Chasing the Aurora, and other Iceland Sights

Noah and I have just returned from our much-anticipated trip to Iceland.  Before we moved to Europe, neither of us ever had Iceland on our radar as a place to go.  Nothing against Iceland, but like many people, we just don’t really think about it.  Proof Iceland can get looked over – quite often over the years they would be completely left off of maps of Europe.  

First few results of a Google search from today

We planned to go in April because I really wanted to see the Northern Lights (this was always on my radar), but I knew this wasn’t a guaranteed thing.  I figured if we went in during the ‘peak’ time in the dead of winter and didn’t see them, there would be little chance for other sightseeing with only a few hours of daylight.  April looked like a good compromise – it’s still considered part of the Aurora season, but has plenty of daylight so that you can really enjoy the rest of what Iceland has to offer. 

We started out our trip at one of the most tourist-y destinations you can find in the country – the Blue Lagoon.  While this is definitely a tourist trap, it is something very unique and totally worth it.  It is an amazing experience to swim outdoors at freezing air temperatures and feel completely comfortable thanks to the geothermal heated pools about 98 F.  Plus the powdery blue waters amongst the black rocks makes for incredible scenery.

To help set the scene (and explain the variations of weather in the photos), Iceland is known for its continuously changing weather.  In the span of less than an hour, we sometimes saw sunny blue skies, then rain, then extreme winds and snow, then hail, and then back to blue skies.  I read a saying, ‘if you don’t like the weather in Iceland, wait 5 minutes and check again’.  Anyways, we arrived during a wind/snow storm, and left with blue sunny skies – both were equally enjoyable in the pools.  After slathering ourselves with the natural algae silica mud and letting the water turn us into prunes, we left feeling ready to face Iceland.  And since we flew straight from three days in Copenhagen (see previous blog), we really needed some recharging.

After an evening of perfect sushi/fish dinner in Reykjavik, we began our tour of the south.  First stop: Thingvellir National Park.  What makes this an interesting place is this is one of the few locations in the world where the continental drift between North America and Europe can be seen above ground (versus way in the depths of the oceans).  The weather wasn’t ideal, so I probably ruined a few other tourists’ photos for the short amounts of time I threw on my bright orange poncho (sorry! Just a little payback for all the hordes of people exiting tourist buses who have photo bombed me).  This is also where we encountered our first of many, many waterfalls on the island. 

Top picture shows my photo bombing skills 

Speaking of waterfalls, our next destination was Gullfoss – a giant set of falls which we were lucky to see.  Back in the first half of the 20th century, some pioneers wanted to generate electricity from the falls.  This would essentially ruin the pristine nature of the area, adding huge electrical devices.  Thanks to Iceland’s first environmentalist, Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the plans were defeated and the falls remain a treasure for us to see today.  Side story: Icelandic people do not have surnames – they simply use first names, and their ‘last name’ is their father’s first name + son/daughter.  Hence Sigríður was the daughter of Tómas.

That night marked our first attempt to see the Northern lights, and the first night we were foiled by the clouds.  This would become a continuous theme in our trip – chasing the Aurora to no avail. 

The next day we continued on our waterfall tour and hit up Seljalandsfoss.  From my internet research, I had read that you could actually climb up behind the falls.  The reality is this would only work in the summer, or if you have crampons – the ice makes it way too dangerous.  This didn’t stop Noah (and a few others) from doing it.  Part of his bravery was we ran into two German guys who did have the right gear to climb on ice, so he followed behind them.  Thank goodness for those two, because they were able to help Noah through the roughest parts, and I still have a husband.

Next waterfall on the list: Skógarfoss.  We completely lucked out with the weather/crowds here – the sun showed up in just the right place to give us a beautiful rainbow in the waterfall spray, and we somehow timed it right between the tour buses.  When you are travelling as individuals, it feels like you won the jackpot whenever you avoid large groups.  We also stopped for lunch and ran into the two Germans from earlier in the day, though this wasn’t too crazy since many people go from one fall to the next.

