into the holes beside their workspace. Originally, they would simply scrape the waste onto the ground, and so would be standing in fish-guts at increasing depth as their shift progressed. They lived above the processing plant in dormitories of four to eight and had shared kitchens. There was not much privacy but (according to the guide) great camaraderie, many returning to the seasonal work year after year.
Another processing building educated us about the extraction of oil from the fish. This was done in huge steam cookers. In the gallery above the processing machinery were numerous information boards about the herring industry in Iceland. Initially the industry was dominated by Norwegian investment, but later on Iceland set up state owned factories which improved the situation for Icelandic owned fishing boats.
The final building that we visited was set up to look like a harbour, with a number of different sized historic fishing boats for us to explore. None were anything like the size of modern fishing trawlers. Our guide also had some samples of processed herring and some locally produced alcohol, aquavit or schnapps, for us to sample.
After the museum visit, I went for a walk to the town centre of Siglufjöđur, to purchase snacks and look at the parish church (which was locked) and generally stretch my legs.
The following day we were scheduled to go on a whale watching cruise from Danvig, nearly half-way back to Akureyri, where we would spend the next few nights. As it was, we were told that whales had been sighted nearer to Akureyri so we were driven all the way back to join the whale-watching vessel there. It was very peaceful out on the water with the spectacular hills edging the fjord. I even saw a plane doing circuits in and out of Akureyri airport, apparently a lot of training is done here. While not a clear day, there was no wind and the water was glassy smooth, except in our wake, which made spotting whale sign (spouts and water disturbances) that much easier.
It took a while but eventually we saw whale sign and the boat started maneuvering to get closer. Finally, one whale put on quite a display for us, slapping the water repeatedly with its tail. Then it moved away and breached – lifted somewhat out of the water and sank again in a rolling motion. Unfortunately no-one got a photo of that (or didn’t share!). I was enthralled at this close encounter. As we returned to port, we were shown a hot water waterfall entering the fjord. Apparently, a hot spring was exposed by the excavation of a road tunnel, so the water was re-directed into the fjord. There is a pool one can sit in and no doubt it will expand into a thermal spa soon.
After our spell-binding whale watching, we were loaded back on the bus and taken to a Santa Claus House (shop). While pretty it was less than enthralling. The shop next door sold homewares and condiments. There were samples of bread and jams, pickles and curds to sample. Given there was no lunch-break scheduled, I tucked into the tasty samples (hopefully not too obviously).
On the way back to Akureyri, we had a quick spin round the oldest part of town. It was pointed out that there are no trees in Iceland (or weren’t from shortly after settlement until recent forestry endeavors). Thus most houses were stone and turf, built from driftwood or required imported timber. We saw some houses built from textured corrugated iron, also imported. I assume that there was no local source of clays for bricks, given the lack of brick buildings. Akureyri has a botanical gardens that they are very proud of, with many different plants. There are lots of young trees about, too, planted in the last 50 years; trees are very slow growing in this climate. Our hotel was in the newer commercial centre of town. We left our luggage at the hotel (our rooms were not ready) and had some free time to explore.
I wandered along the main street to the main square, Ráđhústorg Square, then wandered back again. There were a couple of souvenir shops and a couple of outdoor wear type shops, and the normal sorts of shops and cafes found in a city centre. I also found the city Concert Hall, down near the waterfront, a large modern building.
Back at the hotel, I walked up the hill to the Lutheran church with its pair of towers. Inside are some magnificent stained glass windows. There is a story that one of the windows came from Coventry Cathedral before it was bombed in November 1940, via an antique shop in London and an Icelander who bought it to Reykjavik. It was gifted to the Akureyri church and installed in 1943, with the other windows made in the same style. A researcher from the BBC (in 2014) got onto the story, and deduced that the window was not from Coventry, but possibly from a London church. Nonetheless the story has been taught to several generations of Sunday School children and has led to an international ecclesiastical friendship between Coventry and Akureyri. A statue on a brick from the old Coventry Cathedral has been given to the Church from the congregation in Coventry. It is lovely church, and has an interesting baptismal font – a white marble kneeling angel holding a bowl. It is a copy of the font by Bertel Thorvaldson in Our Lady’s Church in Copenhagen. The altar piece above the font is from the original church built in Akureyri in 1863 and is by the Danish artist Edvard Lahmann.
