Iceland's Weather and Political Origins

     The weather in Iceland is similar, I've been told, to Norway and Scotland. About 350,000 hardy Icelandic citizens adjust to long dark winters; only about 3 to 4 hours of daylight. The many swans and other birds however don't hang around during the winter months, they migrate to Europe.

     And the 800,000 or so sheep, some of which wander along the roads with no shoulders . . .

. . . . are herded, rounded-up, and put into barns and corrals for the winter. 

     Every September tourists can help herd the sheep on horseback for three days or so (yes, I'm very tempted). I met a group of Icelandic horseback riders (below photo) who get together annually for a five-day endurance ride on rented horses. They bring their own riding gear and English saddles (no one rides with Western saddles) and change to fresh horses every day.

     The farrier was hired to shoe all the horses for those five days, then to remove all the shoes when they were done riding. It was a busy barn.

     Icelandic horses supposedly are unique for their five natural gaits; most horses have three gaits. The Icelandic horse seems chunky, stocky and well-fed (plenty of hay all year). 

     But when it comes to people food, Icelandic cuisine is a hot dog at the local gas station. I suspect the weather and long winter months have shaped their cuisine. For moneyed tourists however, there are chic cute restaurants that don't open until Noon (no breakfast unless a special order is placed the night before, if the chef wants to be bothered). A medium pizza is about $28 USD. Photo below shows a $60 USD lunch for Vicki and me.

      Grocery stores as we know them in the USA don't exist in Iceland. Bonus and Kronan are the two major grocery stores and they resemble a slightly glorified Family Dollar. Our diet for 12 days was admittedly shameful and sparse, mostly because we don't eat processed meat and batter-dipped fast food which are the main foods in Iceland. 
     We took exploitative advantage of all the Olis and N1 gas stations; all you can drink coffee for $5 USD, free WiFi for Vicki to post daily on Facebook, bathroom, snacks, etc. Photo below is our "office" at a N1 gas station somewhere. We'd spread out our gear on a table near an electrical outlet and plan our day around these gas stations where we could snack, drink 10 cups of coffee or tea, go to the bathroom, post on Facebook, plan travel routes and excursions, charge our electronic stuff, and be warm and dry out of the wind. 

     For the best explanation of Iceland's gas station culture, click here. It should be required reading for anyone who plans to do road trips in Iceland. I will share that article's last two sentences . . .  It may seem strange, but gas stations in Iceland will be an important part of your journey. Live like a local and embrace the Icelandic gas station.

     Another unique aspect of the Icelandic culture is its architecture; it's simple, metallic, and in my opinion, beautiful. My guess is that 95 percent of their structures are steel buildings.

     Both homes and businesses are steel sided (above photo is Bar 11, a popular pub in Keykjavik, notice the Icelandic humor "Lead us into temptation"). Below photo is a close-up view of a steel siding. I touched them and they are very thick and rigid with a highly durable paint; perhap 24-guage steel?

     Vicki and I also noticed that 90 percent of the buildings we saw had a window cracked open even during cold windy days.  Brrrrrrr!!

Even a Victorian style home is steel sided (below).

     I'm totally sold on these steel homes (have been designing my own and researching steel post and beam kits).

Churches are steel buildings too.

     Some church architecture shows the Icelandic tendency to be quirky and fun . . . 

     I'm not sure if Icelandic folks go to church on Sundays; most of their rural churches were too isolated and seemed to be primarily used for funerals and cemeteries.

These churches weren't anywhere near a village.

Every church had a cemetery.

Shabby chic rusty steel barns are one of my favorite photo subjects.

See all the sod-covered outbuildings to the left of the main building?

     A simple steel house and barn should take back-stage; allow the mountain to take front-stage.

This mountain definitely takes front-stage.

Simple beauty . . .

     The builders of this home (below photo) however bucked the trend, it's a wood-sided structure.

     This steel church below is symbolic, located in the Pingvellir National Park. Eleven hundred years ago, chieftains (local leaders of the entire island country) would meet at a church where this church built in 1859 now stands for a parliamentary assembly to establish and enforce uniform laws. 

    For example, the measurement of cloth or timber, what is the proper measurement? They established "two ells" (about a yardstick, 36 inches) as the official unit of measurement and it was marked on the inside wall of the church. Anyone short-changing a customer could be challenged with the official measurement recorded at the church.

     So why was Pingvellir selected as the main gathering place for the chieftains of this island over one thousand years ago? There's an interesting history with colorful stories; click here to learn more. 

     One of the reasons is because of geography; there are natural walls here that resemble an impressive building due to two major tectonic plates drifting apart. 

     Only Pingvellir and the Great Rift Valley of Eastern Africa share this observable  geographical distinction on our entire planet. It's un-explainably awesome to walk here.

The blocks of rock look like they were part of a Roman Palace constructed eons ago.

It's a very long fissure.

Awesome is all I can say.

Very high walls at some places along the fissure.

I loved this place (despite the cold rain and thousands of tourists).

Nearby is a water-filled fissure on this rift valley floor.

     Now for a confession. Iceland was never on my bucket list. I hate being cold and wet, so gorgeous photos and stories about Iceland didn't even tempt me to change my mind. This windsock's position never changes (photo below). A horizontal windsock should be Iceland's national flag. When we camped at night, we parked behind anything resembling a wind barrier. One night I asked a large motorhome if we could park behind it, and they amusedly agreed. When we sat in a plane (delayed by stormy weather) waiting to leave Iceland, the wind gusts shook the plane violently, and the heavy rain was horizontal surf breaking up on our plane.

     Lousy weather makes for uncertain traveling. During rain storms, slick and hilly gravel roads with a 17 percent incline would be dangerous. On a good day, I would have attempted a gravel road to Oxi. But that day, it was raining so we didn't take that road. Sign informs folks "if you screw up, you pay mucho bucks for help".

     Lousy weather also makes for bad photos. The photo below was taken during a rare and brief photogenic moment, but there was always that threatening sky. 

     Most days, it rained during a portion of the day for an hour or two. Always a cold windy rain. Waterfowl would find a sheltered side.

     I now know why cows and horses hunker down in bad weather; it's warm behind a sod barrier! Vicki and I hunkered down here for about five minutes, and no, we weren't trying to be crazy, we were actually relieved to be resting in warmth, out of the wind.

     So why did we come to Iceland? Because their airline (known as Wow) offered cheap tickets between the USA and Europe with a stop-over at Iceland. Our REAL destination was Europe. Coming up next, Berlin and its wonderful cuisine!