The plan for the evening was to see the sunset at Reynisfjara beach in Dyrholaey.  Well the weather made this plan pretty worthless.  As we drove east, we left the beautiful sunshine and entered an extreme windstorm that blew around snow from the nearby glaciers.  I read that it rarely snows in Iceland, and what you see is actually snow carried around by the winds from the mountains/glaciers.  Don’t quote me on that, but it sure seemed true from what we saw.  We went to the beach anyways, and fought to stand up amongst the hurricane winds– though we still managed to take too many photos while we were there.  

Noah struggling against the wind

Back at our hotel, the weather was a bit clearer and we could enjoy the views while we waited for nightfall for another chance at the Aurora.  What do you know – the clouds again blew in to ruin our chances.  It isn’t fun waking up to three alarms in the middle of the night to check the weather.  Oh well – there is always the next night, right?

The next morning we ventured back to the same Reynisfjara beach since the weather had cleared up.  This time we could see the signature rock formations out in the ocean, and enjoy the beautiful black sand beach a bit more.  

Back on the road, we continued to head east, stopping whenever the views motivated us.  We also finally entered some areas that looked more like the Iceland we were expecting before we read up on it – the snowy roads and black lava fields. 

 Not surprisingly, we also found a few more waterfalls that drew us off the main road to check out.

After a few hours we made it to our furthest destination east – Jökulsárlón.  This is a glacial lagoon near the ocean, and is growing due to glacial melt.  It is now Iceland’s deepest lake.  It is filled with small icebergs, though right now most are still stuck in the lake.  In the summer, many icebergs will make their way into the ocean.  This is also a popular place for seals to hang out to catch fish that get sucked into the lake. 

We decided to end the evening by hiking into Skaftafell National Park to see the Svartifoss… yet another waterfall.  As Noah and I were about 2/3rds of the way there, guess who we bump into?  The two German guys again!  At this point we decide we should introduce ourselves, and took a group shot. 

The next morning Noah and I got up before the crack of dawn to take sunrise photos back at Jokulsarlon, since it was such a beautifully unique place.  Here are some of the photos taken, and technically I guess you could say Noah did all the hard work. What can I say – we set alarms for 1am, 2am, and 3am, hoping to catch a glimpse of that elusive Aurora.  Still no luck.

Me working hard taking photos at sunrise

Back at breakfast, we naturally run into the two German guys again.  They didn’t stay at the same hotel, but apparently our hotel is known for having a good breakfast.  Turns out we are all going on the same glacial hike that morning – what are the odds?  Back at Skaftafell National Park, we meet up with the tour guide from Icelandic Mountain Guides.  We join up with a group of Canadians, and all get fitted with our crampons and snow picks.  The snow picks, we later learn, are more used as walking sticks – this wasn’t an intense climb or anything.  

After suiting up, we head out in the van to get closer to one of the glacial tongues – Svínafellsjökull (pig mountain glacier).  On the ride there, one of the Canadian guys asks us if we saw the Northern Lights last night.  Wait – excuse me????  Noah and I got up THREE times in the night to try to see them.  Oh – turns out they were visible at 11pm, so we were 2 hours, 3 hours, and 4 hours too late.  You can only imagine how frustrating that was for us to hear.  During this frustration, we did learn one valuable piece of information: nights where the Aurora is a bit weaker, she only looks like slightly glowing wisps of clouds, and it isn’t until you take a long exposure photo that the colors really pop.  Wait a minute – did Noah and I possibly see the Aurora a few days ago when we saw a faint blue mist in the sky that looked like clouds?  Hmmm…. does that count?  We decide ‘no’.

