Last day

We woke at 6:15 to finish packing and put our suitcases outside our door ready for pick up by 6:45. We shared pictures and went to breakfast. It was sad saying good-bye to everyone and kinda anti-climactic as we all went on different tours. After hugging the staff goodbye we boarded our bus to take us to the Blue Lagoon. It was the warmest day we had, maybe a whole 14 C. The Icelanders joked we were leaving when their heatwave was starting.

First we stopped at a Lake, and then some hot springs. It was similar to Namaskard, but not as massive or cool.

Finally, we made it to the Blue Lagoon.  When we got out to the pool it was very similar to the pictures I had seen. The warm water was nice. We got the mud to put on our faces, the girls got smoothies from the pool bar, we tried the steam bath, after washing off the mud we put the algae on, and we went under the man made waterfall to get a sort of massage. Pretty soon it was time to head back to the bus. We were on our way to the airport.  At the airpot I met my college friend, Elaine.  We did the golden circle and Skaftafell national park with a rental car before we headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, and then Oslo, Flam, and Bergen in Norway.

Summary:

Wow of the day: Hanging out in the blue lagoon with black volcanic rock all around.

Worst part of the day: saying good by to friends

Teaching connections: My expedition with National Geographic and Lindblad is finished and now I get to wait until September to tell all my students about Iceland's culture and geography!  For now, I'm going to explore more of Iceland by seeing the golden circle and then head to Denmark and Norway to learn about Scandinavian culture.

Surtsey & Heimaey Island

This morning we went around the newest island Surtsey.  I didn't realize how long volcanos could erupt.  Our program says, "Surtsey was formed in a volcanic eruption that began 130 metres below sea level, and reached the surface on the 14th of November 1963, although the eruption may have started a few days earlier. It lasted until June 5th 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of 2.7 km2. Since then, wind and wave erosion has seen the island steadily diminish in size. The undersea vents that produced Surtsey are part of the Vestmannaeyjar submarine volcanic system, part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The new island was named after the fire giant Surtr from Norse mythology, and was intensively studied by volcanologists during its creation and, since the end of the eruption, has been of great interest to botanists and biologists as life has gradually colonized the originally barren island." We aren't allowed to disembark on the island because it is reserved for scientists. Through binoculars we studied the patterns in the cliffs and on land, as well as watched scientists leave their shack.  I knew the white splotches on the rock was bird poop. I did not realize that was specifically where they nested and the poop helped to protect their eggs by reflecting light instead of having the black volcanic rock get too hot.  Interesting.

We were able to have a tour of Heimaey, which has a very narrow entry into the harbor. The night before we had watched a movie of how the island's volcano erupted in 1973 and how the city dealt with it. They were able to evacuate the town and many of their belongings. The mayor decided that between saving the town or the harbor, they should try to save the harbor, because without the harbor the town would die anyways. They tried a new method of spraying sea water on the lava, cooling it, trying to make a barrier and redirect the flow. It worked. After climbing a portion of the cinder cone, Eldfell, we ended at a museum that had been built around a house that had been ruined from the explosion. The museum was very interactive and interesting. You could look into the house that was filled with tephra and had bits of clothing, dishes, and other parts of life lying in ruins. There was a table you could manipulate and see the town and the advance of lava each day. There was a pit where you could try digging a miniature town out of the lava sand with your shovel.  Slightly outside of town is Herjolful Farmhouse which is the remains of 8 buildings and a replica longhouse from the first settlers of the island (and possibly even all of Iceland). There is also a big outdoor stage for people to come and enjoy a week long music festival, complete with a huge bonfire. There are lots of rolling hills with plenty of grass for all the sheep roaming around. Being an island, it can get quite windy from the sea. 

Summary:
Wow moment-It was neat to circle around Surtsey since it's only a 45 year old island. It's the newest part of Iceland!

Worst moment-It was super windy and a little rainy when we got out of the bus to walk Eldfell's cinder cone. And our ship cabin smelled of fish because the port smelled of fish.

Human/nature connection-So interesting to see how the volcano was erupting and people were able to take preventative measures to save the harbor, or afterward all the shoveling they did to get the cemetery and the houses out from under the volcanic tephra. (Tephra is a general term for fragments of volcanic rock, lava or ash).