I strolled back down to the hotel and checked in, relaxed and joined the rest of the group for dinner in the hotel that evening.
Reykjavik 4th March
I had to fly to Reykjavik to join the Albatross ‘Iceland: Fire, Ice Caves and Frozen Waterfalls’ tour, which required an overnight stay in the Sofitel at Terminal 5 in Heathrow. My flight to Reykjavik was early enough that it would be difficult to get there from where I had been staying in Bromley. As it was I woke early, checked into the flight on-line and was ready to drop my bags for the flight an hour before check-in opened! So, I did a lot of waiting about. Eventually, we boarded and set off for the two hour flight. We were given a small snack and water, but I also bought a sandwich for an early lunch, at least eating gave me something to do! Arriving in Iceland, there was low cloud so even if I was on the right side of the plane, I would not have seen our approach. I had hoped to see maybe a bit of lava from the eruption not long before on the Reykjanes peninsula, which is where the Keflavik international airport for Reykjavik is located. On the ground, there had been some snowfall overnight, so the start of my visit was suitably Arctic. It did not take long to find my suitcase (always a relief) and make my way out of the airport and directly onto the Flybus taking me and many others into the city. It is quite a long drive, about 45 minutes, through flat and very barren looking landscape, heaps of broken lava and some low hills. We went past a turn-off to Grindavik, with the town name scored through with a line, I guess indicating that the town is closed. Being very near the eruption, the population has been evacuated. This eruption has been a series of rifts opening in the ground and lava creeping out, rather than the top blowing off a mountain.
The view from the bus
Driving through the surburban sprawl of Reykjavik, I got the impression of there being first individual buildings with red roofs and apparently with metal siding, and then blocks of apartments in a very utilitarian style. In Reykjavic we were dropped at a bus terminal. I had paid for transfer to my hotel, so I had to wait for a shuttle bus which took me to a main street from where I had a short walk to the Borg Hotel, just round the block. Buses are not allowed into the historic centre of Reykjavik. It was about 3 degrees Celsius with melting snow about. From the park outside, the Borg Hotel looks rather ordinary, but step inside and it is a jewel of Art Deco design in the public areas. I just loved it! My room was a bit small, being a single rather than a double, but perfectly adequate.
Naturally, as soon as I had checked in and dropped my bags, I headed out to explore. I had seen a pond on the way in, so I walked in that direction, towards a church. This turned out to be the modest Cathedral, or Dómkirkjan, dating from 1796. Walking between the Dóm and the Parliament building, I came to the pond, Tjörnin. It is large and mostly frozen so all the ducks and swans were confined to the area near the shore that was free of ice. The Reyjavik Town Hall or Ráđhúsiđ is built out over the water. Just behind me in a small square was an interesting sculpture, which I later found out is called The Unknown Bureaucrat.
I walked further alongside the pond (lake?) towards another church, the Lutheran Free Church, built in 1903. Next door is the National Gallery of Iceland, so un-imposing that I did not photograph it at all. It was a bit icy along the lake, so I returned along the road-side pavement to Lækjargata, the road on which the Flybus had dropped me off and which is built over the stream that connects the pond to the harbour. There were some interesting apartments (?) over the road and across a park with balconies and picket fences.