Back to the glacial hike – this was a pretty amazing tour.  We get to stomp around a glacial tongue with a knowledgeable guide to keep us from falling into a crevice or hole and killing ourselves.  I really got a sense for how dangerous these things can be.  In one seemingly harmless hole , our guide dropped a large rock into it.  It was about 5 seconds (maybe 100 feet later?) before we heard the thump.  Yikes – I don’t want to be that rock! 

We were led to a small cave (not those huge ice caves that can be pretty dangerous to enter, seeing as they can collapse at any moment – especially in April where things are starting to melt), and were able to get into the mouth of it with the help of a sturdy rope.  As it is my turn, I hop in the rope and ease my way down to the entrance.  As I lean to take a photo, next thing I know my ice axe decides it wants to see more of the cave and fall in about 20 feet further down into the cave.  Oops.  Glacier 1, Julie 0.  Luckily the guide said he could easily retrieve it later, once he didn’t have a bunch of amateurs watching him and getting ideas (or at least that is my guess why he wanted to wait).

After only the one casualty on the glacier (sorry ice axe), Noah and I rested up in the afternoon to give us energy to chase Aurora again.  While the few websites available to try to forecast this thing were showing little to no activity, we were not going to miss this by going out too late.  The others saw it at 11pm the other night?  Then we are going to head out at 10pm and drive until we find an opening in the cloud coverage.  An hour later, we see stars.  We pull into a picnic area and wait.  20 minutes later, what do we see??  Nothing – more clouds came in.  Time to pack it in and drive back an hour to the hotel.  Again we set our alarms for 2am and 3am to no avail.  Dang clouds!

The next day we pack it up to head to Reykjavik for the night, briefly stopping again at the Blue Lagoon for another dip in the pools.  Noah and I were down to our last night to see this mythical beast Aurora.   As we were stuck on the whole ‘11pm’ thing, we again left the hotel 10pm and drove for 45 minutes to get out of the city and find clearer skies.  Again – we find some stars, pull over, and wait.  Nothing.  After an hour, we decide to return to the hotel for a power nap, and think about trying again at 3am.  We are now down to our last hour or so, and we head towards the airport/Blue Lagoon area.  Noah spots some lighter wisps of ‘clouds’ overhead, and he hops out to set up the tripod.  He takes a shot, and what does he see?  The green Aurora!  WE FOUND IT!!!!  After jumping up and down for joy, we try to grab a few shots before it dissipates.  Since the exposure is over a minute for each photo, we were only able to take a few good (Noah is correcting me) amazing Aurora photos. 

We also drove the last 5 minutes to the Blue Lagoon to see if we can get that in some pictures.  It was successful, but you can see the Aurora was a bit weaker by then.  I have to say – this wasn’t quite what I expected.  I thought it would be a dazzling light show.  And maybe sometimes it is – but we have to take what we can get.  And I am very happy with what we did finally see.  Our Iceland trip was officially a complete success.

Visiting my heritage in Denmark

Back in elementary school, we had a project where we had to learn about our ancestry and research a country we have descended from.  Many of my friends knew exactly where their families immigrated to America from.  I, on the other hand, have a mother who was adopted – an ancestral dead end.  Though I often assume she/I have some Irish or Scottish heritage based on the red hair she gave me. I turned to my father’s side of the family, where we do have some knowledge – my great-great-grandma, Christine Søndergaard, emigrated from Denmark when she was a small child.  Ever since then, I have always wanted to visit Denmark.  20 years or so later, I finally made it to Copenhagen.

We arrived on Friday, and after navigating from the airport to the hotel, we were ready to set out and explore.  Our first stop was the Botanisk Have, otherwise known as the botanical garden.  I can only assume this place is amazing when everything is in bloom.  Unfortunately for us, we are just now in the first week or so of spring, so not much there yet.  

After just a little while, we decided it was time to move on to our next destination - Rosenborg Slot – just across the street.  The problem – the botanical garden is encircled by a fence with only one ‘official’ entrance, way at the other end of the park.  So naturally I began looking for place to bust out.  First try – dead end.  