Teaching connection-I don't think I have anything specific I will use in my music classroom from this day, but if kids ever ask, I now know that bird poop helps keep the rock from getting too hot. I could see me telling some of the kids that cool fact as we are just talking randomly or looking through pictures.

I'm not sure which day naturalist Al Trujillo told me about this composition, but I am very excited to share with my students "Planetary Bands, Warming World" and think of other ways we can compose music to help tell about the earth. Check out global warming data turned to music here:
https://eos.org/articles/musical-composition-conveys-climate-change-data

Vatnajokull

We docked at Djupivogur which had marble carved eggs of different species lining the edge of the road.  We boarded our buses and drove about 2.5 hours to Vatnajokull.

Vatnajokull is the largest glacier in Iceland covering more than 8% of the country. They say at it's melting rate it will probably be gone in 200 years. It's the laargest glacier in Europe in volume (8,100km2). Our daily program said, "The average thickness of the ice is 400m, with a maximum thickness of 1,000m. Iceland's highest mountain, Oraefajokull (2,110m), is located in the southern periphery of Vatnajokull, near Skaftafell National Park. it is classified as an ice cap glacier."

I asked Peter the difference between an ice cap and glaciers, iif I understood correctly, Greenland and Antartica have ice sheets, but Iceland has many ice caps...these are simply different types of glaciers.  Interesting fact, because of the volcanic activity, Iceland is growing in the middle but shrinking at the edges, so the country really is staying about the same size.

Our first stop was Jokulsarlon. It's the glacier river lagoon. The icebergs were spectacular! The blue icebergs are denser compact ice and the white is more melting. Some ice had waves, others almost looked like swiss cheese. Some of the ice had dark stripes which are rock sediments the glaciers picked up as they moved. After some time for pictures, we got on a duck boat that can drive on land and float in the water. The tour lady let us hold some of the glacier ice, and broke it into pieces for us to "eat a glacier" as well. It was cool to get a tour around the lagoon, but it was difficult to take pictures while we moved and with 25 people on the boat. This was probably my favorite place yet.  I think I got some good shots, the weather was gorgeous- sunny with puffy white clouds in the sky. I started the day wearing all my jackets, but soon got too hot, so I took some layers off.

Lunch was a buffet at a hotel. We only had an hour, but Videographer Steve asked Xochitl and I to eat quickly so we could do our GTF interview on camera. Xochitl went first and did a great job. I was next and we didn't have much time left. I think it was okay, but unfortunately, since I'm a music teacher, most of the music stuff I wanted to talk about they don't have footage examples of. Oh well.

We got on a 16 passenger van which took us up a mountain road. It was beautiful to see all the rivers flowing into the ocean from so high. At one point the driver stopped and said the glacier had been down here in 1930, but it has since receded. On the Vatnajokull glacier we arrived at a station which fitted us with helmets and snowsuits. We geared up, got an instructional talk of how to snowmobile and then paired up. Susan and I were some of the last to get on a snowmobile, but it meant we were the first to follow the guide in line. Now it was raining and when I would move my head, the water would fall off my helmet. I drove first, which I found more difficult than I expected. They had plowed a little section so we had some guidelines of where to drive and there were lots of ruts. They told us to stay loose, but at first I was trying so hard to drive I was very tight. Eventually I relaxed, and soon we got to an open free spot where it was easier driving. We took 2 stops for walking and pictures, and luckily we drove out of the rain so it was more pleasant.  Even as the clouds lifted it was hard to see anything besides white.  From every direction, all you could see was the glacier, and we had only see a tiny fraction of it!  At the halfway point Susan and I switched. It was so much easier to be a passenger, but it wasn't as fun.

The driver on the way back told us about the 4 political parties in Iceland, which many are not particularly pleased about, so there is a new party called the pirates, that right now make up about 34% in the polls, but it is hard to tell what they stand for. In general, crime is not very bad. In fact, there is only 0-2 murders per year for the whole country!

Summary:
Wow moment-Jokulsarlon is my favorite place in Iceland! The ice is beautiful, and the diversity in each glacier makes it so interesting.

