Mud pots and sulphur pools

The mudpots of Namafjall Hverir were amazing. Located at the base of an active volcano, in what looks like a caldera covered in black sand, there are these bubbling hot springs, some of which contain high concentrations of sulfur. The smell is noxious.

The terrain here is barren - or mostly. In a few spots I found creeping phlox surviving somehow, while not much else here grows well. The ground is typically so hot here that few things can grow and live very long.

Looking out across the field you see steam rising. We were allowed to walk up to the geyser areas, and also the sulphur pools to get a nice, close look and whiff before getting back on our bus.

The pile of steaming rock piles are called fumaroles. This is an opening on or near a volcano where sulphuric gas escapes. It looks like steam, but the smell lets you know it is most definitely sulphuric gas.

The boiling, sulphuric mud is incredibly breathtaking. It reminds me a little of the Tar Pits in central Los Angeles, but the content of these pools is not tar, but sulphuric mud. The consistence is much more liquidy than that of the La Brea Tar Pits. Also, it's so hot, no skeletons or any other remains have ever been pulled from these mud pools. 

When we left the ship this morning it was misty and raining. Now the sun is out, with lovely clouds overhead. We were later told by our ship's captain that they have never had sunny weather in Akureyri and we felt very lucky to have had such a beautiful day.

The Dark Fortress of Dimmuborgir

Dimmuborgir National Park is a place where rock formations look as if they have come to life, or might, once the sun sets. This area is a large lava bed, and because the formations here look very much like a collapsed fortress, it was given the name Dimmuborgir, which means dark fortress or dark castle. This 360 degree view of the park was taken by another visitor and borrowed by me.


There are many legends about Dimmuborgir, two that involve trolls.

The geology of Dimmuborgir is extremely unique. The only other similar land mass area in the world is beneath the sea off the coast of Mexico.

One legend says that all the clans of trolls in Iceland came here to meet one day, to discuss peace between their clans. As they were making their final agreements, they reached out to shake hands, when the sun appeared, and cast light on the trolls. If you are familiar with troll legend, you will know that if a troll meets with light from the sun, they are instantly turned in to stone - which is why legends say that these formations look like the stone bodies of trolls.

The arch in the background here is known at Dimmuborgir as "The Church" - and is said to be where clans of trolls met to discuss peace between the tribes. 

Another legend tells of the famous Icelandic trolls known as the Yule Lads, and their mother, Gryla.

The Yule Lads of Iceland are 13 mischievous trolls who show up each year at Christmas. These trolls live here in Dummuborgir all year, and show themselves to the public on consecutive days each year, beginning thirteen days before Christmas.

Originally told as a scary story to stop children from misbehaving, the Yule Lads today have been merged with the idea of Santa Claus. Their mother, Gryla, also appears in the stories (but she's much more evil than her mischievous children). Gryla has the ability to detect the behavior of children year-round, keeping her nasty sons informed. Gryla eats the worst of the badly behaved children, leaving the lesser offenders to her sons.

In Iceland, this story is repeated each year. Children are said to get either nice gifts or rotten potatoes in their shoes, depending on their behavior.

The 13 Yule Lads live here in Dimmunborgir because of the many hidden caves. They are said to live in this cave during the year, staying hidden from sight during summer months.

Walking back to the bus our guide pointed out this tiny footbridge. This  was our first experience crossing the place where two continents come together - the North American plate and the Euro-Asian plate connect at this spot. The two plates are so close together here that people can walk across the footbridge. 

Footbridge connecting the two continents

There is constant tectonic activity in Iceland, and we could feel the ground movement (ever so slightly, but still feel it moving). In this particular spot, the plates move apart at a very tiny rate. In other places in Iceland, the rift between the two plates is much wider, and moves apart more rapidly.


According to

We had a nice lunch in Dimmuborgir, and here we tasted our first Icelandic beer by Viking.  Wow, I have to say it was pretty incredible. This one was a lager, distilled over lava rocks. It was on tap here at this small shop. There was also smoked fish and also a lamb stew, both of which were more than tasty. Accompanying rye bread is baked in the geothermal vents nearby.

