White Water Rafting Iceland Style 7-17-11

At the end of the day...there were smiles!!!











The drive to the river was about an hour and a half. Along the way was mostly just beautiful countryside. We met a family from Virginia on the bus and we talked to them about their trip. They have been to Iceland 6 times! They are practically writing the Frommer's Guides! They shared a lot of interesting information with us and instead of taking pictures along the way, we found out the best places to eat "off the beaten path"! Sorry.
We were picked up at the hotel at 8:00a.m. and off we went. You have to understand, Charles and I have been hold outs for white water rafting all over the world and for some crazy reason we agreed to do it with the kids here, in Iceland! Not in some warm wonderful spot, Iceland! We really did not know what we were getting into and sometimes that is best.
We arrived via nice tourist type bus and then were told to sign the waivers to not sue them if we died. After that, we were put in a large room and given very specific "rules" of the water. Then...the gear!! Oh my! If you have ever gone snow skiing and never really loved it because of all the gear you have to put on just to head to the lift, this is not for you! Again, this is not for you! They gave us wet suits that were wet. Yep, wet. They had not had a chance to dry from the previous groups that had come through to go down the river! I could hear Charles over in the men's area saying "Are these really wet or are they just cold"? I should have known then that things might not go so well. Wet, wet suit, wet shoes and a wet life jacket. Lucky for us that all these items do heat you up from the inside out, so the wet really wasn't that bad once you were able to pull the wet suit over your dry skin with about 25 other ladies standing in the changing room with you in all states of dress. Once in the gear...off we went. Where, to the lovely school buses that took us up to the river. May I say that my wet suit probably had been down the river a few dozen times before I got in it and the sweet smell of their fun was left in it for me to enjoy!
We were split up into groups and off we went to Louise, our river guide. It was Louise, our family of four, a couple from Chicago, sisters from Colorado and a couple from Florida. The youngest in their group was about 65. Kathleen and I volunteered to paddle the front and be the ones that kept everyone paddling in lovely poetic style. We had some practice drills of paddle forward, paddle backward, stop and hang on. Four commands. Not too hard. Ya think?? We pushed off and in the very first rapid, off fell Sharon...no last names. Sharon was so quiet about falling out, we did not even miss her! Our guide did and rescued her immediately. She was coming back into the boat drenched like a wet dog before we missed her. I would have been screaming my head off! The water was coming straight off a glacier...not cold but freezing cold. We had on wet wet suits for goodness sakes. Got the picture? Sharon, safely in, we got back to paddling. The people in Iceland waste no time with their fun. We hit large rapids very rapidly, guess why they are called rapids...sorry. The next big DIP caused much screaming and much water into the boat. We did not lose anyone but Charles was swallowing his first gallon of water for the day. He managed to hang on and not hit the lady that was telling him that he was not holding onto the boat correctly! He was just glad that he stayed in the boat. All scary parts and risking lives aside...it was FANTASTIC! We managed to forget that we smelled like hobos, didn't care that we might fall out, and had a ball.
The pictures may look like we were wet, tired and not having fun...wet and tired yes, the not fun, no. The kids said it was one of the best things we have ever done.




We got to spot midway down the river to jump off a cliff. That was not in the paperwork and when they said that we were going to jump, it was not well received by Charles! The kids wanted to jump, so off they went. We don't even let them jump at Chimney Rock at Lake Martin, but here we are in Iceland and I guess the air is too clean, we went nuts and let them jump, they loved it. Again, sorry for the poor photos. I was worried they were going to hit their heads on the lava rocks and forgot to snap pictures! There are some on the edge and in the water after the jump. Most everyone that did jump, screamed went they hit the cold water. One Japanese man kind of lost his mind for a few seconds and forgot to swim back to the rock wall and started to float down the river and he was thrown a life rope and did not have the sense of mind to grab it but did start to swim! The guide called him a late swimmer, it was pretty funny. Scary for him but he never realized it.
We got back in our boat and made our way down the river with no more close calls. Actually, so of the guides started doing back flips off the back of the boats just for fun and tried to get us to do it...maybe next time!

The Golden Circle in Iceland 7-16-11

You can hear it before you see it. Gullfoss waterfall. As the story goes, a young woman owned this property. The government wanted to put in a hydroelectric dam and ruin the beauty you see here. She threatened to throw herself over the edge it the project went through. Although the courts ruled against her, the project never happened due to the high public pressure not to build the dam, the hydroelectric company just gave up and the contract expired in 1928. She was a smart farmer's daughter because it is just beautiful. There is a bronze plaque there of her before you walk down right next to the falls. There is no barrier between you and the falls. You just have to use your own common sense not to go too close to the edge. We should have brought rain gear as, the closer you get to the falls the wetter you get. The wind coming off the glacier far away from where we were standing was what we thought was "high", seems it was light wind. Not for us. We could barely stand there in the wet and wind to take these pictures.