Worst moment of the day-Rain on Vatnajokull so that it was hard to see because we were in a fog.

Human/Nature connection-Many of us wondered at the human effect tourism is having on Vatnajokull. Is it good that we are getting to experience an awesome icecap glacier and then we care more about preserving it? Or is tourism actually wearing the glacier down more and speeding up the melting process as we snowmobile and cuz through the ice and snowy layers?

Teaching connection-I think the different ice formations would be great for students to explore making iconic representations with their bodies. There are so many interesting layers, holes, and angles. Then, what if we watched some of "Chasing Ice" DVD and saw the glaciers melting and they created a dance to show how their iceberg melts into a lake, travels down the river and into the ocean?

Langanes

Today they announced the sea was calm enough, and this would be our only opportunity to kayak. There were 2 people inflatable kayaks, so Shannon and I went together. The weather here was 11C this morning. It didn't seem like we went very far, basically just to shore and back, but my fingers were cold despite me wearing my snow gloves.

After kayaking we had time to go into the small town.  There are only probably 40 buildings in this town on the Langanes peninsula. We went to the grocery store, past a school, and looked into the swimming pool. In Iceland, all children are required to pass a swim test.

When we came back from town it was time to do the Polar Plunge. They said the ocean was about 44F and that the shock on people's faces was much less than when they do it in Antartica and it's below 32 degrees F. The photographers and videographers were there to capture our jumps. We did one with all three of us together, me holding Quincy in a watertight bag. Carlos told us the first time was the worst because of the shock, but the 2nd and third time were better because you were already cold.  So then we each did solo jumps. When we were done, the hotel manager was serving hot chocolate.

The rest of the day was simply lecture while we are on the ship.  For tea time the served scandinavian pancakes (which seem like crepes to me). I was adventurous in my tea today. I decided to try tomato mint tea, but it was too tomatoish.

Tim finished his Brendan voyage talk. I am amazed at how dedicated they were to their trip. They met severe waves, whales, and icebergs. They had ocean come and fill their sleeping quarters. I can't image how cold it was to sew a patch on the outside of the boat after hitting an iceberg. And the fact that their sleeping bags were wet and there was no sun to dry out their clothes sounds miserable. When they talked to a doctor before the trip he said, "You aren't going to contract any germs or anything, because where you are going  the germs won't be there...they aren't that stupid." One interesting change that happened to them as they traveled for more than 7 weeks from Iceland, to Greenland, to Canada in a medieval structured ship, was that their speech patterns slowed down because they had all the time in the world :-)

For the cocktail hour, we sampled some Icelandic foods. Our Icelander, Dagny, on board got for us dried haddock (like fish jerky, yuck), flatbread and hangikjot (lamb smoked with dung, which tasted fine), and licorish chocolate.  She wasn't allowed to bring shark on board because of Nat Geo policy.  It's always interesting to see what animals cultures consider food, verses which animals a culture finds unacceptable to eat.  We didn't get to try it, but pylsur is hot dog and where we disembark is said to be a very famous hot dog stand visited by President Clinton.

Dinner was in the Chart room. Every night 12-16 people are invited to the chart room for a special dinner. We started with a Champagne toast, then "Dalaromacka" smoked mackerel on dark rye bread mustard sauce, chives, red onion and confit egg yolk followed by a sweetcorn and roasted garlic soup. We then had lemon sorbet as a palate cleanser. I ordered the entree of Seared Duck Breast with pumpkin, sweet potato puree, garlic baked broccoli and red wine juice with sage and brown butter. Dessert was a white chocolate mousse with homemade red grapefruit sorbet. We finished the evening with tea and coffee, and then went to the lounge for Elves and Troll stories from native Icelander, Ragnar. He also told the story of Adam and Eve and the hidden people.  