The two continents in Iceland

Iceland is home to 37 active volcanoes. If you add all the inactive volcanoes in Iceland, there are a total of 130 active and inactive mountains. A few of these have not erupted for more than 950 years.

Seismologists still monitor inactive volcanoes. Due to the island's location smack-dab on top of two plates (the North American plate and the Euro-Asian plate), there is constant movement of these two plates moving apart, creating a higher incidences of volcanic activity.  We could feel this constant earthquake activity during our visit to Dimmuborgir National Park.

While going east from Lake Myvatn I saw this unusual mountain that looked from a distance like it was made of sand. I asked the guide about it, and he told me it was a tephra cone - that particular one was  Mt. Hverfjall, which erupted about 2500 years ago. It's an inactive volcano. You can walk along the upper ridge of that mountain and look down into the collapsed center, the caldera. A tephra cone is made up of the tiny particals and debris formed when a large eruption occurs. There is very little lava from a tephra cone, it is more sedimentary.  

All along the ridge of the two continental plates sit several very active volcanoes. There are also many calderas - which are basically the crater of a large volcano.

Sometimes these calderas are filled with water, while other times it forms a large and fertile valley.

small caldera with a table mountain in the background

part of a fertile valley located in a caldera

Lake Myvatn and its midges

After visiting Godafoss we boarded our bus again for the next stop, Lake Myvatn. This is about an hour east of Akureyri's port.

This was a lovely lake area surrounded by volcanic mountain peaks - and this was the only area where we ran into about 47 million midge flies.

Before we arrived to the lake, our guide warned us about the midge flies and mentioned they are bothersome and annoying, but not dangerous.

Having grown up in Michigan, I have very distinct memories of riding my bike through a batch of swarming midge flies, swallowing some, getting some in my eyes, and learning quickly how to just close my eyes for a second while driving through them. But the ones in Akureyri made the ones in Michigan seem like vapor.  These things were incredibly annoying.

Getting our picture taken without getting a mouthful and eyeball full of these bugs was a feat in itself. One woman who had a shawl on put the shawl over her head and asked for a photo.  She did not remove the shawl!

When we got back on the bus, thousands of those little buggers followed us. Hours later, I opened by purse to get something, and a few more of them flew out!

It was a gorgeous location, surrounded by several volcanoes, table mountains, and volcanic debris fields. In between those things the fields were fertile, and farmers use whatever areas they can to take advantage of that lovely ground.

This tour was an all-day excursion. We were already more than an hour away from the ship, and still had several stops to make.

Akureyri Iceland

Iceland is an island of 37 active volcanoes. The terrain is as versatile as the number of volcanoes it lives with - and changes drastically in minutes!  There are lush, green fields, and desolate barren valleys, bubbling volcanoes and sulphur beds, and so many other amazing sights!



Akureyri is Iceland's northern-most large city, and their second largest urban area. Much like Oslo was, Akureyri is located deep within the fjords. It's an important fishing port, and one of the best places to visit and see endangered polar birds - such as the Terns, and the Puffins. 

Because of its location between the fjords and mountains the climate of Akureyri is surprisingly mild. Its ice-free harbor has played an important part in the city's significant role in history, and its establishment.

Vikings left a long history in Iceland. A Norseman by the name of Helgi the Slim settled in Akureyri in the 9th century. The city was occupied by Vikings and Danes for several hundred years before the permanent settlement of 12 people was established in 1770. It took many more years before Akureyri became a strong, established area. In World War II it was one of three air bases used by the Norwegian-British armies. 

Akureyri has a sub-polar oceanic climate with cold (though not severe) winters and mild summers. The snow cover starts forming in late October and melts in April, but on the mountain tops snow can remain year-round. 

