In Search of the Aurora Borealis (aka Poor Timing in Iceland)

It all started in the fall of 2013, when I was reading an article on the best places to see the Northern Lights. The spot where they would be the most active in January and February?

Iceland.

Coincidentally, Groupon was running a special on trips to Iceland with a Northern Lights tour included. So, throwing Caution and a little bit of coin to the winds, we booked our trip.

It's a short flight from Bristol, under 3 hours, and as the jet taxied down the runway, revving engines in anticipation of takeoff, the Immigrant Song is running through my head....."We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow"....
And why wouldn't it? Iceland is a part of Viking lore and history. There are hot springs all over the island, it being one gigantic lava bed over the North American and European tectonic plates which shift at the blinding rate of 1cm per year. This causes fissures which allow magma to escape, which, when meeting moisture either in the form of seas or glaciers, turns this moisture into steam or hot water, and a majority of the island gets their heat and fresh water from this.

Also, being as Iceland has been occupied for many centuries, I would have assumed there would have been lots impressive, historic nordic architecture. Nope. In fact, it's hard to find buildings built prior to the late 1800's.

"Old" Reykjavik









Newer Reykjavik

According to our tour guide, Javier, for many centuries the early residents, Vikings, if you please, lived a more spartan existence in cave homes built into the rocky outcroppings. There isn't much in the way of trees on Iceland. Thus not much wood for lumber. Rock gets crushed for making brick and block. Some time in the not too distant past there was a major climate change. Whether it was due to a massive volcanic eruption or what, the climate of Iceland, which had been a little more temperate, got a lot colder, and the residents adapted as best they could. Many left. Even today the population of the entire country is about 10% greater than the city of Pittsburgh, which has roughly 300K people.

This is a mostly naturally formed
ampitheatre where tribal rulers held summits and tribunals around 800 years ago. All kinds of nifty things have been excavated by archeologists to support this.







So, Iceland didn't really get settled until the 1800's,  when the nordic countries as well as the UK began to see strategic value to it.  Iceland was ruled by the Danes for a long time, and if I'm not mistaken, still have some ties to them.

You can see the influence in some of the bright colorings residents apply to houses and businesses.

Unfortunately there is also a lot of tagging. Gang signs, and just a lot of scribbles on darned near every surface from buildings to utility boxes. You will occasionally see some street art, but it's primarily the type of art pictured above.

In case you haven't been able to tell, it was cloudy pretty much the entire time we were there. The day of the Golden Circle tour, not only was it cloudy and cold, it was windy too. Those of you familiar with the winds of west Texas which you have to lean way into in order to stay upright, well these winds were worse than that. Probably gulf coast hurricane grade. How Mike managed to get as many clear pictures as he did, I don't know. The tripod was rendered useless because it was wobbling all over the place even when we tried to hold on to it.

These pictures were taken at the Gullfoss Falls.

Holding on to the Terrible Towel so I won't lose it!











The winter scenery is hard to describe.  Cold, sometimes desolate, lots of ice.

 And then you come to the geysers. Most of them are small, but it is interesting that there are patches of greenery around because these areas around the geysers never freeze.

Notice the temperature. That's C not F.









There are areas all over Iceland with geysers. The area we were was primarily in the east by the active volcanoes. One blew it's top four years ago, another much larger one has been rumbling for a year, with lava recently bubbling up in places. In one sense this is a good thing because it is releasing some of the pressure. See, these volcanoes are also glacial, so if it should blow the top or side it will send chunks of flaming ice outwards like shrapnel which is way worse than just having it streaming out in a flow.

We learned all kinds of interesting things on our GeoIceland tour. We also learned about the doors you will kind of see out in the middle of nowhere. Little doors, set into small mounds. Supposedly for gnomes. Kept maintained. Gotta keep the gnomes happy or bad things will happen.

Then there are the Icelandic horses. In Iceland, horses cannot be imported, and those exported can never return. They are descendants of the Viking horses, with thick, heavy winter coats and wider hooves than traditional horses, and 'blue' eyes.

As you can see, they come in all colors, and most are in the height of large ponies to small horses, 13-15 hands



They are really pretty without the heavy winter coats, keeping the thick mane and tail year round. The shedded coats have been used for stuffing furniture cushions and bedding.


Unfortunately on this day, a major storm was coming through.  Part of the reason for the intense winds, but it is my understanding that Chicago has nothing on this place when it comes to seasonal winds! However, it did mean that in order to beat the blizzard we didn't get to spend as much time around where the North American plate meets the European plate. Instead of walking over it, we drove over it. At one point in time you could get your passport stamped when you walked from one side to the other.

As for the Northern Lights....that's where it gets tricky.
According to some of the locals, it had never been quite this overcast or icy this time of year. The last night of our trip our tour group went out after cancelling the previous 3 nights. We went to an area that was supposed to have clearing skies. These are the pictures Mike took. He did long exposures, and I would like to think that those were Auroras showing through those clouds, but I don't know.

So, while the trip wasn't a success from the standpoint of being able to say positively that we saw the Auroras, we got to experience a new place, soaked in outdoor pools heated geothermally, and enjoyed a Danish cider in our favorite pub.