John Foster
My bride and I just returned from a six-day trip to Iceland. I have some thoughts.
Iceland has about 400,000 citizens and 100,000 horses. The pony-sized Icelandic horse will never been seen at the Kentucky Derby, but those sturdy critters fare well in the harsh weather while performing their unique five types of gaits.
The northern lights are spectacular. Our guide said roughly 1 in 4 tour groups gets to see a show like we did. The aurora borealis is a skittish performer, best seen from September into April.
“Icelandic hotdogs” (pylsas) are big for the locals, and it might be due to the fact they are mostly lamb combined with some pork and beef. Lamb is big on Iceland because they raise a lot of sheep. The pylsas we had did not come with lots of mustard, onions, ketchup or other extras piled on. I’m not used to consuming a “neat” hot dog.
Iceland is a lot more than ice. The land is quite rugged. It sits at the meeting point of the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate.
We actually visited the area at the juncture of the two plates, and it was fascinating to know how the Earth’s crust is moving, no matter how slow it might actually be. That’s why the island is home to lots of earthquakes, volcanic action, hot springs and geysers.
There are fields of grass and straw to be found ,but large portions of Iceland are covered with ice-capped mountains, glaciers, fields of moss and lichen-covered lava rock. We actually drove over a lava flow that had cooled enough in a few weeks to allow that to happen.
That was on our way to the “Blue Lagoon”, a geothermal spa not far from where the earthquake and volcanic action has been most intense recently.
The area just recently reopened, so we were able to bask in the the magma-heated waters (about 102 degrees) and enjoy a silica mud mask. It’s said the silica will take 10-20 years off your face. It felt good, but I don’t think I’ll need a new driver’s license photo.
We stayed in a small town known as Selfoss, southeast of Reykjavik, the nation’s capital and region where about a third of the island’s population lives.
The town has all the amenities you’d ever want, but I most enjoyed the modern cathedral “Hallgrimskirkja” which has a huge organ with more than 5,200 pipes inside.
I took German in high school and always thought it was a somewhat “harsh-sounding” language. No disrespect, but speaking Icelandic sort of sounds like clearing your throat.
While my wife doesn’t actually have a bucket list, she did want to witness the northern lights. Mission accomplished.
She even ate some baked salmon and one of those “lamb dogs,” but she drew the line on the “lamb steak with gravy”. Not me though. It was tasty.
For my two-cents worth, if you ever get a chance to go to Iceland, take it. My guess is, when summer arrives with the midnight sun, it could be quite beautiful. But we still experienced a lot of colorful things in March.
John Foster anchors “All-News-in-the-Morning” weekdays on 1010 WCSI-AM and 98.1 FM. You can read his weekly blog at johnnyonthespot1950.com and monthly in The Republic. Send comments to [email protected].
