I Escaped The Olympic Crush by Hitting Iceland
Each year, we try to escape the heat and the crowds of tourists in Paris for at least three weeks in the summertime. But unlike most Parisians, we always head north in the Summer. Last summer, you’ll remember we were as far north as the North West Coast of Brittany. And before Covid smacked us in the face, we traveled up the coastline of Norway beyond the Arctic Circle. This time, we decided to take a three-week trip to Iceland. We were confident that we had made the right decision regarding the dates: flying out the day before and returning the day after the Paris Olympics. Our "hood" on the right bank of the Seine had been invaded and obstructed for three months before the events even began, and our route from our apartment and anything on the left bank was rendered impassible, even on foot. Only the Metro transported Parisians freely, but this was not a solution for my difficulty navigating stairs. So, on July 25th, we left Paris like rats from a sinking ship.
If you who know Paris find this area unrecognizable as the area from the l'Eglise de la Madeleine,
South on the rue Royale, throughout the Place de la Concorde between the Gardens of the Tuileries and the entrance to The Champs Elysee, and continuing South across the river to the National Assembly on the Left bank, you are not alone. The sight from the ground was despicable, ugly, and sad, but the media and participants experienced this as heaven. Mon Dieu! From the air, Iceland was spectacular as we descended through the clouds.
The Icelanders do not say ‘visit Iceland.’ Instead, they say, “Hit Iceland.” It felt like we hit upon something incredibly unique and utterly unexpected. It wasn’t as if we hadn’t heard that Iceland was a stunning place to visit. Everyone we knew had been there and loved it, but nobody told us exactly what to expect. I’m glad they didn’t because there was a surprise around every corner. We had almost canceled the trip several times after booking it over a year ago because of the volcanic eruptions, bubbling up magma from time to time, and over 1,000 small earthquakes that had the experts certain that this fissure was just about ready to get serious. They had three minor eruptions, with magma bubbling up that threatened one town and the famous Blue Lagoon, which had been evacuated twice before we arrived. The big thing about this volcano is that it lies right between Keflavik Int’l airport and the capital, Reykjavík. Most of us in Europe remember the last
time a volcano erupted in Iceland about a dozen years ago, and it was terrifying as it disrupted air traffic throughout Europe and the East Coast of the United States and Canada for approximately ten days. That’s what we had in mind. when we considered not going this year since we had fresh in our minds the memories of being in Berlin at one of our Int’l Frances Tustin Memorial Trust conferences. Our contingent from Australia was particularly affected, unable to get home to their families and patients for over ten days after the end of the conference. Luckily, we had already purchased our train tickets to Amsterdam for a speaking holiday to follow the conference while other people were scrambling to get what was left of any train tickets in Europe in an attempt to find a place where they might take off to get home, even to get
home by train if they lived in Europe. With that disaster in our minds, we couldn’t help but be concerned that we would be stuck between the airport and Reykjavík, the Capitol Cityfrom which
all of our activities would commence, or worse yet to be stuck in Reykjavík and unable to get home to Paris. Over a year before, we had arranged to have the first week on land in a beefed-up 4 x 4 with an expert guide. Einar Páll Svavarsson was born and lived in Iceland but had spent several years in the
States. However, he had returned and had spent most of his life in Iceland. Einar had also been an expert nature photographer in Iceland. We visited his website and saw the many wonderful images
that he had captured, that we trusted him to show us the best, even with our time and physical limitations. After that first week with Einar, we had one day free to visit the museums and the fantastic Calvinist church that was an architectural copy of some of the most iconic basalt pillars on
the black sand coast in Southwestern Iceland that we were to visit on our land journey with Einar.
Trying to describe Iceland is quite a feat. If it were a motion picture, it would be something like
"Journey to the Center of the Earth" meets "Lord of the Rings" meets "First Man." There were great stretches of lava ranging from recent black lava beds to those thousands of years old, with giant boulders on either side of the highway as far as the eye could see. There were rock formations of
every kind and color, lakes situated in the craters of smaller volcanoes that had blown their tops thousands of years ago, and the giant lake that stretched almost the entire island's width. There
were cliffs inhabited by adorable puffins, some of which made landings right in front of us on the grassy edge of the cliff, practically at our feet.?One fellow stuck around and seemed to pose for our cameras, turning in all directions so we could see his best sides. He ‘visited’ with us for over 20 minutes. On one day-trip, we walked alongside a wall made up of basalt columns created by Mother Nature, not humankind.
Some even more iconic columns that we saw towering above the beach from the water formed an entrance to a cave seen from land. You might dare to explore its inner mysteries if you are fit enough to wade through
The black sand beaches were deceptively solid but soft and deep like quicksand until recently, when they were soaked with ocean water just before the high tide receded. If one were serious about walking these beaches, you'd have to be meticulous about checking the timing of the tide. The North Atlantic is treacherously unpredictable and wild, even at low tide, as demonstrated by some tourists who had tiptoed to the edge only to realize that an enormous wave was suddenly rushing toward them and came crashing down unexpectedly on the spot that they had inhabited just before running for their lives! There were many places, at the end of a long ride through the lava fields, where there were so many waterfalls I could hardly take photos of all of
them. They often. Las Cataratas, better known as Iguazú Falls, which makes up the largest waterfall system in the world. The falls divide the Iguazu River into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River flows through Brazil; however, most of these falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the border between two South American giants at an enormous drop-off called the Devil’s Mouth, which puts
Niagara Falls to shame. The Falls in Iceland are not so close together as in Iguazú, which form a ring around an enormous rift between tectonic plates that had shifted millions of years ago. There is
nothing quite so dramatic as that in Iceland, but there is one place where you can walk between the sides of what had long ago been formed by a great rift that pulled apart the volcanic land, and that continues to be parted, inch by inch, each year.
