In Search of the Northern Lights…

Iceland

For my birthday this year we went for a short break in Iceland (the country, not the frozen food supermarket), where I wanted to track down the Northern Lights.

It had been a dream of mine for some time and when we saw a comedy drama on the television across Christmas where a family went to Northern Scandinavia and one of the characters wanted to see the lights, the dream was triggered again. It was boosted when we talked to some people we know who mentioned they had seen them in Iceland and were bowled over by them, then heard the news that this season was going to be one of the best for a decade due to the increased sun spot activity, all this meant I started to look again in earnest.

We started looking soon after Christmas to see if there was any last minute deals before New Year, there were, but at what a price. It seems the Scandinavia is much more expensive to get to than Iceland, so we looked there and eventually found a deal for my birthday weekend.

A couple of weeks before we went there were reports of the lights being seen in the north of the UK, so strong was the activity, so we were hopeful. Then the weather closed in and a cold snap was forecasted for the UK across that weekend. We checked the reports in Iceland and were surprised to find it warmer there, but also overcast and wet – not good news.

Reykjavik

We flew into Iceland on the late flight on the Friday after work and eventually got to our hotel in Reykjavik in the early hours of Saturday. The hotel was bright and clean and nicely laid out in a minimalist style.

Hotel Klettur - The hotel’s name is derived from the rock that is on the first floor of the hotel and bursts out through the wall. The hotel’s look and interior gets its inspiration from Icelandic nature, especially the Icelandic rocks.

Icelandic folktales are filled with stories about elves that live in rocks around the island. While working on roads and house building, many road builders and workers have had to make drastic changes to their plans because they could not move big rocks that where blocking their way. There is a strong believe that the elves living in the rocks are the cause.

The origin of the elves in Iceland (álfar in Icelandic) goes back to Germanic paganism and mythology. They were originally a race of minor gods associated with nature and fertility.

Elves are usually invisible, but can be seen if they feel like it. They can be helpful and kind to those who do them no harm, and repay favours with favours. On the other hand, they can also be malicious and take revenge if harmed.

On the first floor of Hótel Klettur there is a rock breaking through the wall and even if it is not known for sure, one can imagine that this was done to keep the elves in the rock happy. The rock beside the hotel could also well be an entrance to the home of the elves on the first floor. Therefore the first floor has, in part, a theme connected to the elves.

After the continental breakfast we ventured out into the grey morning which dawned late (they use the same times zone as the UK but are further West, so the day is shifted an hour or more later).

As it did not look like a day to be spent outdoors we bought a tourist card that gave us access to many of the museums, galleries and other attractions and set off in search of culture.

The National Museum was first and it was truly amazing with a great collection of material. The outside of many of the buildings in the city seemed to grey and drab, but the inside of this and many others was a delightful contrast being so bright, airy and colourful. We guess this is a practical consideration due to the weather.

Our next stop was the Settlement Museum where we walked around the foundations of a Viking long house and saw novel interactive displays of life and conditions in the early days.

At the Reykjavik Art Museum we were surprised by the two main exhibitions, the Erro Posters were colourful, anarchic and bizarre but the NO exhibition by Santiago Sierra was quite shocking, his videos of poor, underprivileged people he paid to perform demeaning acts in the name of art included prostitutes and drug addicts paid to have their backs tattooed, dark complexion natives of a South American city paid to have their hair bleached blonde, and in one room, with a caution at the entrance, a series of men paid to be filmed masturbating. An important political / economic message he made, but I am not sure it is art.

The Culture House had interesting displays of early stories and Saga material and the building was interesting, but it was a limited space and one section of the display was only in Icelandic (I guess that was the point of it to protect their culture).

The Hallgrimskirkja Church is a grand affair that dominates the town with its modernist steeple pointing heavenward while paying tribute to the volcanic countryside in its architecture.

The one museum we did give a miss was the Phallological (penis) Museum where one patron even donated his own member (post-mortem) to the exhibition

We returned to the hotel to check with reception as we were booked on the excursion to search for the Northern Lights and despite the overcast skies we were assured that it would be going ahead.

The bus picked us up, along with most of the hotel residents – some of who missed out the previous night as it had been cancelled, and we went off all enthusiastically only to wait for a while at the bus station. Several other busses turned up all full of people and eventually they set off into the dark night. A long time later we arrived at a remote car park next to a blustery seaside and we got out staring at the sky along with the many other busloads of tourists. It wasn’t looking hopeful and we thought it might all be cancelled until we started to see gaps in the scudding clouds where the stars were visible. Eventually a rumour went around and we congregated in one area where people were pointing up at the sky. I set up my tripod and camera and took some test shots.

