Part II of GrampCamp: ICELAND!
Halló ég heiti william og ég er í icelad núna svo eins og já það er gaman
Greetings to you as we recount Part II of GrampCamp 2026-- a short tour through Iceland. The sentence above means "Hello from Iceland from William". Its written with the help of Google Translate in the ancient and complicated Icelandic langauge. We bus-toured for only four days and saw, and somewhat experienced, a small bit of Iceland, but enough to know that we want to come back. 100% for sure! There's just so much...
And also with Google's help, we organized this map of all the place we visited. If you want to, you can click on any of icons and see a short annotation.
It bears repeating: In our four day tour we saw ALL of this in just this much of Iceland. We saw a LOT and learned a lot and we have photographic evidence of all of it!
First what we didn't see: Northern lights. it was never dark while we were there. The sun did set but didn't stay set long enough for there to be dark; dusk just became dawn.
The Geology of Iceland is awesome:
We had hoped to see the Silfra fissure and we did. That's the space between the North American and European tectonic plates created because they are moving away from each other at the rate of ~2cm/year. It is part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a mostly under-the-ocean mountain range formed along their boundaries. The land formation that is Iceland straddles it.
Bill and I entered the fissure in Thingvellir National Park, evidently walking on a lava shelf in the Almannagjá Gorge between the North American tectonic plate on the east (picture left) and the Eurasian plate on the west (picture right) in the very southeast of Iceland. The Silfra fissure is a Unesco World Heritage site. Both tectonic plates appear to be similar in height here.
Here it appears that the Eurasian plate has sunk much lower than the North American plate, but AI tells me that this is geological optical illusion. The plates are the same absolute height, but the rift valley created on Eurasian side has sunk.
We left the lava shelf when the fissure intersected with the Öxaráfoss, or Ax Falls. Interestingly these are man-made falls created in the 10th century to divert water from the Ax River to the Althing -- the original seat of the Icelandic government created in 930 CE.
The Parliament:
The drone picture below is not mine. If I owned a drone, I wouldn't have been allowed to use it here. VisitIceland.com from whose site I have taken the picture evidently can. These are contemporary buildings; the parliament has long since moved to Reykjavic, although ceremonial events are still held here.
This is my picture of the church. There are many such churches in Iceland, usually on a farm for use by the folks from that farm and other surrounding farms. There is one good sized city, Reykjavic, a few smaller cities, but no villages in Iceland. Just a lot of dispersed farming mostly for sheep with lots of land.
This is the Reykjavik parliament building used today, also church adjacent. This one is the Lutheran Cathedral for predominately Lutheran Iceland. The picture is from VisitIceland.com; you can tell because of the blue sky that we never saw there.
Back to the Silfra fissure: It continues without the lava shelf that we walked upon. Instead it is filled with water, with lava outcroppings under the water. It is possible to snorkel or scuba dive here, but permits and wetsuits (called drysuits in Iceland) are needed. We had neither.
There is a lot of geological awe in knowing that we walked in the space between tectonic plates. Especially ones that create earthquakes every ten years or so. Icelanders must have a very different and more respectful relationship with the ground they walk on than do we.
All of Iceland is active with volcanic activity, earthquakes, glaciers, wildflowers, rivers, ice, rain and water, snow, high winds and waterfalls.
Waterfalls, waterfalls, everywhere.
Every other stop on our tour seemed to be a waterfall. They are everywhere and they are beautiful. Bill and William are in front of one of our favorites, Seljalansfoss. (The suffix foss indicates one is talking about a waterfall and it is higher than it looks.)
One can walk on a ledge behind these falls and here's a picture I snapped through the water from below of Bill taking a picture of William behind the waterfall above.
There were so many beautiful waterfalls. I posted one more because its a great pic of GrandCamp fun-- it is Gullfoss, or Gold waterfall. It is not as tall as the other one, but lots wider and more powerful.
