Iceland

Our son and his wife visited Iceland about 17 years back, before their financial crash, a spectacular place, but at that time mega expensive!

They stayed in B+B type accommodation and bought food at supermarkets for lunch and dinner as meals out were so expensive.  Other than commenting on the cost of things, they found much of the food very salty.

They were there for a week, so hired a car to tour around, which was not too expensive.  

OH would very much like to visit Iceland.

Well I would give in to your OH's wishes then, Kj, because it's a beautiful country. We've seen so much spectacular scenery already and we're not even half way round our tour yet! Yes, it is an expensive country, but the best advice I read before coming was definitely not to try converting the cost of things to sterling because you're bound to end up disappointed! 

We went even further north yesterday, around the Tjornes peninsula.

The mountains behind the fjord at Akureyri still have plenty of snow on the top. We stopped off at Godafoss waterfall (falls of the gods) - not sure the double rainbow will show up too well on the photo - and then at Iceland's own little mini grand canyon at Aysbergi.

There's something almost magical about the Arctic. Svalbard & Greenland are also spectacular places. Perhaps it's because the terrain is nothing like we usually see. Iceland stand out because of its volcanic nature, comparable to Tenerife for some amazing geology.

Svalbard?, that’s we’re Loryk Byrnison hails from(Icelandic Royalty)👍🏻

I was thinking of Floki 🤔

I grew up in the Arctic, our house is/was about 50 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

My Mum was from Lofoten, where the scenery is very dramatic, my Dad from just south of Bodo.  I was born in the dining room of our  house, which was barely finished by 1942, due to the shortage of building materials during the war.  It was originally a solid log school building from Lofoten, which my Dad and my Uncle bought, dismantled, and re-erected on their father's farm.

It was a pretty hard life up there, especially during and after WW 2 when all the towns were destroyed.  My parents/other relatives  were small farmers and fishermen, there were no roads linking us to anywhere, now there are many bridges and tunnels.  We were first linked to the rest of the country by road only in 1976.  When we visited back in 1975, our car had to be craned on and off the deck of my father's boat to get to the house.

The house was a shared one......shared entrance, staircases, and bathroom, but own kitchens and other rooms.  Even now there is only one bathroom.  12 of us lived there, 6 in each family.

Until the mid 50s we had no mains electricity, and a mains water supply only became available in the early 1970s, when we could actually have a toilet in the bathroom rather than the cellar.

It all seems a long time back now!

These days it is a better place to live, most mod cons available.  My nephew, who was born up there, has bought the old family home and just recently moved up there from Oslo.  He is in the process of converting it into a single home, and will hopefully be adding another bathroom before we next visit!  

There are 8 bedrooms now, so it can be a long queue for the facilities when all his friends, and some family come to stay!

It is a remote and beautiful place to live, but very cold in winter, no sun at all for about  a month, but full daylight for a month in June/July.

These days I am happy to now live somewhere a little warmer!

We are now about as far east in Iceland as it's possible to get, a small town called Egilsstadir.

And we have had one of those days where there is a "wow!" around every corner. So forgive me if I share a whole lot of "holiday snaps" with you, and if you're easily bored, look away now! 

Our first stop was at Lake Myvatn - "midge lake" - aptly named because there must have been millions of the little blighters buzzing around, but fortunately, we were told, the non biting variety.

The lake is surrounded by the remnants of volcanic craters which have left some amazing formations.

Then on to the volcanic park Dimmuborgir which CY mentioned earlier. It is truly breathtaking, plumes of steam emerging from the earth, boiling clay pits and a landscape which must be similar to lunar areas - Neil Armstrong and Co were brought here for training in how to manoeuver the lunar landing modules apparently. 

And finally to the biggest waterfall in Europe, in terms of water flow, Dettifoss. Up to 500 cubic metres of water per second can flow over these falls when it has been wet, which is quite often in Iceland though luckily we've missed out so far. A short walk upstream there is a second, smaller waterfall, Selfoss, spectacular in itself but not compared to its more powerful neighbour.

Not sure when this post will appear as I've had to re- register to change my details! I've already done 3 posts, what's needed now, on the what you doing thread. Writing this at 1040 Friday 22 July 2022.

Lovely photos and a fabulous destination .

KjellNN great to read of your childhood home too.