We were welcomed into port by a freshly cleaned tug-boat. It escorted us to the docks and we sat outside watching them tie us off to the docks, which is a slow and tedious process.

We had been told that Akureyri would be cloudy. As you can see, the cloud cover hung over the city very low, and thick. But we were still excited to get out and see the famous sights - this was the first city that I had arranged a formal tour for us. We were allowed off the ship at 8 am, when we met our tour guide.
Because the area has so many famous sights, I wanted to be sure and get a glimpse of as many as possible on a single day. This tour was titled the Jewels of the North, and had 6 wonderful stops throughout the day.

One of the most famous stops in Akureyri is Godafoss Falls (waterfall of the gods). This is a horseshoe falls very much like Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.

Godafoss is a part of the Skjálfandafljót River, whose main water source is from melting icebergs.  This waterfall is considered Europe's most beautiful waterfall, and you can totally see why.

There are rocky hiking paths on both sides of the river. There is a bridge that crosses the river, and has been rebuild and repaired many times. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the original bridge supports, just below the existing ones.

In the year 999 or 1000 the Law-speaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði made Christianity the official religion of Iceland. After his conversion the story says that upon returning from the Alþingi, Þorgeir threw his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall. 

Þorgeir's story is preserved in Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók.

A window in the Cathedral of Akureyri illustrates this story.

The Icelandic language is very strange, and comes from what is known as the Old Norwegian. They take great pride in the fact that they are forever making up new words from combining old Norse words. 

Our tour guide told us many funny details like this. He was an elementary teacher out on summer break.

What to do onboard for 41 straight hours

Seas were rough today, but thanks to the pressure point bracelets and the Bonine, Steve managed to get through the day with no nausea.

Today I thought we might get a chance to visit the gym, go to a show or two, and check out all the characters.  You'd think we would want to find things to keep us occupied, but so far we had averaged walking 12 miles per day, not to mention the dozens of stairs we climbed and descended. One day I logged 150 flights of stairs (that's a single day!).  We never used the elevators, and our room was on deck 7.  Restaurants, shops, and most of the bars were on decks 3 and 4.  We got a lot of exercise.

Being aboard ship with few commitments meant that we could do laundry!! The laundry mat was on our floor, but it was hard finding an open machine, since everyone had the same idea.

I had wanted to see a couple of movies while we were on board. Dad loves Jungle Book and they had it in the new 3D in the Disney Theater.  I don't usually like 3D - it gives me a serious migraine, but I said I would try it.  It was surprisingly good, and the movie was way better than the previews made it look.

Another film I wanted to see was the new Alice, Through the Looking Glass.  Wow, that was a fabulous movie!  I want to see it again.

The theater was very nice, great seating. Nice sound, not too loud. There were several movie screens on board - one even outdoors on the open deck by the pool, but the one where we saw the movies was the main indoor theater and I wish we had seen more. It's just hard to find the time when you're sight-seeing. And on those days off (we only had a total of 3 days at sea!) you just really want to do laundry and rest!

We saw quite a few characters walking around; Captain America was escorting children on a few decks. Captain Hook was showing off, taking photos with his underlings. We saw Chip and Dale, Daisy and Donald, and my favorite, Belle and Beast. We did not have our photo taken with any of them, but I snapped shots as we walked by. 

In the main 4th floor hallway, Disney Art Gallery set up a full display of art you could purchase - paintings of all sizes, and the art changed daily. Days at sea there were a lot more pictures out on display.

All day at Sea

This is our first full day at sea - and technically, it's day 4 for us. This day will take us above the polar circle! 

One of my main things I wanted to try and see were the Northern Lights - the Aurora. I knew the chances would be slim, but I wanted to give it a try.  The Aurora occurs all year round - not just in winter months, but the best time to see the Northern Lights is in the colder months when the sun actually goes down. Tonight, July 17, sunset was at 12:38 am (actually the 18th. Sunrise then, would be at 3:08 am that same morning!)

