In April of 2010, there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland that stopped airline travel for almost two weeks in Europe. The culprit, Eyjafjallajokull. It seems that the wind blew toward Europe and that is where the volcanic ash went. LOTS of it. There are pictures here of all of us and just Kathleen and Nicky in front of this volcano. There is a large photo of the volcano and a story about what happened out in front of a farmers house. When the volcano erupted the farmer was only displaced for a few days. Many of the locals people came to his aide to help him move his animals until it was safe to return to his farm. This southern part of Iceland has the highest concentration of known sub-glacial volcanoes in the world. The ash from the volcano blew over to the glacier that we climbed and made it very black in some areas. The local people are waiting on another eruption. This one will be Katla. That is the volcano we drove up to the other day. It erupts about every 10 years and is a little over a year late using that schedule. They expect it to erupt any day. Our guide was Cody. Nicky spent most of the climb right up next to him. That was fine with me, as I felt like the guide would be taking the safest route. Looking at the pictures you can see holes, crevasses, that are all over the place. You really have to be careful. Going up was a little easier than coming down. Coming down we took a different route and at times I had new appreciation for gymnastics. Having balance beam experience would come in handy on the glacier. It was about 2.5 miles up and 2.5 miles back down. Five miles. It tool three and a half hours. It was a learning experience for sure. It was also a blister experience. Those "crampons" cause blisters. We will be feeling that glacier for a few more weeks! The icepicks they gave us said "Nepal" on them but on the other side said "Made in Italy". Go figure.
Waterfalls are everywhere in Iceland. The glaciers melting in the summer months cause them to surge with thunderous amounts of water. The guides think that every one of them is worth stopping and getting a picture. We agreed with them until the last two days of the trip. At some point you feel like you have seen enough. Sadly, we stopped taking pictures but enjoyed seeing them all the same.
The picture of the farm that looks like they are growing giant marshmallows is hay. In Iceland, they wrap their hay that they roll in plastic to keep it from rotting. This brings on the Marshmallow look.
Dried fish anyone? This tasty snack is available most everywhere. Icelandic people love it. They don't really like the smell but they say once you get past the smell t is quite delicious! The people in Iceland eat some of the strangest things. Seered sheep's head. shark. whale, haggis, horse, and puffin! The one thing we all liked was the lamb soup. There is one picture of how they served it in room service at our hotel after we got off the glacier.
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