Pictures of Iceland

A miscellaneous collection of photos, which didn’t fit anywhere else.

The strange reason I ended up in Iceland. In October the company I work for shipped a pallet with goods from Amsterdam to Chicago (ORD) with Icelandair Cargo via Liege (LGG) and KEF. The pallet never arrived at its intended destination in ORD. To make sure the shipment was not lost in Iceland I called Icelandair Cargo in KEF and asked for an investigation. In the above security camera image you can see our pallet with 12 boxes arriving from LGG in KEF. The next image I received shows our shipment leaving KEF for its flight to ORD aboard an Icelandair passenger plane. It convinced me our shipment had been lost in the USA. Since the girl on the phone in Iceland was really friendly, I ended up buying a ticket with Icelandair to KEF for a short holiday.

Church with graveyard near Hveragerði.

The graveyard near Hveragerði close-up.

Sheep heads in a supermarket in Hveragerði. Unfortunately restaurant Myrin Mathus in Reykjavík was closed due to renovation. This was the closest I got to eating Svið.

In winter the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration closes many roads if they are deemed unsafe. You can drive past the sign, but then your car insurance will be void.

Snow mobile tour operator Mountaineers of Iceland operates a fleet of specially modified buses to reach glaciers and other remote locations.

Tourist centre near waterfall Gullfoss. I love how the architecture blends with the landscape.

Hvalfjörður, meaning: whale-fjord, before sunrise. In Hvalfjörður the only remaining whaling station of Iceland is located.

Santa Clauses in fishing town Akranes. There is always one who doesn’t fit in.

House in Akranes

I really liked driving this 2018 Suzuki Vitara all grip, which is the 4x4 version.

Close to nothing

Only on my flight back to Amsterdam I was able to put the Icelandic landscape in some sort of context when I watched the documentary Horizon (original title: Sjóndeildarhringur) about Icelandic painter Georg Guðni (1961 - 2011). Coming of age in the rebellious punk scene of the 80s in 1983 Georg Guðni suddenly turned his attention to the Icelandic landscape, at first painting particular mountains but soon painting non-particular mountains and horizons. He put quite some thought into the act of looking itself.

“The spectacular has never inspired me. I am much more inspired by all that is in between. When you are driving to some spectacular destination. There is so much on the way that simply does not catch your eye. The scenery that passes by your window, which means nothing to you. This is what inspires me.”

— Georg Guðni

Landscape near the waterfall Gullfoss.

“In regard to the horizon, it is the nothing that is in between, and it is this nothing that you look at when you forget that you are looking out of the window. You are not looking. You are just thinking. You search for something to see, but you don’t see anything.”

— Georg Guðni

Untitled, 2002

His death is never mentioned in the documentary, but it seems that he took his own life at 50. The male suicide rate in Iceland is high (21,7 per 100.000 people) compared to the female suicide rate (4,7).

The book Strange Familiar - The Work of Georg Gudni was published by Perceval Press (2005), ISBN 0-9747078-9-9.

Condensed water vapour of the geyser Strokkur.

Vulcano Katla and beyond

On my fifth day in Iceland I ventured out towards the south part of the island. First stop was the village Vík í Mýrdal just below the volcano Katla. This volcano is very active. Twenty eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 20–80 years. Many times an eruption of the smaller volcano Eyjafjallajökull was followed by an eruption of Katla. Eyjafjallajökull last erupted in 2010 resulting in air-traffic shut-down in parts of Canada and all of Europe including Ukraine and Belarus. Katla is a ticking time bomb. The Vulcano is also one of the largest volcanic sources of carbon-dioxide (CO2) on Earth, accounting for up to 4% of total global volcanic carbon-dioxide emissions. When Katla erupts the glacier covering the Vulcano will melt causing floods, which will probably destroy the village Vík.

Vík has a population of 318 and a beautiful black beach. The stones are actually grey but when wet become shiny and black. The day was very cloudy and rainy so I couldn’t get a view of the volcano.

The eruption of Katla in 1918 lasted for 24 days. The eruption resulted in extending the southern coast by 5 km due to a mudflow. Since then the sea has reclaimed the land and is even threatening the village. A newly built breaker halts the process.