The ship traveled slightly above the Polar circle - our location at it's most northern point was above a peninsula of Iceland - at latitude 66°51'03.3N.  The position of the Arctic Circle in July 2016 was 66°33′46.4″. We discovered that the latitude of the polar circle changes slightly depending on the Earth's axis.  On this trip we actually crossed the polar circle twice; once on our way to Akureyri, and once leaving it, on our way to Reykjavik. 
This particular night (July 17) was the only clear night we had while in the Greenland Sea.  Even later on this night (I got up again at 2 am) it was completely foggy!!

During these photos we were standing on the top-most deck. It was SO cold, the wind blowing slightly. But it was so worthwhile because we saw several different kinds of phenomena:

(1) the midnight sun; I took this photo just after midnight. It had not yet set, and would not for 38 more minutes!  and actually even then it won't go fully below the horizon.

(2) a temperature inversion mirage; this occurs in colder waters and causes an image to superimpose on top of itself. In this picture we thought we were looking at some strange wall out in the ocean, but in fact, it was nothing more than the mirage of the reflection of mist from the ocean superimposing on top of itself. Hard to explain but amazing to see. There is really nothing at all there!

(3) polar stratospheric clouds; this is when the clouds form a circular pattern around themselves, making sort of a peep-hole where you can look past right through the clouds.  In one place we saw at least a half-dozen on them in the same sky at the same time.

Something else I found amazing about being this far north was how close to the ceiling of clouds we seemed to be! I am not sure if my pictures convey that well or not, but it felt like we could almost just reach up and touch them. And that feeling never went away the whole time we were in Iceland!

(4) the Aurora; I got a couple of Apps that told me the likelihood of seeing the Aurora in all places in the world. At midnight I checked both apps and one showed this: The other app had a few more pins that were smaller, and closer to the ocean.

This night we were directly above the upper right pin, and as you can see it's quite inland. But, this just told me that it might still be possible.  The temperatures on the ship were chilly but not icy. And it was not very dark.



You won't think that my photo of the Aurora is very impressive - and it's not, so I am not posting that. It was definitely not as bright and impressive as the one below because of the sun not fully setting. Had it been cold and dark that night my photo would be worth showing. What we saw was bright green in color (though not vibrant), and narrower at the bottom and widening out toward the top. Had it been darker it would have appeared exactly like the one I added below - this photo was taken in the same part of the world in October of last year. What we actually saw was a faded version of this on the backdrop of a not-entirely darkened sky.

If I had a better camera perhaps I would have gotten a better picture, but it doesn't matter. I know we saw it, and that's really all I need to know. It was something I wanted to do one time in my life, and I got to do it.

Happy Birthday!! not so much....

We left the port of Bergen before 3 PM.  Since we had several hours before dinner, we decided to take an afternoon stroll around the ship, get a hot toddy from the bar, and rest until dinner.

The distance between Bergen, Norway, and Akureyri, Iceland, is 1570 miles. That distance was going to take us the remainder of this day, July 16, and all of July 17. We would not pull into port until the morning of July 18. 

I had known before our trip that Steve had issues with sea-sickness. But I did not expect to have problems myself, since I had never been seasick in my life. By dinner time the waters on which our ship traveled had become very choppy (10-15 ft waves) - and I felt pretty horrible. This video was taken 2 floors above water level, indoors. Our friends on the 2nd level said the waters were hitting their window.

By the time we left for dinner, I was so nauseous, dinner was the last place I wanted to go. Steve felt fine - until we left our room and he started walking on the stairs. By the time we both got to our dinner that evening - just a few floors below - I felt horrible and I must have looked quite green. Steve some how managed a smile - at least for a while. 

Our waiters were very observant, and quickly brought me Ginger Ale. I couldn't eat at all, so our waiter also brought me a bowl of apples and told me to eat them with salt - and said to make sure I ate them all. That was an amazing cure, I felt better almost immediately. 

