Iceland, Oct. 18, 2000
Hi,
there ...Eric, Jennifer, and I have found our way to the Top Cafe, an Internet
coffee house in Reykjavik, and are taking this oportunity to send our greetings. The flight
last night from Boston was tiresome but exicitng at the same time. We arrived
at 6 a.m. Iceland time -- about 2 a.m. Atlanta time! -- so we´ve been
a bit disoriented all day as a result. It was a long but beautiful drive
in from the airport... the sun rose as we arrived and illuminated the eerie-looking
landscape. Our hotel is simple and clean ... quite wonderfully located,
right in the middle of things and just a block or two from the harbor in one
direction and from the famous ´lava´ church in the other direction. Today,
we´re planning our adventures ... it looks likely that we will take
the Golden Circle Tour of the waterfalls and ´geysirs´and we
will definitely go to the Blue Lagoon spa and mineral baths on our way
back to the airport. Surprisingly, the weather here has been spectacular...
in the 40s, bright and sunny, clear clean air ... and we're surrounded by sweet-faced and sweet-tempered
people. A ton of babies everywhere ... but all very quiet and well -behaved! The
sun sets today at 6 30, so we will have plenty of sunlight. Well, Eric and
Jen are sighing at my long-windedness,so I had better sign off. See you
soon.
Love,
Darryl
Letter 2, Iceland, Oct 21, 2000
hi,
again,
Yesterday was amazing. Another gorgeous day of around 50 degrees F.
We left the hotel Skjalbreiđ at 9 30 am and by 10 the three of us were
astride our trusty steeds ... the unique Islandic horse, strong, short,
sweet-tempered ... for a couple hours of riding around
the countryside. The group consisted of about 20 people maybe, and
our guides led us through fields with clear views of the surrounding volcanos
and glaciers. We traveled at various speeds ... from a slow walk to a near
gallop, bouncing up and down on the backs of out horses ... mine was named
"Stone," or whatever the Icelandic word for that is.
then we had lunch ... a buffet of lamb chops and vegetables, soup, bread,
and cold beer. Then we were off to spend a half hour exploring Gulfloss,
surely one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. We had amazing
views and were able to get very close. I hope my pictures turn out
OK .. there was so much
spray from the falls that the lens protector was constantly having
to be wiped dry. then we drove further to look at the famous Icelandic
"geysirs" ... these are where our word geyser come
from, and the grandaddy of them all is properly named "Geysir" .. it
hasn´t been active for many years, but following a series of earthquakes
this past June .. measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale! ... it is now erupting
again! Geysir is surrounded by other, smaller geysirs that also steam, burble,
and erupt on a regular and frequent schedule. Oddly, the sulphuric,
steamy geysir plains are encircled by glaciers. You´d think one of
them would give, the ice or the boiling water churning right beneath
the surface!
After a much-needed coffee break, it was off to look at the very
spot where North America and Europe are drifting apart! Yes, the place
where the continents are divided, still moving at a rate of 2 cm a year,
our guide said. One can still jump across the chasm, jumping from North
America to Europe and back! ... and the mini canyon travels miles up into
the hills until it disappears from sight. Some day, after many more years,
the split will be complete and Iceland will be two separate islands.
Other
highlights: beautiful lakes, a huge caldera formed by the explosion of
a volcano eons ago and now containing a "bottomless" lake in the center.
Parents tell their children here, when they misbehave, that they will
toss them into the lake and send them to Australia! A nice tour of the
Icelandic greenhouses .. where the nation grows its vegetables and fruit
and flowers. We saw banana trees, orchids, corn stalks, royal blue roses, etc.... a nice
solution for a nation that can´t farm, but only has 270,000 people
to feed. Eventually, tired, we made it back to the city ... 9 hours in
all on the tour. After cleaning up and resting a bit, we were off to dinner
at Rex, a stylish, ultra modern-looking bistro with burnished aluminum
tables, chairs, napkin rings, etc., and multicolored glass
embellishments. We opted for local foods ... Eric had salmon, dar had
tuna, and Jen had scrumptious local lamb. Dessert was chocolate sushi! The
day was just getting started! Back to the hotel
again, to change into our club wear, have some drinks in Jennifer´s
room (where we shouldn´t have turned on the TV!! ... the things they
show on the TVs here would cause pandemonium in the States!) After much
giggling and blushing, we were off to Spotlight, the city´s premiere
disco, where several bands were playing ... Möa, XXX Rottweiller,
Bellatrix (great, all-girl band), and the campy Paul Oskar, sort of an
Icelandic Cliff Richard, if that makes any sense. Everyone is the place
knew the words to every song of his (all in Icelandic, so we were clueless),
and there was much merriment and dancing and laughing, everywhere. The
Icelanders really know how to club.
Afterward, we turned down an ivitation to go to some little town outside
the city and watch a Mike Tyson boxing match (huh?) with these guys, and
instead went to a late club ... Thomsen Klub ... and danced in their downstairs
disco until 4.
OK, *then* the night was over. Luckily, we weren´t more than
a 5-10 minute walk from the hotel, so we stumbled hapily back, complaining
about how sore the horses made our butts, how tired we were, etc., and
off to bed!
dar
Darryl and Jennifer
(photo by Eric)