Glaciers
Glaciers cover about 10% of Iceland's real estate. We saw Eyjafjallojökull (it means the glacier on Island Mountain. The jökull suffix indicates one is talking about a glacier). And we had a great view of its next door neighbor, the Mydalsjökull (this means Mire Valley glacier). Both of these cover the cones of active volcanoes. Really? A volcano covered by a glacier seems like it could get complicated. Mydalsjökull covers the Katla volcano and Eyjafjallojökull covers the mountain Eyjafjöll. This is the volcano that erupted in 2010 and caused a shut-down of all air traffic in Europe. This is Mydalsjökull:
Mydalsjökull has outlet fingers (sometimes called tongues) where the leading edges melt and form a glacial lake. Here's William on our way to walk on the ice with the leading edge of the glacier still a ways behind him. Mydalsjökull is a calving glacier -- Its calved icebergs are seen in the glacial lake on picture left.
A smile reappeared on William's face once we got back to the local coffee shop, because we expect glaciers to have such amenities, right? Mydalsjökull does, and it is a good one. We ate pretzels that were served with blue cheese and drank hot chocolate. Frankly, I think Baby would like that tent structure on the side.
Geothermal Heat
Not all the water in Iceland is cold. Hot water comes from geothermal sources. We saw steam from hot springs almost everywhere we went. The average temperature of the water is 104 degrees F, but can rise into the 120s.
Check this out: One the left is a hot spring and on the right is a cold river.
A little creative plumbing mixes these two natural sources into a lagoon (essentially a swimming pool). The one our tour group enjoyed is the Secret Lagoon, the oldest one in Iceland. Everyone loved it. Our guide told us that these lagoons are used year-round and are often places where folks go to socialize.
And the geothermal water is not just used for fun; it is used to provide power and heat to Iceland and heat buildings and homes. The Hellissieldi (the d in this word actually resembles a lower case Greek delta, but its not an English letter and I can't get it in here. It pronounced like a voiced th) ... the Hellissieldi Power plant is located in the Hveradallir Geothermal Area. One can hike through the whole geothermal area, but we didn't. Next time for sure. We really enjoyed seeing the power plant -- fascinating:
The long zig-zaggy pipes are highly insulated conduits that take steam from the ground to Reykjavic.
Birds were everywhere, and here are two favorites
We hoped to see puffins nesting and we did. They only come to shore to nest from May to July, so all of these picture show the birds on a rocky, ocean side cliff. The rest of the time Puffins live at sea.
The hole seen in the grass in the lower right side of this picture is the location of the nest.
The surprise was meeting, and avoiding, Arctic Terns. These birds, who have the longest migration pattern of any bird, lay their eggs in the ground in a field with their compatriots. And they do not like it disturbed. If you step into the field, the birds from the colony will gang up and peck at your head. Here's one coming at one of our traveling companions. Notice all his friends ready to join in the 'attack'.
I snapped this picture quickly and got back in the shelter of the bus.
Folklore
Iceland has a rich folklore tradition with stories of trolls, elves, hidden people, seal people -- they may be real,-- sea monsters and many, many stories.
This is an elf house. Its not that an elf would live there; they are built to warn humans to be respectful of the power of elves living in the area.
William is showing the screen troll how to move:
Rutsheillir Cave is said to be the largest man-made cave in Iceland. It is named for it first inhabitant, a fellow named Ruter, who was considered an evil troll. His cave is dug into a boulder composed of teff (a soft lava stone), and is quite large inside. The opening is the little house-looking structure that Bill is approaching.
The view from inside looking out shows that it is quite large and tall. This front part of the cave appears to be a stable of some sort.
William is leaving the smaller, back room
And this, to me, was the best part: An actual stile to get over the fence surrounding the field where the cave exists. I have only ever seen those in fairy tales read to my children when they were small, and this one is carved and sturdy and everything. This is our tour guide navigating it.
Our whole group had a chance to make and bring home our own traditional Icelandic wool monsters. A wool monster is a mean fellow who punished the presumptive laziness of those who have not done enough work to have new clothes for Christmas.
