Started my journey back to New Mexico on Friday, May 16, which turned out to be one of the worst weather days in the US all year.  Storms in the Midwest and East Coast caused flights all over to be delayed and/or canceled, including one of mine.  I ended up spending the night in Atlanta and finally getting home late Saturday afternoon.

Now I’m rested and almost back to my regular routine.  My trip to Iceland was one of the best experiences of my life.  I feel so lucky to have seen such beauty and met so many wonderful people.  The Icelandic people are creative, resourceful, welcoming, and warm.  Many of them work multiple jobs in a harsh climate in order to make a living. They are proud of their country and their independence and justifiably so.  Andres, our tour leader was knowledgeable, funny, caring, and a delight to travel with.  

So, instead of showing you a picture from this trip, I will show you a picture of something I hope to see on my next trip.  And there WILL be a next trip!  I would love to go back to Iceland in the winter and see the Northern Lights and the winter landscape!

It’s our last full day in Iceland and we spent the morning at the famous Blue Lagoon.  It is a beautiful hot springs with mineral infused seawater.  Since it was a cold day, we soaked in warm water surrounded by steam.  Very eerie, but quite relaxing!

We were then treated to an iconic Icelandic delicacy—hakarl.  Which is fermented shark.  Which stinks to high heaven. Which tastes awful, so I’ve heard because I did not indulge.  Supposedly, it is an acquired taste, but after getting a whiff of it, I passed on it.  Yes, I am a wuss.

And speaking of being a wuss, I also passed on entering the Penis Museum.  I went inside, strolled around their gift shop and decided that I was too embarrassed to see more.  I know I promised some friends to bring back souvenirs, but I just couldn’t.  I. Am. A. Wuss.

Yesterday, we got a glimpse into Iceland’s future and past.  In the morning, we toured a geothermal power plant.  Honestly, I don’t remember all of the details of the processing, but it was impressive how it was engineered.  It is 100% carbon neutral and even captures carbon dioxide to store underground.  Iceland gets 75% of its energy from geothermal plants, the other from hydroelectric plants.  Amazing what can be done when people are willing to face the facts.

Then we toured an open air museum of a farm that dated back to the mid-1800s.  Most of the buildings had been removed from other sites and rebuilt here, but there were a couple of the original buildings still standing.  These folks had hard lives trying to survive in these conditions, but managed to do it and even thrive.

Above you see some students from the University of Iceland working on an archeological dig.  They found some Viking artifacts and are now looking for more.

We flew from Akureyri to Reykjavik for the last leg of our tour.  It was a beautiful day here, sunny and in the 60s.  Our Tour Leader said that it was a real heat wave!  Here you can see everyone enjoying themselves in the sun.

From what I’ve seen so far, Reykjavik is a beautiful, cosmopolitan city.  Many restaurants, galleries, bookstores, and yarn shops, the necessities of life!  Here I fulfilled one of my Must Do items:

Today our group went to Dalvik where we boarded a boat and went whale watching.  It was a beautiful sunny day with just a little bit of wind.  We were scheduled to be out there 3 hours and about 2 hours into it, we see our first whale.  We saw a spout of water shoot up from the water, then we saw his back with the hump on it.  So we saw a humpback whale.  Then we saw several more!  They were cavorting all around our boat and several of them flipped their flukes (tails) at us!  It was truly beautiful to see these animals in the fjord on such a great day.  I have no pictures of the whales, unfortunately because as soon as I could get my camera ready to shoot, they would be gone.  It really is a case of “You had to be there.”

I took today off to recharge my batteries.  I slept in and walked around downtown Akureyri,  which is a lovely town on the fjord.  I went in the Akureyri Art Museum and saw some great stuff by past and present Nordic artists. 

Here are some samples:
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I then went back to my hotel and got out the world’s smallest and cheapest pastel kit.  I have been itching to do stuff  ever since I got here and now I had some free time.  Did a few sketches and they were fun to do.
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Today we went by bus from Daeli to Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland.  We saw some stunning scenery as we crossed the mountains and followed the fjords.

We stopped at Siglufjordur, which had a thriving herring industry from the 1920s to 1968.  What happened in 1968?  They had to close down because the area had been overfished and there were no more herring.  But for a while, it brought prosperity to the area and provided a good (if hard) living to the many “Herring Girls” who worked to cut, salt and pack the herring.  Another industry dependent on the hard labor of women.  

Today we toured two Icelandic horse farms.  That is, these farms train and breed Icelandic horses which are a very special breed that can withstand the harsh climate here.  They are a little smaller than other horses, but they are sturdy.  And friendly!  They are also the only horses in the world that have 5 gaits.  Other horses have 3 gaits, maybe 4.  The owners and staff of these farms are passionate about their horses.  You can see the love this young trainer has for her horse!  She gave us a wonderful demonstration of the different gaits.

Now there’s no way I could talk about horses without showing you some barn cats!  If you didn’t know it, let me tell you that cats and horses get along famously.  At both places we toured, we met friendly barn cats.

This beautiful orange tabby curled up on my lap during the demonstration!  And at the next farm, I met a proud mama cat and her kitten!
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Today we saw an incredible array of the landscape that Iceland is so justifiably proud of.  We saw two spectacular waterfalls, black sand beaches, and even climbed all over a glacier.  All that in one day!
This is the Rainbow Waterfall, called that because when the sun is shining on it, you see rainbows in the mist.  We did not have that luck, but it was impressive nonetheless.
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We then drove along the southern coast and saw black sand beaches on the Atlantic Ocean.  Wait, that’s not sand, it is ash from the nearby volcano.
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I can already picture the painting that I am going to do from this scene.  Lots of beautiful grays and purples!
 
Then, if that wasn’t enough, we got into a monster jeep and was given an off road tour of the glacier that occupies the inland area.  An eerie, moody landscape that has been the setting of several movies and TV shows.  The ash sits on top of the ice, so we were walking on the glacier.  When we get to the end of the trail, Ingo, our tour guide opens a case that he was carrying.  He was also equipped with an ice axe.  Out of the case, he pulls out 15 shot glasses, a bottle of Katla vodka, and a bottle of orange juice.  He takes the ice axe and goes to one of the formations and chips off a big hunk of ice.  He then chops it up into smaller pieces and puts one in each shot glass.  A healthy swig of vodka and orange juice follow and we all enjoy a nice drink cooled by glacial ice!  No bar or bartender could ever be as thrilling or as charming as Ingo and his ice axe!
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Today was our first full day in Iceland.  We spent it touring the Golden Ring in the southern part of the island.  First we stopped at the studio of a delightful artist named Gudrun, who dyes wool (from Icelandic sheep, of course) using all natural plant dyes.  She really knows the science, history, and artistry of making beautiful yarn.  In the past, cow’s urine was an essential ingredient in dye making, but today she uses ammonia!
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We then went to the Guilfoss waterfall where we saw the power of running water!
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After that, we went to Geysir, where we saw…geysers!  Geyser, as we spell it, is actually an Icelandic word.  This place had geysers all over, bubbling and spouting.  But what really caught my eye was a statue dedicated to Iceland’s national sport…
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Icelandic wrestling!  Which I didn’t even know was a thing!  Would love to see a real match and see if it’s as exciting as sumo!

As you can see from the photos, it was cloudy and wet all of the day.  And cold.  Real cold.  Probably in the 30s.  By the end of the day, I was a frozen hunk of ice and soaked to the skin.  I wasn’t expecting this kind of cold,  so tomorrow, I will wear my long John’s and my rain pants!