Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Silver Lady (Silfra Fissure)

Our itinerary has finally taken shape with everyone adding their "must do" top activity to the trip. My wish-list request is to snorkel the Silfra Fissure. By the way, Silfra means "Silver Lady" in Icelandic.

We all know that snorkeling with glasses just ain't gonna happen, especially if your vision is bad and one wants to SEE whats in the water. Plus to me, getting prescription goggles seemed a tad too extreme. Good thing I was able to get contact lenses prescribed and fitted just in time for our adventure holiday. Silfra is a freshwater fissure between the continents, where divers and snorkelers can actually touch both continents at the same time! Equally unique is the water. They say its one of the very clearest and most pristine waters on this planet. From what I've read, we will be able to open our mouths and take a drink. Here's to the Silver Lady!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Rotary in Iceland

Iceland has one Rotarian for every 266 inhabitants. Maybe the highest per capita in the world!

Where the Mushrooms Grow



"Iceland" and "Delicate" don't seem like they would naturally go together. But they do! Apparantly, the little hamlet where we are going to stay is home to the largest mushroom growing greenhouse/factory in the entire country. Seems that their tasty mushrooms need good soil, moisture and clean air ... all found in Fludir.
And now, for the real thing. Check these out!!

Mi casa ...

How does one say 'home' in Icelandic? HEIM! Its confirmed! Our heim-base is Fludir, a small 338 person-village in the upplysingavefer uppsveita arnessyslu area. Now that is a mouthful!

We'll be staying in a vacation house about an hour and a half northeast of Reykjavik. Kudos to my sister for finding this beautiful 1900 ft, 3 bd, 1 bath, sun-room, multi-person hot-tub, internet-available, close to golf-course and natural hot pool heim! A pic from the kitchen.

We found out that Fludir has THREE churches! This is very unusual for an Icelandic town of this size. This is one of the two rural farming churches ...

Friday, August 6, 2010

Iceland: An unearthly paradise

Pure, natural and unspoiled: That is what they say about Iceland. I can't wait to visit!

This is a huge about-face from where I was when I first started reading about the island. The first travel books described a place where the weather can change every 10 minutes. Where the wind is so intense that it can rip car doors off from their hinges! What has scared me the most is the warning about unsuspectingly parking your car off the side of the road in order to capture some of the most unearthly natural scenery on camera. If not careful, tires can easily sink into lava quick sand. What had I gotten myself into? Having visited Alaska, we loved the crisp mountain air, the ocean full of whales, blue glaciers and salmon filled rivers. Iceland seemed to be our natural next travel destination. But from what I am reading, Iceland may be more like Alaska on steroids! Its a place of bubbling hot pots of water and mud, where I can also snorkel the ice cold, crystal clear waters of the fissure between the continental plates of Eurasia and America. Or where I can soak tired muscles in the geothermal heated waters along any hiking trail while nibbling on volcano-baked bread. Hey now, this beginning to sound downright enticing!

So, here we go to a place where the names of the people, towns, volcanoes, geysirs and glaciers are hard to say, but am promised, easy to love.