Continuing the trip report where I left off in the previous post, our ship left Ittoqqortoormiit, on the east coast of Greenland, on the evening of Day 13. Day 14 was entirely a sailing day, and I have nothing much to say about it, except that riding on a cruise ship was only a means to an end (to see a bunch of really remote places all in one package).
The ship had a deck layout that enabled me to get in ‘laps’ walking from fore to aft, starboard to port in a big circuit that included stairs down and up to add to the workout. Each circuit was a little more than a tenth of a mile, and I usually did at least two miles when the weather was tolerable. On Day 14 in the afternoon, I did such a walk with a fine view of Mt. Snaeffels (Snæfellsjökull) off to the east. That is a massive glacier-capped volcano that featured in Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ 1864 Sci-Fi novel and later movie adaptations. Here’s a view I got from Reykjavik, 120km away.
On the morning of Day 15, soon after sunrise, we arrived at Reykjavik. The iconic Hallgrims Church (Hallgrímskirkja) looms over the city from one of its highest points; and we docked right next to the other architectural marvel–the Harpa Concert Hall with its distinctive multi-glass-panel facade.
The concert hall is only 11 years old, completed in 2011.
The church has a much longer history, being designed in the late 1930’s and constructed between 1945 and 1986. Here’s a view with the Leif Erikson statue taking stage-left in the courtyard.
The amazing 5275-pipe organ, weighing 25 metric tons, was not completed until 1992. In my summary video of my time in Reykjavik, I feature this organ, which is apparently being played almost constantly between 10AM and 8PM every day of the week – during summer tourist season, at least.
Upon disembarking from the ship, I was taken to my hotel, the Hilton Nordica, which was about a mile or so east of the church; and that was my base of operations for Days 14 through 17. The hotel has nine floors, with a great open stairwell:
Here’s the view from the top floor public space. The horizon is dominated by Esja, a 3000-foot mountain just six miles to the north of the city, and a popular climbing spot.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the climb. I just spent the next two days rambling around town on foot, mostly seeking out natural settings, such as the big forest planted on the south facing hill (Öskjuhlíð) below the Perlan exhibition hall. Here are my GPS tracks for the three walks I took on Days 15 and 16.
Before even checking in, I took my first walk along the waterfront (upper part of the map), where I grabbed a photo of the ‘Sun Voyager’ sculpture before heading inland and up to the church.
Beyond the forest area, to the SW (lower left) on the map, I visited the Nauthólsvík geothermal beach. The semi-enclosed sandy-beach lagoon area was opened in 2000 during summer and year-round beginning in 2006. It is fed by a geothermal spring that is about 100 degrees F, and the water in the lagoon is usually only a few degrees warmer than the ocean, but on the day that I was there, with intense sunshine and low tide (all the cold water draining out and replaced by the water from the hot spring), the lagoon temperature was over 80F. I was at the right place at the right time.
From there I strolled east along the Fossvogur, a bay or inlet that is a protected preserve and had a beautiful peaceful trail.
Other sights featured in the video are the ‘Rainbow Street’ that leads up from the Harpa Hall to the church. It’s a street converted into a pedestrian mall. Packed with tourists.
… and the serene cemetery that shares the Öskjuhlíð hillside with the forest. This headstone particularly caught my fancy, made from native lava rock and sporting a wonderful crop of moss, 45 years in the making.
For those interested, here is this young man’s obituary, easily gained from an internet search.
(At the end of this post, I’m attaching the translation using Google Docs.)
As is obvious, the weather on Days 15 and 16 was magnificent. Not so on Day 17. It was stormy and very windy all day until evening, with heavy rain. I stayed in; and turned on the TV for a time. One channel was showing this.
It was a live web-cam of a volcanic eruption taking place just 20 miles to the south of the capital. If I had been paying closer attention, I could have booked a guided hike to see it in person. But I was too late. This stormy day, the area was closed. Missing that eruption was my greatest regret of this trip. (I was back in Reykjavik later, but by then the eruption had ended.)
But on to more positive notes. The following morning, I was booked to begin a six-day guided ‘Ring Road’ tour around this amazing island country. Stay tuned for that report.
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MORNING PAPER
FRIDAY 22 JULY 1977
Ragnar Samúel Ketilsson-Minning
Born 20.12.1957. D. 15.07.1977.
My cousin Ragnar Samúel Ketilsson, who died in an accident on the 15th at the age of nineteen, was born on Ísafjörður on 20:12. 1957. His maternal grandmother and grandfather, the married couple Ragnhildur Helgadóttir and Samúel Jónsson, manager, lived there.
