On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
The Smithsonian provided two excellent lecturers for our trip. (Whenever I have traveled with my kids and grandkids, my daughter always bemoans my need to “learn something” from my travels.) Anyway, our teachers did not disappoint. I noticed a woman sitting in the theater on the first night at our Meet the Captain orientation. I kept trying to figure out where I knew her from. When she was introduced as Dr. Michelle Thaller, a NASA scientist, I realized that I had seen her many times on TV explaining some complex astrophysics principle so that a non-scientist could comprehend it.
The second lecturer was Dr. Elizabeth Ward, a Smithsonian curator, expert on Icelandic history and literature. She told us the interesting story of how Iceland regained its independence after being part of Denmark for many centuries. The Icelanders had managed to get a “contract” with the Danes guaranteeing them a measure of home rule. When the contract expired in 1943, the Icelanders sent a letter to the Danish King announcing that they did not wish to renew the contract and were therefore independent. Of course, at that time, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis and there was no Danish government to respond. So the Icelanders picked a date, June 18th, to be their Independence Day. Their case was helped in no small part by the fact that the US immediately recognized their independence and made them one of the first members of NATO.
My experience of learning something on this trip was great. There were lectures, intimate seminars, and dining opportunities with the experts; and they came out on excursions to help us understand what we were seeing.
After Heimay we sailed north calling in at Grundarfjordur. At each port of call, we had a choice of excursions. I chose a trip around the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Among the interesting factoids about the Snaefellsnes Peninsula was that Jules Verne located the entrance for The Journey to the Center of the Earth in a crater here. Although there was still a lot of snow around, the alpine flowers were in abundance.
These formations are either two resistant basalt pillars, all that is left of an ancient, eroded volcano or two trolls, who failed to make it back to their cave before sunrise after helping to save a drowning man. The supernatural and the hidden people are very real in Iceland. A major road project was rerouted because the hidden people were displeased with the original proposed route.
We departed from Grundarfjordur in the evening and sailed through the night on a fairly rough sea to the far north side of the island, arriving at Grimsey Island on a bight sunny afternoon. Tourism is a very big part of the Iceland economy. There were many ships everywhere we went.
There are only about 20 people who live full time in Grimsey, but there was a great gift shop open whenever a ship came in. Turn right when you got off the ship and you passed the church and came to the light house. Turn left and walk about 2 kilometers and you came to the Arctic Circle marker
Later the ship sailed further north and we had a champagne party in the lounge to celebrate crossing the Arctic Circle. We were each given a certificate, suitable for framing. Mine is currently on my refrigerator. Not quite following in the steps of Franklin, but I’ll take it.
The next day we sailed into Akureyri in one of the longest fjords in Iceland. Our ship, the La Bellot, is the one in the center of the picture. The purple in the foreground are lupines. The Icelanders imported them to try to hold the volcanic soil in place. As so commonly happens, it didn’t work out so well. The lupines have spread aggressively. They are pretty and doing what they were imported for; but are now starting to crowd out the fragile native plants.
We stopped at the Godafoss, a waterfall of historic religious significance. After Christianity started to spread in Iceland, there was a lot of strife between those who wanted to keep the old pagan gods and those who wanted everyone to be Christian. They gave the decision to one wise man. He decided that they should be publicly Christian but could keep to the old ways privately if they wished. As a symbol of this, he threw his statues of the old gods into this waterfall.
Some of the native plants threatened by the encroaching lupines.
Baud
Iceland is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.
bjacques
Lovely, and of course Mt Snaeffels is the starting point for a voyage to the center of the earth!
stinger
Absolutely gorgeous photos, and wonderful commentary!
Freemark
Who was the tour company Smithsonian related or was it someone else?
eclare
Such striking and beautiful photos. Thank you for the descriptions, I love the idea of “hidden people.”
JML
I thought Akureyri was lovely, a really interesting visit. We toured up to the Godafoss as well, it’s absolutely incredible. Had a wonderful lunch in town as well: I had an icelandic fish soup with this really good fresh brown bread and salted butter. Absolutely delicious.
It’s been less than 3 months since I was there and I’m already thinking about going back to Iceland.
Dagaetch
What’s the point of traveling to interesting places, if not to learn something?
Betty
What a great way to visit Iceland, except for the bit about rough seas.
dm
In the northeast corner of Iceland is a horse-shoe shaped valley — legend is that it’s the footprint of Odin’s horse — called Asbyrgi.
The walls of the valley are vertical basalt columns.
They are the walls of a city of elves. As you go deeper into the valley, you can feel their eyes watching you. It was the eeriest feeling.
wenchacha
What a great adventure! Thank you for sharing.
Also, too: as a big fan of Scandinavian detective procedurals, I like learning more about the area.
And I have a crush on the name Snaefellsnes.
Manyakitty
Fabulous 🤩! So you recommend Smithsonian yours? I’ve been tempted by several but never booked.
arrieve
Wonderful pictures. I want to go back to Iceland, and I completely agree about wanting to learn things when I travel. I have an apparently instaiable curiosity about the world (some might call it nosiness), and have always thought that learning things was fun. I spent three weeks at a summer program in Oxford this summer, and when I’ve described how much fun it was and how beautiful Oxford is to some people, they’re surprised that I liked the class I was taking as much as I liked being in Oxford.
Yutsano
I love the idea that Iceland is on the barrier between reality and the world of the faerie folk. It does seem like a part of the planet that is so volatile would be attractive to such creatures.
Also: am I the only one who is completely charmed by the tiny pink flowers on the rock?