No worries – just keep trying!  At our third spot we found a crack in the fence, and I sent Noah through first.  It worked!  Though he might have been slapped in the face by a branch.  Oops. 

Freedom!

Anyway, we made it to Rosenborg Slot to view the grounds and take some photos.

 Since we had tickets to the ballet Friday night (actually the New York City Ballet was the performance while we were there), we cut our sightseeing short and headed back to get ready.  Noah and I had not been to a ballet in our adult life (and as a child, it was something like Swan Lake or the Nutcracker), so we were excited to check out a ‘modern’ program.  The main lesson we learned – invest in a program so you know what is going on.  There were four performances, split up by 2 intermissions.  I am a theater girl – I know about the one intermission.  So when the second one came Noah and I gathered our stuff to leave.  Then we noticed everyone else leaving their coats at their seats.  Oh – this is another intermission.  This was also already 10pm, and we had been up and moving since 5am, so needless to say our impression was the actual ballet was wonderful, but the breaks were what did us in (though I bet the ballerinas needed them).

Can you see us in the reflection on the glass globe on the right?

The next day we set off for more sightseeing.  As we walked along the water towards Nyhavn (new harbor), we came across some trampolines built into the sidewalk.  Naturally we joined the small children and bounced around.

 Next stop – Nyhavn.  This is the typical shot of Copenhagen, and I can see why.  It is a beautiful canal filled with colorful restaurants and people.  I am sure at least 70% of the people there are us tourists, but who cares – it was a must see.

Further north there is a star-shaped island fortification of Kastelle.  This is a still-operative military structure, but us commoners are allowed to walk around the walking paths.  This is also right by the famous (but very over-hyped) statue of the Little Mermaid.  For those who only know the Disney version, you should check out the true ending of the Hans Christian Andersen tale (spoiler alert: the mermaid does NOT get the prince – no happy endings there).

We ended the day by walking around Assistens Kirkegård (cemetery) to see if we could find any potential ancestors.  After seeing where Hans Christian Andersen and Neils Bohr were buried, and looking at a few hundred gravestones (lots of Jensens/Pedersens/ Andersens), we did find one Søndergaard site. The timeline is also around when my great-great-grandma was born (1883), so maybe a distant cousin?

Sunday found us starting the day up in the tower of Vor Frelsers Kirke (Our Saviors Church). It was so windy up there we both had tears coming out of our eyes, but it was worth it for the amazing views of the city.

We then headed a few blocks east to the area of Christiana – basically a Danish hippie society of potheads.  Since I am writing this with no internet connection, you get my probably warped ‘facts’ about this place.  What I heard was a few decades ago, some people wanted to essentially leave society, and created this town within Copenhagen where marijuana was allowed.  They still have a ‘green light’ district that doesn’t allow any photos.  Hmmmm… wonder why?  

We spent the afternoon visiting the ruins under Christiansborg Slot.  This palace is built on the same spot where the Danes have been building castles/palaces since the 12^th century.  And (for a fee of course) you can tour the underside of the palace and see some of the original castle walls and structures.  We also watched an informative video of the various castles that have stood there.  Of the last four – they start with Copenhagen Castle, which apparently was viewed as dinky by international visitors.  There were quotes where ambassadors called this the saddest castle they ever saw, surrounded by a stinky moat.  Eventually the snobbish comments got to the Danes and they decided to tear this one down and replace it by the first Christiansborg. Unfortunately this one burned down, with 70 people dying in the fire.  The second Christiansborg was built with fire walls and modern (at the time) firefighting equipment.  Want to guess what happened to that one?  Yep, it burned down.  A combination of secret passageways under the floors that the firemen didn’t know of plus denied access to the Great Hall where the fire originated (the floors were recently polished) made all the fire precautions moot.  A few years later here comes the third Christiansborg.  Want to guess what happened to that one?  It burned down too!  Just kidding – this is the one still standing.