Steve hid his nausea pretty well until he started sweating - his clothes were soaked and when he stepped outside to go to the men's room, our table-mates asked if he was seasick, too. I thought it was obvious but he had managed to hold a smile up to that point.  He stuck his head in the sink and came back completely drenched. 

After our dinner our waiters took our napkins and made hats for each of us. It was pretty weird, and at first we didn't know what they were doing - until we looked around the room. Everyone had on these napkin hats that made us look like various Disney characters. Then they took our pictures!!

Steve was just about to lose his lunch - and as soon as this picture was snapped he jumped up and raced out - and didn't return. By the time I got to the room, he was lying down, still sweaty and shaking. 

Our friends had some Bonine (sea sickness pills) and shared with us - plus those pressure point bracelets and those two things together made the remainder of the trip bearable for him. The size of the waves remained very large - it was the side to side motion that had gotten to me but after that initial time, I didn't get sick again.  

Happy Birthday babe.... guess we'll try celebrating another night!

Bergen!

One of our favorite spots we visited in Norway was Bergen. It's a tiny village, and top tourist attraction. The fish market is very appealing.

That day was a cloudy, rainy one. It was also a day we had been told to be back at the ship by 2 PM!! We had a long voyage to Iceland and had to leave port early.  That was July 16, Steve's birthday.
And, it was raining in Bergen when we got of the ship, so we hopped on the HoHo bus and drove around listening to some local facts about the area.

Fish marke and wharf (under the tents) and wharf area

The city of Bergen is a unique area where settlers from all over northern Europe came (Dutch, Scotch, and Danish) which helped the area produce a unique dialect called Bergenser, spoken no place else. Local beer in Bergen is called Hansa.

Bergen is famous for the seven mountains surrounding the city center and also the Hanseatic Wharf, the fish market, and the Bergen International Festival which is one of Norway's largest events.
It's a very tiny village, with narrow, winding streets. It's also a popular hiking area.


When we got to Floibanen (Mt. Floien) we decided to Hop Off. I had wanted to see this place, with it's funny little mountainside tram called a funicular. It's basically a train that is ground based which holds a large number of people, making it simpler to get a lot of people to the top quickly.

This is the only tourist spot where I spent a good deal of time looking at (and buying) souvenirs. This was our last stop in Norway, so I bought myself a lovely Norwegian scarf and  hat - which came in handy on several occasions during the rest of the trip.

This was one of the loveliest places - the view from the mountain-top was gorgeous, and we got very lucky that while we were at the top, the rain stopped  briefly enough for me to get several nice pictures.

From the top of Mt. Floien you can see the surrounding "seven mountains" as well as the tiny village below.

This is also where we met the trolls. The one Papa got his picture with was the same one we had met in Orlando - Disney had a replica of this one made in Epicot's Norway ride (before they changed it into a Frozen ride).

The surrounding forest was full of hidden trolls, their heads visible over hilltops and around trees.

We could have hiked back down the mountain to Bergen if we had the time, but our 2 PM deadline made us take the Funicular back down, and from there we walked back to the wharf area, then to our ship.

Had it not been pouring rain, we might have walked the entire city, but we were pretty well soaked so headed back to the ship. This was the end of our 3rd day on the cruise - already we felt like we'd seen SO much!

...and the nightly art

Oslo was our first city - and first full day with the ship. Kristiansand was our second day, not a long way from Oslo.  Tomorrow we would visit Bergen, also in Norway. Three days in Norway - short days but so much fun!  But our time on the ship was fun, too!  Disney makes even the simplest thing fun!

Every night during our dinner hour, our cabin steward, Danny, would turn down our bed, tidy up the room, and leave chocolates for us. Danny lived basically in the hallway, all day, every day, and tended our room so closely, he almost always knew when we had left.

One of the creative things Danny did each evening was leave us some "towel art" - he folded the towels in the form of some adorable animal. Always, they came witch Chocolates.

Here are a few of the forms he left us:

Gorilla!

a Cobra

Dumbo?

Manta Ray

Giraffe or long-neck dino