Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th May 2022 After receiving our test results yesterday, Robert successfully completed on-line check in for Matilda but even after multiple attempts, found he was unable to check himself in. This should have rung alarm bells. Next day at the airport seemed to be a training day: we felt that this was the only way to explain the excessive staffing levels. Matilda felt it did not bode well when, even before checking in our luggage, her passport was marked with a green sticker but Robert’s was branded with a red one. As we came through security, Robert was selected for a random security check, that included a substance test, with a strip wiped across hands, belt and shoes. We then continued through the airport but at the gate, several names, including Robert’s were called and he had to go through for further questioning and scanning. Matilda waited on the other side of the gate, watching while he removed his shoes; unpacked his ruck sack and was questioned by successive members of airport staff and homeland security. She mused upon the potetnial irony of passing the Covid test and still not being allowed to travel. Eventually airport […]
Iceland
Tuesday 3rd May 2022 Under current restrictions, passengers are required to test negative within the 24 hours prior to boarding a flight to America and so we had independently verified Covid lateral flow tests arranged for 15:00. As rain was forecast we had booked a guided coach tour, which would keep us inside and out of the rain for the morning, to the lava tunnel at Raufarhólshellir, blissfully unaware that this excursion was to become the cause of all of Robert’s issues on the following day. As always in Iceland, the geology was impressive. The lava tube is 4,500 feet long and is one of the longest known lava tubes in Europe. Lava tubes are underground and are usually discovered only when a section of the “roof” caves in. At Raufarhólshellir, the roof has collapsed in several places and there are still snow drifts inside left over from the winter. Lava tubes are only formed during the course of effusive eruptions. If the magma has low viscosity the dissolved gases can escape from it easily and when the magma reaches the surface it forms lava flows which move slowly and steadily along the ground, melting the rock beneath it and […]
Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd May 2022 In the spring of 2020, Robert had planned an extensive trip, loosely based on Phinneas Fogg’s journey Around the World in 80 days. The plan was to circumnavigate the globe without flying. However, when cases of Covid were first being reported he re-routed several sections and was forced to book plane tickets. Obviously the trip was eventually completely cancelled but we were left with some vouchers to use up and this has allowed us to fly to Iceland to break our journey to America and visit the recently opened Sky Lagoon. Despite predictions of airport delays prior to the early May bank holiday our transit through Gatwick was trouble free. It felt good to be travelling overseas and visibility in the air was good as few over Scotland. Reykjavik was one of the first places we visited after we retired. We brought our daughters here in December 2018 in an unsuccessful attempt to see the Northern Lights but spent one magical night at the Blue Lagoon Silica Hotel and we have wanted to return ever since. Robert spotted the vapours rising from the Blue Lagoon complex as we flew overhead. The landscape looks very […]
Iceland’s Golden Circle – Tuesday 11th December 2018 The Northern Lights seem destined to evade us but we booked a coach tour of the Golden Circle to see some of the incredible natural phenomena of the local landscape. The storm had passed overnight but there were still 30 mile an hour winds. The beauty of Iceland speaks for itself and the weather simply enhanced the experience. The tour took in the Þingvellir National Park including the Rift Valley and the mid Atlantic Ridge. Robert remembers being taught about plate tectonics in geography, some time ago at school, at a time when the theory was only just being developed. Geysir is the site of the original and eponymous geyser where the water boils and bubbles, the land steams and the Strokkur geyser, now the more reliable of the two, obligingly and dramatically erupted several times. The Gullfoss or Golden Waterfall is on the Hvitá – White – River and is fed by the water which melts from Iceland’s second largest glacier, the Langjökull. The water drops 32 meters in two stages into a canyon with walls which tower 70 meters above the gorge. Rainbows shimmer over this spectacular sight in the […]
Reykjavik – Saturday, 8th December 2018 Matilda has spent the week prior to this long-awaited trip checking the Aurora Borealis [Northern Lights] forecast regularly on the Icelandic meteorological office website and is resigned to the fact that, due to the weather forecast which is predominantly cloud and rain, the Northern Lights are unlikely to be visible at all during our stay. Despite such a severe disappointment, we are all being very pragmatic and philosophical as Iceland still has so much to offer. There are relatively few daylight hours at this time of year and so we decided to make the most of them after checking in to our hotel by walking round Reykjavík to the Hallgrimskirkja. The Hallgrimskirkja is the largest church in Iceland at 74.5 metres high and its distinctive tower is one of the dominant landmarks of Reykjavík. It was designed by the architect Guojon Samuelsson in 1937 who took local geology and the basalt columns formed as the lava cooled at the Svartifoss waterfall as his inspiration. Sadly we will not see the Svartifoss waterfall on this visit but it is on the list for next time. Work began on the Hallgrimskirkja in 1945 and the nave was consecrated […]