I followed the road until I got to a small square opposite what appeared, from flagpole and statues, to be an important building. I crossed the road for a closer look. There was some building work going on and a series of posters on the concealing fence informed passersby of the history and significance of the building. To quote: “The Government Offices Building was originally built as a prison in the middle of the 18th century. The building subsequently became the home and offices of the executive branch in Iceland; first as the residence of the Diocesan Governor, then as the seat of the Governor of Iceland and finally as the offices of Islandic ministers and the President of Iceland and a meeting place of the Government of Iceland.” Further information posters gave a more detailed story of the building and its importance in Icelandic history. The prison was completed in 1771 and was made of dressed dolerite blocks with a timber roof. The last prisoners were released in 1813. The building was not used for some years, but was refitted in the winter of 1819/20, the windows enlarged and ceiling raised. It was then occupied by Count Ludwig Moltke, appointed Diocesan Governor of Iceland by the Danish King. Later Governors also lived and worked in the building, banquets and theatrical plays were also held there. Christian IX of Denmark visited Reykjavik in 1874, the first Danish monarch to visit, to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the settlement of Iceland. He stayed at the house and it is his statue on the lawn of the Offices, handing over the Constitution of Iceland. Home rule was granted to Iceland in 1904, so the building became the home of the executive, and changes were made to the building to accommodate this function. On 1 Decenber 1918 Iceland was recognized as a fully sovereign state and the new flag of Iceland was raised for the first time on a new flagpole in front of the Government Offices.
I walked on, up the main shopping street then veered to the right along a street painted as a rainbow, and which leads up to a big church – Hallgrimskirkja, also known as the big tower church. I ducked into various souvenir shops along the way. At the top of the hill is a statue of Leif Erikson (son of Iceland and discoverer of Vinland). There is an inscription on the back indicating that it was a gift of the people of the USA on the one thousandth anniversary of the settlement of Iceland. I could not go into the church because a funeral was in progress, but apparently there are great views from the top of the tower.
I retraced my steps and visited the park, the Austervöllur, outside the hotel. This is a significant place, as was explained in more information boards. I should explain that nearly all the information boards I saw were in both Icelandic and English, some had additional languages. Austervöllur means East Meadow and the area was a grass field in the original Reykjavik farm. By the 1800s the field was in a poor state and the town magistrate banned turf-cutting (for building) and the dumping of ash and refuse. The growing village of Reykjavik encroached on the field, and in the early 19th century the remaining area served as a campsite for visiting country-folk and tourists. In 1875 the field was fenced, levelled and paths were set out. A sculpture, a self-portrait by the Icelandic-Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen gifted to Reykjavik by the town council of Copenhagen, was placed in the middle of the park. This was replaced in 1931 by a sculpture of Jón Sigurđsson the leader of the 19th century independence movement. The park has become a traditional gathering place, in front of the Parliament House, or Alþingishúsiđ, for celebration and for protests.
I met up with the rest of the Albatross Tours ‘Iceland – Fire, Ice Caves and Frozen Waterfalls’ tour that evening, and found that I already knew several participants from previous tours. Another adventure begins!
Bromley 1st to 3rd March 2024
In the European Spring of 2024 I was on the move again, this time taking in Iceland, Lappland and some of Italy. I got there by first flying Emirates to London. I left Sydney on 29th February and expect to be home again on Anzac Day, 25th April. I spent a few days in Bromley before setting out for Iceland.
William and Clara Friend are my great-great-grandparents. They married in Ramsgate in 1858 and moved their family up to Camberwell (now within the Greater London area) in the late 1860s. This can be more closely dated to having been between the births of their two youngest children, Robert Arthur, born in Ramsgate in September 1867 and Walter Thomas, born in Peckham in August 1870. I am descended from Walter Thomas Friend. I have numerous cousins of various degree, descended from Walter and his five brothers. Walter had one sister, but she did not have any children. Three of the brothers, Walter Thomas, William Hine and Albert John went into business together around 1903. They were the proprietors of Johns and Co, a tailoring company based in Forest Hill. My grandfather (Walter Kenneth Friend) eventually took over the business, running it until the mid-1960s. A fair few of my numerous cousins live in or near Bromley, a London Borough in the south east of Greater London. Thus, I stayed in Bromley at the beginning of my latest European Expedition.