William has appointed his yellow one as our new GrampCamp mascot. The people on the left side of this picture is the other family we toured with. Our tour guide Thor is in the middle.
And for a more modern structure of imaginary (are they imaginary?) folks is Kirkjüfell, or Church Mountain. You may recognize it as Arrowhead Mountain from the Game of Thrones. It has something to do with the creation of the Night King in the show, but is called Sugarloaf mountain by sailors for its resemblance to an ice cream cone or other confectionary.
I cannot leave this section of this very long blog post without mentioning the story of seal people. These are seals that shed their skin to live as humans, but if they find it again, they will put it back on and go back to the sea. The story is that seals don't get cold because they have an extra layer of brown fat (that's true, they do) that humans do not have. However there are rumors that people who don't feel the cold are likely blessed with the extra brown fat and thus are seal people. Truth???
Some fun along the way
Because of the rain (torrential, mud-creating, persistent) we substituted a visit to a shark museum for a hike. It was about the 500 pound Greenland sharks whose meat cannot be eaten fresh because it is toxic to humans. It is incorrect to say they pee in their own blood but that's more interesting than saying their nitrogenous urea and trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) ends up in their tissues, accounting for the toxicity. It has been discovered that if you let it ferment and dry long enough it won't be toxic, and so that's how it is done. Here's William trying a taste:
We stopped for a snack/bio break in Arborg and met up with a groups of school children who had a list of tasks to complete, like a scavenger hunt. I typed in a random 7-digit number into one of their phones, and William was sling-carried by them for a certain count, but they counted in Icelandic, so we don't know how long:
And nearby is the grave of chess great Bobby Fisher. Here's all the men of our group trying to understand what the next move on this chess board would be, like they could outplay either Fisher or his opponent, Boris Spassky. (hint: check mate)
Our accommodationsWhen we booked the tour we had two choices -- one was to stay in a Reykjavic hotel and take bus tours to different locations each day. The other was to go from one kind of accommodation to another and return to Reykjavic at the end of the tour. We chose that one, and it was a lot of fun. We stayed in the same guest house on our first and last nights in a third floor attic studio, both nights in Reykyavic. This was probably our favorite accommodation:
Another night we were in a hut that was tiny, but was on a horse farm and had a view of the ocean. Second best rating for dinner. The dining room was crowded and noisy, but the food was home cooked and great. Hard to find vegan choices though. We were encouraged to walk through the stables and meet Icelandic horses. They are smaller than American horses, which are forbidden from entering the country lest they alter the genetics of the locals. Icelandic horses are the only breed to have five gaits.
A cottage (same one for two nights) with two bedrooms and a view of the glaciers might have been William's favorite. Why? He had his own room and couldn't hear us snore or talk in our sleep. This had the best food by far, and was more of a restaurant than the others. We could also watch the soccer games on TV from our table. The resort had a camping area and a guest house, but we were in their nifty little cottages:
All the places came equipped with black-out shades to guard against the all night daylight, but William came prepared.
What's a viking anyway?
It turns out that viking is a verb. To be viking is to be sailing from one vik -- a bay or harbor -- to another. And sail they did -- all the way to North America as the first Europeans to find it, 1000 years before Columbus. The US gave this statue, designed by Alexander Caldwell, and set atop a base representing the prow of a ship, on the occasion of the 1000th celebration of Iceland's Althing (parliament) in 1930. It is Lief Eriksson facing West towards Greenland and Vinland (the area of North America that he explored).
It is located on a plaza in central Reykjavic that has the largest church in Iceland behind it, Hallgrimskirkja. The church is made of reinforced concrete and is easily the tallest structure in Reykjavic (vic tells you its a city on a bay). It was a great landmark for us as we walked the quaint streets of the city. We'll explore this city more thoroughly when we return, but our first impression is great. Iceland leaves a lovely impression of a calm, organized and welcoming place. Perhaps because of its 1000+ year old government, things do run smoothly. And there's puffins
WOYAYA
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