We recently returned from a most unusual Christmas, my first one away from a family environment in exactly half a century – a timescale that certainly dates you! Fifty years ago I was living in Chicago and had my Christmas dinner with truck drivers in one of their cafes. Great company and a full plate with all the trimmings for exactly $1.
This year Vivienne and I decided to be a bit adventurous and spent Christmas in one of our favourite countries – Iceland. Before giving you the interesting part, let’s get one thing out of the way – bankers. We’ve all got them, more’s the pity, and their unprincipled greed and profligacy do not represent the Icelandic people any more than they do ordinary people over here.
Iceland is a unique environment and its landscapes and spectacular natural phenomena are unlike anywhere else on Earth. It is surely the most volcanic land this side of Jupiter’s moon Io! You’ll probably remember the Heimaey eruption in the Westman Islands and the new island of Surtsey that appeared. There have been famous recent eruptions and the Hekla, Katla and other volcanoes are ‘due’ within the next few years.
We were based in Reykjavik which now seems a bit less of a frontier town than it was when we first visited Iceland twenty years ago. There’s plenty to see and do in town including the beautiful Hallgrimskirkja, a concrete church (not the cathedral it appears to be) which is a prominent landmark. We stayed just round the corner from there. Outside the church is a noble statue commemorating the discoverer of America – Leif Eriksson. On a clear day you can see across the wide bay, Faxafloi, to the magnificent perfect cone of Snaefells (the starting point for the adventurers in Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’).
If you do go to Iceland then be sure to take your swimming gear – you’ll want to be doing a lot of it. You’ve probably seen pictures of the ‘Blue Lagoon’ set amid a lava field near Keflavik which is nice but the place we prefer is the main swimming baths in Reykjavik, Laugardaslaug. OK, so Icelandic spelling is a bit tricky and the language (Old Norse essentially) is pretty impenetrable but this is no issue at all as English is so widely spoken and to a very high standard.
Pools, both natural and artificial, are often outdoors, as at Laugardaslaug, and they are very warm since there’s so much cheap and clean geothermal power – you get used to the odd whiff of sulphur now and again! There we were, swimming comfortably in an air temperature of –5 Celsius and it was snowing! This is surely one of the more novel experiences you can have. Around the main swimming pool as well as a steam room there are set, again in the open, deep and large circular immersion hot pots at varying temperatures from very warm to very hot and where you can sit and chat with the locals. One person had just come back from Spain (poor weather and an unheated house) and was glad to be back in Iceland and getting warm again!
We were never once cold – just dress appropriately for outdoor activities - and all houses, hotels and cafes in Iceland are very warm and bright. Temperatures are not all that low but there’s often a big wind chill factor out of town. The Reykjavik Christmas lights were tasteful and attractive and it’s not dark for as long as you might think. They set their clocks well forward (GMT all year round so there’s no jet lag either) and the first hints of light come just after 10 in the morning in midwinter and twilight lasts till around 4 in the evening, so its quite similar to England at the end of the day.
Christmas Eve is the Icelanders’ big day and we enjoyed a traditional Icelandic Xmas dinner (basically glazed ham and potatoes in a sweet white sauce) before the proprietor closed up to enjoy his own meal. On other days we enjoyed great lamb stew at the Volcano House Café and also at The Pearl, a jewel of a modern building from which to view the city. One exhibit at the Volcano House were examples of ‘ash’ from various eruptions – all different. Although some was just engine clogging dust, the ash from Eyjafjallajokul (the one that erupted in 2010) was hard, sharp grit and would certainly have destroyed aircraft engines.
We didn’t stay for the New Year celebrations but many people do go to Iceland for this occasion. It’s a bit like our bonfire night with many people having bonfires and firework parties for their families and friends and there’s an official blaze and display outside Hallgrimskirkja.
There is a wide variety of tours available right throughout the year and many of them are available on December 25th which was when Viv and I were most adventurous. The prime tour from Reykjavik is the classic ‘Golden Circle’ which includes Geysir with its most regular geyser going off every eight minutes or so and the magnificent and atmospheric Gullfoss waterfall.
Gullfoss is a thundering torrent in summer but this was the first time we’d seen it in winter, half frozen with the most exquisite shades of lime green infused with powdered grey. If you’ve seen the film ‘Prometheus’ much of this was filmed in Iceland and the opening scene with the alien at the waterfall was shot at Gullfoss. Much of the film ‘Oblivion’ was also filmed in the mountainous area visible from Gullfoss - you'd recognise the landscape if you visit. It was from this point that we took our most adventurous step.
Leaving Gullfoss with a party of seven and two guides in a ‘super-jeep’ as part of a convoy all equipped with huge special tyres, we started out on a track up to the Langjokull glacier. It was a difficult ascent with our vehicle eventually getting stuck in a snowdrift and we were rescued by another vehicle already at the base camp just on the glacier. Incidentally, two Land Rovers also came down and got through the drift very well – so we were very proud of a local product! So eventually arriving in the hut at the top, we put on even more protective gear (one piece thermal overall, helmet and gloves) and after brief instruction and feeling a bit like Shackleton we set out across the glacier in a snowmobile convoy!
To say the least this was pretty hairy with the failing light, a fierce crosswind and totally horizontal snow. You just had to hang in there and follow the light in front – when you could see it! We were relieved when we picked out the hut through the gathering gloom on the return journey. The Icelanders are pretty gung ho about this sort of thing – there’s no way a 72 year old and a 68 year old would have been allowed to do this (if we could find a glacier!) here at home with the discouraging official ‘health and safety’ obsession. It was an intriguing descent and return journey too with the driver at times using a satnav app to keep us on the road during near whiteout horizontal snow showers! By the time we got back to our hotel (the friendly Odinsve) we’d been out for 11 ½ hours!
We also went on an evening northern lights tour. At Reykjavik’s latitude you have to be pretty fortunate to see the lights but it was a great evening nonetheless. There was a crystal clear beautiful star studded sky with shooting stars and it was the first time I’ve seen the Milky Way for ten years and been aware of our place in the suburbs of our vast home galaxy. In the assembled throng there was something of a good-natured ‘cargo cult’ atmosphere as people waited for the lights to show up. And talking of unlikely entities we were told a chilling ghost story by the guide on the way home in the coach as we passed graveyards with the memorials dressed with lights in an Icelandic tradition that still clings on.
So there you have the flavour of it, for us a truly memorable modern midwinter saga. Now to make a start on the vast volume of the original Icelandic Sagas I was rash enough to bring back with me!
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