I flew into Heathrow in the evening of the 29th of February, the flight having been delayed on departure from Dubai and arriving an hour later than scheduled. I took the Underground, Heathrow now being on the Elizabeth Line which took me to Paddington. I then got mis-directed to the Circle Line via Kings Cross and had to retrace my steps, when I realized, in order to get to the direction to Victoria Station. It was the first time that I had used this route, the underground from Heathrow used to run on a different line. I had help from fellow travellers, to find the right platform and carrying my suitcase for me. I got to Victoria and found a fast train direct to Bromley South arriving about midnight. A cousin met me and got me to my accommodation. During my stay in Bromley, my cousin and I took a few walks through Bromley and did a bit of research into its history.
Bromley is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086). It is noted as being mostly in the possession of the Bishop of Rochester and consisted of 56 households, quite a large community at the time. In 1205, King John granted Bromley a charter to hold a market in the town. It became incorporated as a municipal borough in 1903 and part of the London Borough of Bromley in 1965. The main road from London to the south east areas of Kent ran through Bromley and a local inn (The Royal Bell, which no longer exists) is mentioned in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice (all the above from Wikipedia).
The Parish Church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. It was partially destroyed by bombing in 1941. The reconstruction of the Church kept the surviving Norman period church tower and reused much of the flint of the original in the exterior walls. Inside, the appearance of the church is more austere, it is either concrete or plastered brick, I did not look too closely. We walked to the church on Sunday morning, shortly before the morning service, so I did not feel I could stay for long.
The Church backs onto what is now a public park, Church Gardens. Originally this was the grounds of the Bishop’s residence Church House (built in 1832, probably replacing a series of earlier residences) which was leased from the Bishop of Rochester by Abel Moysely, a local businessman. He designed landscaped grounds, including lawns, shrubberies and fish ponds. The area was acquired by the local Council in 1926. The house was destroyed by bombing in 1941 and nothing remains except a parapet round a sunken lawn. The Church Gardens were then combined with the Library Gardens, which had been a separate public garden since 1906. There is a very informative notice board at the Church entrance to the gardens. We walked through the gardens on Saturday and on Sunday. My cousin often walks here, it being the nearest park for him.
An old wall faces the High Street near the Church, reputed to have been the outer wall of an Abbey. The gate in this wall bears a board stating that it is the grounds of Bromley and Sheppard’s College, established in 1666. I looked at the College website and discovered that it is not an educational college, but rather was established to provide housing for twenty poor widows of orthodox and loyal clergymen, by the then Bishop of Rochester. Further accommodation quads were built in later years and now retired couples can also reside there, as long as one partner is an ordained minister. There is no comment about what was on the site previously, only that it was built on land belonging to the Bishopric of Rochester.
The nearby upper part of the High Street was once a bustling area, but as the newer developments have been at the other end of the High Street nearer Bromley South Station, this section has gradually declined, evidenced by boarded up shops and To Let signs. There are still some interesting buildings to be seen, like the Star and Garter Pub, built in 1898 in the ‘Vernacular Revival’ style and the Art Deco style Bromley Picturehouse.
Walking down the High Street I found the Parish Pump of Victorian design, which replaced the old Pump that once stood in the Market Square in the 1860s. An information board notes that it was relocated to the Church Gardens in 1933, but was later restored and moved again to its current location. An underground stream fed the pump in its original position, and the stream still surfaces in the Church House Gardens. Behind the pump is a large mural depicting the work of Charles Darwin, who apparently lived nearby, although I do not know where exactly. A little further on, in the market area of the High Street, is a brick building bearing a blue plaque, commemorating the birth of H. G. Wells on the site (in an earlier building) on 21st September, 1866.
I had a lovely few days in Bromley, visiting with several maternal-side cousins and talking a lot of family history. Then it was time to move on to explore Iceland with an Albatross Tour.
HauntsofmyAncestors 