This great rift that goes on for miles can be walked as no waterfalls exist there. But there are many, many, countless waterfalls everywhere on the island. At the site of one of these great falls, there’s a path for visitors to walk up the moss-covered mountain,
and pass behind the falls, if they dare. In one spot, we were treated to the sight of two enormous waterfalls that seemed to be holding hands as they spilled over the mountainous region of the older volcanic rock that supports them and is covered by beautiful, bright, green moss. Other spots that we viewed from above had multiple waterfalls pouring down into an extraordinarily beautiful rift that display many different ages of volcanic material, each of a different time, color, and kind. While on one of our road trips, we encountered several bridges that crossed over a single river that snaked from one end to another of this tremendous volcanic island.
We also circumnavigated parts of an enormous lake, the largest in Iceland. At times, we splashed through deep ponds, protected not only by the beefed-up suspension of the 4 x 4 but also by a substantial snorkel-like device installed along the right side of the windshield to protect us from inundation. As we worked our way from West to East back to the South and Reykjavík, our home base, we were treated to sights like huge boiling geothermal water pits and geysers that shot up dozens of meters in the air.
We also visited the Blue Lagoon filled with warm geothermal water with a pale milky blue appearance. Bathers come from miles around the island and many other countries to soak and swim in this lovely pool for its purported healing qualities. Although we did not take a dip, we did have a
marvelous lunch at the Lava Restaurant, which had a reputation for delicious food that was not exaggerated. Our table sat right next to the window overlooking these magical blue waters. On another of our drives, we passed by a large, interesting church that was very plain and extremely modern in its
Architecture. Unfortunately, it was locked up, so we couldn’t visit the interior, but we could stop and take photos of the exterior, including an independently built bell tower like none I have ever seen. There is far too much to describe, and the photographs do a much better job of giving you a sense of the multiple landscapes, the endless skies, and the myriad variety of cloud formations that we encountered on our daily road trips that began and ended at our hotel,
out the back of the hotel is a real piece of history. Here he stands a huge bronze statue of Jón Sigurðsson, with his head held up high and his back straight as an arrow, watching the parliament building. Jón Sigurðsson was a pioneer in Iceland's struggle for independence. This statue originally stood before the government offices and was unveiled there in 1911.
Across a lovely park filled with flowers facing the Parlement building in Reykjavík, our hotel had the perfect location with beautiful gardens in front of and behind it, a comfortable room and common areas, shopping, and restaurants galore. The only thing that surprised us was how tiny, few, and far between these developed areas were on such an enormous island. Reykjavík was definately the place to set out from every day and to come home to at night to have a lovely dinner before an early bedtime..
We couldn't resist snapping the images of a typical little Icelander and a dog we made friends with and, while speaking to her owners, discovered that she was an Icelandic sheepdog and some samples of the beautiful street art on many walls lateral to the main drag.
The National Museum was gorgeous: the walk over around the lake, the many exhibits of historical interest, and the views from the coffee shop.I even found a lonely bronze "man" sitting on a park bench and couldn't resist cuddling up with him as a souvenir of the day.
We arrived in Iceland on 25 July and finally boarded the stately Silver Wind, an explorer-class cruise ship with a luxury interior carrying 200 passengers, on 1 August. For the most part, this trip was extremely relaxing, although we did have two nights when the North Atlantic got a bit feisty, and we were rocked by 20' to 30'foot swells. Our stateroom was roomy and attractive and afforded us some beautiful views from the balcony and from the suite itself, as well as a bed that gave us a delicious sense of floating.
It was so well planned that we had enough room to store clothing and other items for twice the number of passengers in our room, which included a large walk-in closet. All the staterooms on the ship were suites with private balconies, and there was a Butler assigned to each suite, which was at our beck and called at the push of a button. It didn’t take very long to find out that anything we wanted was not too much to ask for from our lovely butleress, Karin. If we were in our suite, she would service hors d’oeuvres in the early evening before dinner. She stocked up our refrigerator with whatever we wanted, serviced breakfast in our suite if we didn’t feel like going down to the restaurant, and took care of our laundry and just about anything else we desired. And during her time off, a substitute for her would always come at our beck and call, even in the middle of the night.
Alongside the fantastic views and such a contrast to living in the city--especially when things are so chaotic, crowded, and blocked- there were also lovely quiet spots to sit and enjoy some refreshments, read a good book, or write in my notebook. Additionally, there were four beautiful restaurants: The main dining had dinner a la carte, with breakfast and luncheon buffets that were superb, as
well as an outdoor grill by the pool and hot tub, an Italian Restaurant, and, of course, a French restaurant. The service was impeccable, and each friendly waiter knew our names and what we liked and didn't like within 24 hours of boarding the ship. There was even live music every evening before and after dinner: A Brazilian guitarist who sang anything on request and a pianist who did the same in yet another ocean-view lounge, as well as informative lectures that were offered during the day when we were at sea.
This ship's luxury was in contrast to the terrain that we would encounter on excursions away from the ship on zodiacs that took us onshore to fishing villages and small boats for whale watching and for witnessing the variations in seabird life, including the puffins as they fished in the waters, diving into the waves
