Arrive in Reykjavik

I made it to the world's northern most capital and the "spiky pendant of the arctic circle" as they call it.  Reykjavik is located just below the arctic circle between about 64-65 degrees (the arctic circle is 66 degrees).  I had an uneventful flight that allowed no sleep since I couldn't get comfortable and the sun was "up" for half of the "overnight flight". 

People told me that flying into the airport is like flying over a moon scape.  I finally can picture this and the first thing that you notice is that there are no trees and the ground is covered with a mix of brown (rock) and green (mainly moss).  Once we landed, I also spotted some purple in the form of lupins that were brought in to use as erosion control.  The lupins take over the area in a sea of purple this time of year and lock the soil into place as well as sweeten it.  This allows another species of plant to come along later to claim that rich soil spot.  One of the Icelandic adages is if you are lost in the forest, then stand up.  This is because there are so few trees and most of them that are there are not very tall.  It wasn't until I was within downtown Reykjavik that I found stands of trees. 

At the airport, I was picked up by a geologist with Extreme Iceland (the company that I coordinated with for my plans) and I was driven from the airport in Keflavik to Extreme Iceland's headquarters in Reykjavik.  The geologist went through the geologic history of Iceland and how it was once part of a land bridge and that 90% of Iceland's rock is basalt due to its location on a hot spot under the Earth's crust.  I also learned that the table mountains (flat plateaus) as they call them formed underneath the glaciers unless they got hot enough to melt through the glacier to form a peak.  In addition, Iceland is pulling apart since it is on a divergent plate boundary with the North American and Eurasian plates.  The rate of it pulling apart is balanced by the erosion taking place along the coastline, so Iceland is not growing in size at all.  



Reflection of Reykjavik at Perlan



The rest of the day was spent exploring Reykjavik to include getting lost multiple times and needing to ask directions multiple times since my Icelandic is not good at all and their English was a little rusty. 

I went up to Perlan which has a 360 degree view of the city out on a walkway around a glass dome.  I visited a few large buildings to include the largest Lutheran Church which has some fantastic lines in its architecture.  I visited a thermal pool where they used the "left over" hot water to heat these small pools by the ocean to have warm water for people to enjoy instead of the frigid ocean.  I had a fresh lobster sandwich for dinner and finished the night with a Midnight Run 5K through the downtown park. 

Question for you:

Can anyone tell me the reason Icelanders serve a rotten shark meat (instead of serving it fresh)? 

Time to get some sleep, so I'll be able to enjoy my SCUBA dive in the morning in Thingvellir to the north.