The English word "geyser" comes from this fascinating geothermal area that is crazy full of hot springs, creeks, and holes! To anyone reading this that has made the trip to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and thought that was wonderful...Good Night Nurse...you would love this! Old Faithful is but a spit into the air compared to this explosive giant! The geyser that was named, "Geysir", hence the English word today, was discovered in 1294! Yes, that is right, 1294. It erupted for hundreds of years but gave out of steam so to speak and had to be "encouraged" to erupt when locals put soap chips into it and aggravated it enough! Luckily for the locals, about 12 years ago, another geyser erupted only about 100 yards away, this one is named Stokkut, which in English means, The Churn. The water in the hole actually churns around and bubbles up before it erupts. You can see that the locals made good use of the stones and made them the "security roped area". These stones and ropes were the only things between us and the geyser! We were standing about 30 yards from it when it gave way and shot up about 120 feet into the air! It was very scary but very exciting. I think we were the only ones that screamed, I am not sure why. The build up of this hot water and gas was quite a show!






Pingvellir National Park. This is the very spot in 1944 where everyone in Iceland that wanted to celebrate gathered to really have fun celebrating their independence from Denmark. Their was a Parlament building here at one time but it was lost to fire. There are hands on learning centers here about their history and a "creek" that our guide called a river that is deep enough and clear enough to dive into in scuba gear! It was SO cold to the touch I do not know how they could do it. When you are looking at the pictures of the "creek/river" it is not a fake! The water Nicky is sticking his hand into is CLEAR. It was almost like Walt Disney made it with a fake bottom and a pump to put in the clean water. This is not Disney, it is real!
This is also the place where back in the day, if the Vikings did not like you or you had a difference in opinion from them, you were killed. The men by being beheaded and the women by being drowned in this beautiful clear water. The history of it all is marked along the path and a count of how many were killed. Amazing.










Before there were mile markers along the highway, you had to mark your way it something. In some countries, they just used one stone. Here in Iceland, they marked their way with a signature stack of rocks, so they would know their way back from where ever they walked! Great idea, right? However, the regular American teenager, does not have the stone stacking skills as the Vikings of long ago. Kathleen was much better at marking her path. Maybe the wives of the Vikings were in charge of this task?

Waiting to get there and a meal!

These pictures are out of order but I missed them yesterday. This is how we spend our "down time" in airports. The statue that Charles is leaning on at the cliff's edge is of an extinct bird. Our guide called it by name but I have no idea what he said. All we got was, they no longer exist. Now, they have the Puffin as their National bird. However, they do not hold them in as high regard as let's say Americans do the Bald Eagle. Why? Because they eat them! Puffin is on many a menu and they say they are just wonderful! If you do not know what a Puffin looks like, Google it. They are smallish chubby mostly black and white birds with bright orange and yellow beaks. They have really big almost painted on black sad clown eyes. Adorable.

Reykjavik, Iceland 7-14-2011

Lamb. Even their hot dogs are made out of lamb. That was lunch. A small fishing village where our guide lives was the best spot to try the local food. The President of Iceland lives in this white house with the red roof. He was not home but we were able to walk right up to the house. No security, no cameras, it was really nice. We were the only ones there.
One of the most interesting things we have ever done. We walked from Europe to North America today! It seems Iceland is where the two continental plates meet and have separated over time. There is a bridge to connect the two continents. We walked the walk today! We actually listened to a Geologist talk about this very place in 2009 at a lecture in Antarctica.
Seems that trolls are alive and well here. If they stay out too late and the sun rises on them, they turn to stone. That is what happened to these two we saw along the shore.
Planking? Very popular with teenagers. That is what Kathleen is doing at the big divide!
Looking out to the west and the north, there are beautiful views. To the north you can see the glacier about 60 miles across the water. That is the glacier we are set to climb later in the week.












The blue lagoon is a big attraction. Crazy weird. A giant hot tub. It was on the bachelor or the bachelorette one season! People get in for its healing powers for dry skin and other skin problems. We were there at 9:00a.m. I did not want to spend all day with wet hair smelly like rotten eggs so we did not get in. We will go back late afternoon one day and give it a go. The views are really amazing. We stopped at a golf course. There was a tournament going on. There are over 50 golf course here in Iceland. We have made plans to play at midnight this week on a course that has mostly lava fairways. Really unusual. The grass looks really green on their greens. Many women were playing and it was not even ladies day! It seems women here have really taken to the game. Good for them!

Boston, Mass 7-13-2011

A trip to Boston would not be complete without seeing the Harvard campus. We took the subway to Cambridge and to Harvard University. Just beautiful. Very clean and crisp. People out and about studying on the Harvard yard! Fun afternoon.
The Old North Church. The place where Paul Revere had to hang the lanterns to warn that the British we coming. "Oneth by land Twoeth by sea" Wonder if those words work in scrabble?
The odd "booths" in the church were built that way to keep the church members warm. The closer your "booth" is to the pulpit the more it cost. Much like football tickets in the SEC on the fifty yard line! You'll be happy to know that Paul Revere had a very nice window booth and his ancestors still use it today. By the way, children were not allowed to go to church back then as they were loud and distracting, imagine that!




Spending time in a city that holds so much of American history was long overdue. We have been so many places outside of the United States, it is time to report on some of our own great history.
We spent most of the day touring on our own. The Quincy Market area was our home base so to speak. Lots of colorful people there and plenty of shops and food. When we were in Philly about six years ago we passed up the opportunity of a lifetime by not taking the "Duck Boat Tour". We were not so crazy this time! We jumped at the opportunity!! You can see by the looks on the kids faces how excited they were! Although rain set in on us and we got wet...it was great fun!