After breakfast we’ll drive on to Iceland’s second largest
town, set at the foot of its largest fiord.
Those who arrive early enough can enjoy the sights the
fiord-side town has to offer including fashion both cutting edge and vintage,
chic Scandinavian home furnishings, many splendid restaurants and cafes, art
galleries, artists studios, ample book stores, an art museum and even a
world-class botanical garden, featuring flowers from as far away as Mexico.
Next, in about an hour's boat
ride from the northern coast, a retired sea captain will take us to all that
remains of an ancient volcano, worn away by 700,000 years of constantly lapping
waves. The result is an uninhabited island composed of sheer cliff faces rising
over 500 feet above the sea- about half the height of New York City's Chrysler
building.
The climb up the somewhat treacherous path at
first seems impossible, but in fact is climbed regularly without incident. The
trick is just not to look down at the sea more than 50 stories below.
The reward for scaling the cliff is
breathtaking. The endless blue sea sprawls out seemingly into infinity and the
floating stretch of turf feels like a long meadow of buttercups spanning ten
football fields in the sky.
Up to 200,000 birds nest here in summer months,
including enchanting colonies of almost-tame puffins, some of which sadly end
up on the finer tables in Reykjavik. Seabird eggs too are considered a delicacy
and are collected from nests here for a fleeting few weeks every year by means
of precarious cliff swinging in a time-honored tradition.
A thousand years ago Icelandic Sagas cite the
island as the hide-out of Grettir the Strong, one of the greatest outlaw heroes
of Icelandic lore. Grettir was also said on occasion to swim the frigid
surrounding waters to bathe in a natural hot spring set on the nearest mainland
shore. Today the desolate rocky beach still hosts the active hot spring and all
are welcome to bathe where Grettir did.
“In
my mind's eye I had an image of Iceland, perhaps only half articulated before
today. A verdant farm, at the edges of the arctic ocean, with a small
ramshackle hut and a natural geothermal pool. A craggy old sea-captain with an
aging fishing trawler. Chugging slowly across the ocean, the fierce wind and
biting cold of the Arctic spray deadening feeling in my hands. Sheer cliffs
rising out of the ocean, covered with nesting sea-birds, screaming and cawing.
Today
this all became real to me with an experience that will always typify Iceland
to me.”
Adrian
L., Australia
“The
whole island experience was nothing short of thrilling: a short voyage in a
small boat to an impossibly vertical island, teeming with puffins and other
"exotic" birds. And the
hike / scramble up to the rock's verdant and level summit by real insiders
--puffin hunters, no less-- was a
real treat. Throw in the mythical
element from the sagas and you've got the recipe for a genuinely romantic
destination, more dream than reality.”
Andy
H., USA
In the afternoon we bathe in a natural hot pool
located a few feet off the rocky shoreline surrounded only by high cliffs and
the sea, with a panoramic view of the island we’ve just visited.
In the evening we dine and sleep in Iceland’s
oldest hotel that Marlene Dietrich once stayed, known for its romantic
stone-lined cellar bar and restaurant. A spring-fed hot pool in its back garden
is available to guests, where drinks are served.
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