Akureyri iceland

I don't mean to imply that the flood is totally behind us.  But for the most part we have put it out of out thoughts and minds and carry on lives as if it didn't happen.  It touches my mind most when I go to do an art project and think of supplies......oops, that was there before the flood!

So when the opportunity to take this class came up, I was all excited.  Donna LeFleur is teaching her  Amulets, Talisman and Spirit Pendents.  Doesn't that sound amazing?

We need to bring some personal item to use as a talisman.  I  have thought for a few weeks now on what to bring for my piece.  Everything that crosses my mind is gone.

I finally uncovered a gilded leaf that used to belong to my mother.  Not that we ha a really strong connection, but I think it would please her if I used it for this class.  She would have been in the front row on Saturday.

But now that I have had time to think about it, I am thinking that Chloe's dog tags might be a good thing too.  Maybe I'll bring both and see what happens when I get there.

that is the Arctic Circle!  During these days we were having 22 hours of sunlight.

So here we were in Iceland.  Akureyri.  Don't ask me to pronounce anything in Iceland.

See that dotted line above the country?   That is the Arctic Circle.  During the day we had 22 hours of sunlight.

This is what midnight looks like there.

As luck would have it, Frank was reading his favorite author.  Clive had his characters running around Reykjavik and the icefields all over Iceland so Frank was having fun with pointing out familiar things to me.


 We took a long bus ride (Made better by the fact that Frank DID have his Dramamine and DID NOT throw up on this trip.)  waterfall

I can't even tell you the scale of this waterfall.  Huge!  The upper falls are 96 feet high.  The sound of the water falling over the cliffs was so loud you could hear it from nearly half a mile away as we hiked toward the site.

 I could have stood there forever.  But there was more to see.

We hiked up the hill to the café for some pie and tea.  I love bridges.  There is no better way to improve a landscape than to slap a bridge across the creek and put some mountains in the distance!

 Further down the valley along the road they call the Golden Circle, the land became flattened.  Glaciers once scoured the landscape flat and carved deep grooves for these beautiful inland fjords.

 You can see the sky was pretty dark and threatening.  This is called False Crater Lake.  In this area the lava flows encountered colder water and formed craters rather than lava fields like on the rest of the island.

Not sure if you can read the explanation they have, LOL.  Like I said, you can't really understand a lot of Iceland.

Just look at the pictures!

Swissys are sheep herders, you know.



The sheep were grazing in the fields around the craters. Mind you, there were people everywhere.  But when the lambs saw me, they came running over to me and wanted to get really close.  It was like they knew me!  Frank couldn't believe it.  They followed me the whole time I was there.  I kept trying to shake them, but they persisted.  When we left, they bleated pitifully, come back!

The landscape was so beautiful.  You know, I actually think the Dimmuborga explanations are from the next place we went.  I will try to write that up for the next post for you.  It is the Lava Fields.

Different in its own stark black beauty.

And the Sulfa Steam Pits.  Later.