Lamb stew at a gas station in Vík

It was still early enough to drive on. In theory I could just reach Vatnajökull, a glacier covering 9% of Iceland, and its glacial lagoon. It was still another 2,5 hours and it meant I had to drive the whole distance back in the dark. I could always try to find a hotel I thought, although a quick Booking.com search learned that the cheapest option would cost almost a hundred euro. Still, I drove on, through a large very empty plain. The weather didn’t improve. There was no view whatsoever and the weather forecast for the next day was even worse. On a 150 kilometre stretch the only interesting bit was a pile of rocks where there used to be a house, but they are not really sure if there really was a house. Travellers pile rocks on each other for good luck and the government made a parking space and an information sign.

I never reached Vatnajökull and the beautiful glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón. I reckoned that the time I would reach Jökulsárlón it was practically dark and due to the weather I wouldn’t see much anyway. The whole endeavour also was a waste of money since the Suzuki was thirsty. In the middle of nowhere I made a U-turn and drove back to Reykjavík.

Expression of the Icelandic landscape in pottery by Glit Pottery (1958-1971). From 1972 the company operated at Höfth instead of Reyklavík. Pieces of lava are incorporated in the clay before glazing.

Snæfellsnes

In Voyage au centre de la terre by Jules Verne, Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel start the journey to the center of the earth in the crater of the jökull of Snæfell after deciphering a coded note written in runic script:

“Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches (lit: tastes) before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth. I did it. Arne Saknussemm”

My journey to Snæfellsnes was somewhat less adventurous. For a start I had a very comfortable Suzuki Vitara 4x4 to my disposal. Still, Snæfellsnes is a really deserted place. I first drove to Borgarnes for a stopover and black coffee, but it was still dark when I reached Borgarnes. The live traffic service of my TomTom navigation showed many exclamation marks (!!!!!!) along the way, but I decided to ignore those. I entered Hellnar as a destination since it has a restaurant. Or so I thought.

At a gas station I learned that a big storm was going to hit Iceland around coffee time. “What time is that?”, I had to ask. “Around 4 o’clock”, I learned. The Road and Coastal Administration (IRCA) advised to avoid driving after that time. Suddenly I had a time schedule.

After driving for more than 5 hours since I left Reykjavík I found the only restaurant in Hellnar closed. Not many people visit Hellnar in wintertime and for good reasons. Hellnar is not much more than a small church, the closed hotel-restaurant and a few scattered buildings. In 1703 there were 194 people registered as inhabitants of Hellnar. Since then the village has declined, no more fish is being landed here. But it is the gateway to Snæfellsjökull National Park. Since I was getting really hungry I had little choice than to keep on driving, trough the park to Ólafsvík, the nearest village, boasting a population of 1.010.

The church of Hellnar built in 1945 on the site of an older church.

Hellnar

Harbour of Ólafsvík.

Fresh cod in SKER Restaurant, Ólafsvík. Nice touch were thin slices of cauliflower marinated in vinegar.

Svarta Kaffi

Amazingly we know exactly when coffee arrived in Iceland. Coffee arrived precisely on November 16, 1703, “when Árni Magnússon – a scholar and collector of many highly valuable Nordic manuscripts – acquired a quarter of a pound of coffee from a friend.” By the mid-19th century, drinking coffee had become a daily habit. When driving in Iceland I stopped at every gas station for a cup of black coffee - or in practice every hour or so. The last hour and a half before arriving back in Reykjavik the storm hit the island, heavily. My speed dropped from 90 to 30 kilometres per hour so the car wasn’t blown off the road. The round trip from Reykjavík took me 10 hours.

Harnessing geothermal energy at Friðheimar

It is not easy to grow fruit and vegetables in Iceland. Fruit is readily available but is mostly flown in by Icelandair Cargo on a daily cargo flight from Liege in Belgium, which is also close enough to The Netherlands. The couple Knútur and Helena are growing tomatoes all year round near Selfoss in a farm called Friðheimar. A borehole 200 meters from the greenhouses provides water at about 95°C. To make most of the light, which is needed in wintertime to grow the tomatoes, the restaurant is located right in one of the greenhouses. It makes a very welcome moment in the dark moments of the day. For the price of the tomato soup you can serve yourself as many times you like, even the coffee is free if you order the soup. Dutch bees are pollinating the plants. It was one of the strangest restaurants I have eaten in. Perfect cure for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) though!