Now, if you imagined (as we did) that you would see a spectacular show of bright luminous green and red ribbons tracing through the sky you could be forgiven for being a bit disappointed, as it turns out your eyes are, not surprisingly, poor in dim light, and the Northern Lights look more like sinuous clouds snaking to and fro across the darkness all grey but with only a hint of that magical colouring. On the camera with a long exposure the colours are there as vivid and bright as we expected. It is still an amazing experience and one that moved many of the crowd to gasps and cheers for the two half an hour or so events we witnessed that night.

It was another long night and we returned in the early hours, cold and tired to our hotel. Luckily though as we found out that not only was the night before a write-off but it looked like the next night was going the same way. I also found out at my camera club that I go to that another member went to Iceland on the same weekend as us and failed to see them at all.

The next day was a gem, clear blue skies and a contrast to the snowy, wintery conditions that were battering mainland Europe and giving England its first snow of the season. So we walked our socks off, first up to the Perlan that sits on top of a hill and gives a wonderful panoramic view across the city and surrounding land. The Perlan (or Pearl) also hosts the Saga Museum, an interactive waxwork display of early settlement history in a converted water storage tank.

Afterwards we walked down towards the water front passing the unusual shaped Hateigskirkja Church until we got to the Hofdi House where Reagan and Gorbachev held their summit that signalled the end of the cold war. It is a lovely French colonial house, but unfortunately closed that day.

Walking down the coast path towards the Historic Midtown and Harbour we passed the beautiful Sun Voyager boat sculpture and stopped to admire the Harpa Concert Hall (where Kiri te Kanawa was due to play). We walked through the bustling Kolaportid flea market where you can try exotic Icelandic foods or buy cheap(er) clothes and other tat.

We were thinking what to do with the rest of our day when the thought it would be quite nice to go out to the Blue Lagoon, a large artificial salt water lake heated be a nearby geothermal power station, and sit there in the hot water as the sun set. So we scurried over to the Tourist Centre and booked a trip, went back to our hotel and relaxed as we waited for the bus to pick us up. Unfortunately there was a problem and it couldn’t come so we were contacted and offered a different (more expensive) trip that was running later. It was all a bit fraught and I made a snap decision to go. We had to go back down to the Tourist Centre, pay the difference and wait at a different hotel for the new bus. It would mean we wouldn’t get there until after sunset, but hey it could still be fun, we might get back too late to want to go out to eat as we had had two late nights already, but they did have a good restaurant at the Blue Lagoon. Sue was not happy and that upset me too, so when we took the bus and it stopped at the bus station where we had to transfer, the air was getting distinctly colder. At the Blue Lagoon it was pitch black and a cold wind was howling across the water whipping up a small swell and throwing salt spray into our faces. It took a re-boot of our humour and a couple of glasses of (not cheap) wine before we could laugh at our situation. The restaurant was fully booked so we survived on our duty free brandy and chocolate that evening.

Our flight was the next day and we were quite tired out so we relaxed in a nearby café until the bus came to take us to the airport. There we found out the flight the day before was cancelled due to the conditions at Heathrow, so there were people stranded who wanted to get back urgently, also there was a problem with the normal plane and they only had the small one available. The airline was offering a night in a hotel, a meal and financial compensation which sealed the deal and Sue sighed in relief when we stayed over as she really didn’t want to fly in a small plane in the inclement weather outside.

We stayed in Keflavik at the Flughotel and ate in the hotel restaurant, finishing off our brandy and chocolate in our room as well. We even ventured out again along the coast and chanced our arm at looking for the lights, but it was too overcast and the town’s background glow and that from the nearly full moon made it impossible. So we retired for the night and took the early flight back in the morning with no further trouble.

We did not get to enjoy the food in Iceland as apart from the Hotel on the last night (which was only serving a set buffet) the only restaurant we did get to for an evening meal was horribly understaffed with only one harassed girl to serve and one cook at the Potturinn og Pannan (Pot and Pan)

We did however find some great cafes during our day trips out such as the fun and youthful Laundromat where the young and painfully trendy hung out eating burgers and swilling local beer

The Café Loki looked out at the big church and had an authentic selection of Icelandic fair including the scary rotted shark, and the more tempting fish pate on rye bread, however we opted for a beer and a cake there.

At the Stofan Kaffihus we relaxed for a while in the comfy surroundings that looked like someone’s front room. It had a great ambiance and décor and attracted a lovely disparate group of people, the mothers who lunch, guys hunched over their laptops, an old couple having a quiet snack, and us having another beer and a sandwich and a cake.

We did have a good time over all, and even if it did not all go smoothly it was still fun. I do like Iceland a lot and I would seriously consider going back during the summer so that we can get out beyond the city and see some of the striking scenery. We will let you know if we do.