For most of his school years, Ragnar Samúel lived at Trönd by Skógtjörn in Bessastaðahreppi in Álftanes, where many of his family members on his father’s side have lived and taken care of each other. At Nesin, he went to kindergarten and from there he attended high school, until last year his parents moved their home from Álftanes to Breiðholt in Reykjavík.
I and my family got to know Uncle Ragnar a little more than I did with some of my other relatives. My husband and I and our children often went to the beach and enjoyed a pleasant home life and the surrounding beauty.
,privacy from the hustle and bustle of the capital, which can still be enjoyed outside in Álftanes, has no doubt had a favorable effect on such leisure activities. Around the age of twelve, he spent a lot of time writing poetry and playing chess. In both of these areas, he showed tricks that surprised and amused his relatives and friends. By the end of high school, his mind had long been focused on journalism. I am sure that he had many qualities that are valuable for such an important job.
To soothe the sadness of Ragnar Samuel’s sudden death, these days my mind seeks rest with some memories of this sweet boy, his home and childhood centers.
I remember from Ragnar’s elementary school years that he chose subjects for fun that required more mental initiative, determination and patience than most of his peers. The special
He was kind and considerate and extremely helpful to his younger brothers, Jón Kolbein and Ólaf Brján. With his kindness and patience, Ragnar Samúel joined his parents and his brother Kolla in stimulating the recovery of his brother Óla Brján, who has been living with impaired health.
During his high school years, Ragnar Samúel spent the summer at Bæjarútgerður Reykjavíkur working on fish processing, and for the last two summers, he was a trawler.
Thus he took the steps to manhood in useful work both summer and winter. There was reason to be proud of this good representative of contemporary Icelandic youth.
won
I say goodbye to him both as such and as a beloved uncle and send our condolences to the family and friends from us at Laugarásvegi 3.
Ólafur Jensson
This lovely boy was born in our home, Bjargi, Ísafírði, on December 20, 1957, but his parents, our daughter Selma and Ketill Jensson, had come for a Christmas visit from Reykjavík. His birth was a great addition to all of our Christmas joy, and that joy has never been overshadowed since. He was baptized at Bjargi and received the name Ragnar Samuel after his grandparents.
Ragnar Samúel was exceptionally gifted. At the age of four, he sang with a beautiful singing voice a large number of poems, which he knew by heart, and he told whole children’s stories with a funny storytelling ability, so it was a pleasure to listen. When he grew older, he managed to compose his own poems, which he hand-wrote in small books, and in them a part of the memory of this heart-warming boy, who got along well in life with his prudish demeanor, was preserved.
He graduated from the Secondary School at Tjörnina last spring, but this summer he planned to practice fishing on the trawler Ingólfi Arnarson and had taken one trip with him. The day before his death, he was about to finish all his documents, in order to enroll in the University, where he only thought about philosophy, English and literature, but he always had a great love for reading books, and our ancient literature occupied a rich place in his mind.
The last evening he was present, together with his brother, Kolbein and their father, at our current home in Keilufelli 26, while his mother stayed in Hveragerði, together with her youngest son, Ólaf, where she is currently suffering from an illness. We had a lovely evening together and
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Ragnar will always show us visions, such bright views, where he discussed the future.
Men decide, but God rules and we must hide the faith that we will meet in the land of eternity. We ask God to strengthen those who are hurt by grief and to reward those who have shown kindness in this difficult situation.
We entrust our dear Ragnar to almighty God, but in our hearts lives a precious memory of a kind and beautiful boy.
Ragnhildur Helgadóttir
and Samúel Jónsson.
I was saddened when I heard that my cousin and friend Ragnar had died. The death of a close friend that the future was facing was an unshakable fact that
no human power could change.
I was eight years old when Ragnar was born in the next room to me in my childhood home on Ísafjörður, and it must have been an adventure for a little boy to watch the birth of his little cousin, who in the following years would provide us all with such beautiful and unforgettable memories.
Ragnar became literate at an early age, and I have never known anyone who could read as much in such a short time as him. What’s more, he read books that contained a variety of knowledge, especially human history, and when he became literate in the English language, its great poets were taken up. We often played together when I came to visit Reykjavík with my parents and later, when I, during my first years at the University, spent many weekends with Selma’s sister, Katli and the boys in their lovely home in Álftanes, the acquaintance became closer, because that before long the little cousin had grown up, and the age difference, which at first seemed so great, had become so small. Ragnar graduated from the Secondary School at Tjörnina last spring and worked as a fisherman this summer. He had just enrolled in the University and was planning for next winter optimistically and happily.
May a good God protect my dear uncle and keep and give strength to his parents and brothers, and other relatives and friends in their great grief.
The memory of a good boy lives on
Uncle Sammi.
ir.
Greetings from classmates