Another famous story he told was Bukolla.  There was a mother and son that had a cow, but one    day the cow went missing.  The son went to look for the cow.  He called for it, and the cow answered  back but far away.  He repeated this as he walked, and each time the cow sounded closer.  Finally, he found the cow in a cave of the Trolls.  The cow and the boy stole away, but the trolls were chasing them.  The son asked the cow, "What are we going to do?"  The cow answered, "Take a hair from my tale and put it on the ground."  So the boy did so, then the cow said, "From the skin on my back to the hair in my tale, may this piece of hair become a lake so large that no one can go around it, only the birds fly over it." And so a huge lake sprang up between the boy and his cow and the Trolls.  When the trolls  saw it the lady troll said, "go and get our bull."  So the boy troll went and got the bull from their cave and the bull drank the whole lake.  The boy and the cow had gotten away, but the trolls quickly followed them.  The son asked the cow, "What are we going to do?"  The cow answered, "Take a hair from my tale and put it on the ground."  So the boy did so, then the cow said, "From the skin on my back to the hair in my tale, may this piece of hair become fire so large that no one can go around it, only the birds fly over it." And so a huge fire sprang up between the boy and his cow and the Trolls and allowed them to get away.  But the troll brought the bull and the bull peed on the fire, put it out, and the trolls were able to catch up.  The son asked the cow, "What are we going to do?"  The cow answered, "Take a hair from my tale and put it on the ground."  So the boy did so, then the cow said, "From the skin on my back to the hair in my tale, may this piece of hair become a mountain so large that no one can go around it, only the birds fly over it." And so a huge mountain sprang up between the boy and his cow and the Trolls.  The troll lady said, "go back to the cave and get the drill."  And so they drilled a hole through the mountain, but the troll lady was too impatient and tried to squeeze through before the hole was big enough and she got stuck.  Before they could get her out, the sun came up and she became a rock stuck int he mountain.  The best part of the way Ragnar told the tales was at the end he would say something like, "And geologists agree that the rock that is stuck there today is not like the ground around it, but that it came very far from the North, so that proves my story that the rock in the mountain was the Troll that had come from the North and got stuck."

Summary:
Wow moment-The amazingly fancy chart room dinner. It was very fun to be treated to that.

Worst part of the day-Tasting dried haddock

Human/nature connections-It makes sense that germs can't survive well in cold weather. I wonder what temperature germs die at? Do Icelanders pass less germs and get less sick than people in other parts of the world?

Teaching Connections-Again, I love the Icelandic folktales. The stories are a little harsh, kinda like the weather. They don't all end happily, in fact some are kinda grim, like Trolls eating children. But hearing the stories are so fun. I'll probably have to cut out the depressing, dark Troll stories cuz the parents won't like their children having nightmares, but there are some that I can use with my students. I'm glad I've heard many different Icelanders tell folktales so I know how to re-tell the tale to my students. I think we will use Bukolla to create a musical performance.

Husavik for Lake Myvatn

Wow! Today was my favorite day. This is what I was expecting of Iceland. Such beauty and diversity.  Our first stop was Godafoss. This was one of the places I was really excited to see because I love waterfalls. My tour notes say "The water of the river Skjalfandafljot falls from a height of 12 meters over a width of 30 meters. In the year 999 or 1000 the Lawspeaker Porgeir Ljosvetningagodii made Christianity the official religion of Iceland. After his conversion it is said that upon returning from the Alpingi, Porgeir threw his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall." It looks kinda Niagara falls in it's half circle formation. But I think I like Godafoss better. There was a little river section that you had to jump across some rocks to get a better look at the waterfall from the top. Shannon and I were debating if we could make it or not. After watching how others did it, we went over and were glad we did. Unfortunately, we only had 30 or 45 minutes there and to walk down one side, cross the bridge and go up the other took about 15 minutes in itself, and then another 8 min walk to the parking lot for the bus. By the time I crossed the bridge I only had 8 minutes left. I ran all the way up to the other side of the waterfall and was quite tired, but I was glad I did because that view was wonderful too. Ran all the way down and made it within 60 seconds of when I was supposed to be there.  I was sore from my sprint the next day though.

Next we went to Lake Myvatn. Myvatn is a type of gnat, so basically we went to gnat lake. Here there are lots of pseudo craters.  They aren't directly connected to a vent from the earth, instead the crater was formed when the hot lava hit the cool water from the lake and created steam explosions.  There were lots of bugs, and they had head nets for us, but I didn't use them, which means I did swallow one while I was talking to Shannon.  It was peaceful, but kinda boring and the 30 min was plenty of time.