All in all both of us really enjoyed our long weekend visiting my mother father-land.  Our one complaint/piece of advice – watch your step!  We have never tripped so many times in one weekend.  A combination of uneven stones in the sidewalks, paired with raised doorways makes it a city that left our big-toes unhappy.  But the great food, nice people, and interesting city more than made up for this. 



My sweet 'tolle Farbe' shoes (according to the lady at the Munich airport)

Would you like some pretzel with your butter?

A popular breakfast food in Bavaria/Southern Germany is the Butterbreze, or butter pretzel.  While you can find these in any bakery, I usually come face to face with these lovelies whenever we have a full day conference at work (and only if they decide to offer breakfast for us employees).  A tray comes in full of pretzels split in half (like a sandwich), with a THICK layer of butter inside.  Plain pretzels are nowhere to be found.  If the pretzel was simply lightly buttered… I could maybe see it.  Forget the fact that to make these pretzels, butter is already an ingredient, and additional butter is really not needed.  But no – this is a LOT of butter.  And it seems like this part goes unnoticed… unless I am your coworker. 



A pretzel from the campus bakery - notice the thick slices of butter



The thing is, I love pretzels (and most breads).  And I love free things.  So I am definitely not passing up on free pretzels at work.  Instead I just get creative.  I find a spoon from the coffee tray, and go about scraping the butter out of the middle.  As I am doing this, I am often asked ‘Why’??  My coworkers can’t understand why I would want to reduce the amount of deliciously buttery butter from this delicacy.  When I explain that there is just way too much butter for my tastes, they are shocked – there can’t be that much!

But then I end up with a giant spoonful of butter on my plate, which has my coworkers staring at it, confused.  They don’t want to believe they are eating all of that butter with their pretzels.  But they are.  And they never accept my offer of extra butter. 

Actual photo of one of my butter-reduction sessions at work

Our Bavarian (white) Easter

Unfortunately for our mental health, it is still winter here in Bavaria.  Though my sources were right in that we had the snowy Easter holiday I was dreading in my previous blog.  However, that didn’t stop us from having a great time with family nor slow us down on our snow covered Easter egg hunt.  After one less hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings, we set out to the town of Benediktbeuern on the edge of the lower Alps with Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger.  Benediktbeuern is a picturesque little town where Rüdiger’s brother lives, with an apartment with a view of the Alps (or at least Ellen says – the clouds blocked everything out). 

Once we arrived, the brothers headed out into the snow to hide 32 eggs.  When an hour passed and they still weren’t back, I knew we were in for a difficult egg hunt.  Finally it was time to venture out into the woods for my first ever Easter egg hunt. 

And because they use real hard boiled eggs here (not the plastic ones full of money or chocolate that Julie grew up with), the egg hunt felt more like a survival search for food as we roughed it through the snowy wilderness terrain digging for eggs.  Luckily (and unluckily) there were slopes too steep for snow, so this helped (and hindered) finding some of the eggs.

Rüdiger is apparently so good at hiding the eggs that it is pretty much expected 15% of them will be lost forever.  Let’s just say the snowy conditions got the best of me because in the end I only found 3 out of the 30 eggs that were found.  Of course Julie was the winner finding 10 eggs or 33% (and yes, there were 5 of us searching).  Later she told me that she had collected only 6 eggs and was ready to give up searching when the announcement was made that we could not leave until the rest of the missing eggs were found.  We were both afraid we would be out in the woods forever!  As she was rather hungry (always good motivation), she kicked into survival mode and quickly found 4 more eggs while the rest of us just poked around senselessly.   In the end only 2 eggs went missing, a loss of 6%, which was thought to be one of the best recoveries they have witnessed (thanks to Julie's participation!). 

 

At last we were allowed to return home and have our Easter feast of green soup, salad, quiche, and my favorite part- American cupcakes (one of the many sweets options)!