Idun – Page 14 – ToBatheOrNotToBathe

Diving in Silfra

At Þingvellir it is easy see to that the North American and the European continental plates are drifting away from each other, because there are ravines and gills everywhere. Some of them are filled with water.

Knut is absolutely ready to dive in Silfra.

The most beautiful of them all is Silfrugjá (the Silver Gill), also called Silfra.

Free diving between two continental plates. Photo: Birgir Skulason

This is a narrow gill, filled with unbelievably clear water. If possible – do book a free diving tour here, it’s fabulous! You can choose between scuba diving, snorkeling and free diving. We chose the latter, as there is nothing you do in Silfra by scuba diving that you can’t do free diving. And the sense of freedom is higher with a wetsuit than a drysuit and without air tanks. We even let the tour guide do most of the photographing, so we could just concentrate on enjoying. The swim takes about half an hour, and goes through 3 different zones: The brown, the blue and the green. The brown zone is the narrowest, hence the color (because of the least light flux).

Not all of us dived deep down. Next time there will be more lead for Idun! Photo: Birgir Skulason

Here you can touch both continents at the same time. It’s fascinating! The blue zone is where Silfra is deepest, with a stunning beauty. The depth goes down to 63 meters.

The green zone is the shallow one, but beautiful as well. The water is pretty cold, only about 2 degrees C, but that will be soon forgotten. Free diving in Silfra is absolutely fantastic!

Diving in Silfra is just right! Photo: Birgir Skulason

Alþingi

If you have the opportunity – spend one full day at Þingvellir! Preferably a nice day, but that is hard to achieve because of the predictably unpredictable Icelandic weather (as was written on a T-shirt: ‘Welcome to Iceland! If you don’t like the weather – just wait 15 minutes!’. Þingvellir is a grandiose place where you find a splendid geology and it is of invaluable importance to the Icelanders.

The river Öxará and Þingvallavatn (lake).

Alþingi (the Icelandic parliament) was founded in the year 930 AD, due to the liberation from Norway and the Norwegian king. All free men could meet at Alþingi every spring. It is the oldest parliament in the world still running, and the meetings were held at Þingvellir every year until 1798, thereafter to be held in Reykjavík.

Þingvellir. A place where the Icelandic flag is hoisted every day (not in the evenings, though).

The Norwegian law ‘Gulatingsloven’ was the foundation of the Icelandic laws. There were one ‘Þing’ in every region, and Alþingi for the country as a whole. The Icelanders spent a lot of resources on the ‘Þing business’, as most of the time during spring and early summer were used for the long trip to and from as well as the Þing itself. One of the first decisions at Alþingi was not to have a king.

Behind the fence Snorrabúð was located, Snorri Sturlusons cabin.

Alþingi did not have executive power, and that might be the underlying cause for centuries of clan wars and vendettas. After years of civil war state, Iceland lost its independence and came under the Norwegian king in 1262. It was at Þingvellir Iceland declared independence from Denmark 17^th of June 1944.

Þingvellir is a national park, lying in between the North American and the European continental plates. This is clearly visible as you are walking around; there are ravines and gills everywhere. Where the parliament meetings were held, there are nice hiking trails today.

The ‘þing men’ built cabins where they could meet and sleep. Remains from 50 of these places are excavated by archaeologists, and many objects have been found. A little further down, by Þingvalla lake, you can find several ravines ‘between continents’ filled with water.

The most famous of these is Silfra, but to swim there you have to book a guided tour (see next bath). We have done that, and finished the free diving tour with a short swim without the wet suits. Yes, it’s quite cold (around 2 degrees C), but lovely!

By the way, this is a good place to drink the bathing water, there is no better drinking water anywhere!

Golden Mini Circle

If you have some time in Iceland, we would recommend you to spend more than one day at ‘The Golden Circle’. Þingvellir including (free) diving in Silfra should be a separate trip. The first day it is great to visit Gullfoss and Geysir Area. The waterfall Gullfoss is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland, it is unbelievably beautiful in its power. Gullfoss has a large water flow and 32 meters height, divided into two falls. The waterfall was protected after a public action started by Sigríður Tómasdóttir, and a statue of her has been erected at the waterfall.

Gullfoss in the river Hvítá was worth protecting.

At Gullfoss you will find a big shop with a large selection of souvenirs and Icelandic clothes. And, strangely enough (since it looks like a typical tourist trap), also a very good lamb soup (kjötsúpa).

After some blowouts from Strokkur in Geysir Area, it’s a good time for a bath – but not in Strokkur, and not in Gullfoss!

We recommend going to Laugarvatn (Lake Laugar). There you have to visit Fontana spa. It is gorgeous, but be aware that this is a natural spa, including a distinct smell of sulfur. Especially the saunas require some overcoming, but what can you expect when you are ‘sitting on top of a Geysir’?

The pools are made of ordinary pool tiles, which is a fine contrast to the rough stones and drift timber that frames them.

What lifts the Fontana experience the most, is the possibility to switch between hot and cold baths. From a luxury ‘heitur pottir’ (hot pot) you can take a fresh swim in Laugarvatn. NB! Don’t even consider diving in! Laugarvatn is extremely shallow. The maximum depth is only 2 meters – even though the area is 2 km², and you actually risk to get abrasions on your knees when swimming!

But that feeling… To cool down in Laugarvatn before reentering a beautiful 42 degree pool from where you can contemplate the volcano Hekla far far away! If you swim along the shore to the right, though, the water in the lake itself is warm, there is warm water coming up from the lake bottom everywhere!

Laugarvatn. The volcano Hekla in the background.

Then we say like the Icelanders: Allt fint (everything’s fine)!

The white feathers

Höfn is located in the region Austurland, by Hornafjörður. Here you can find several guesthouses and good restaurants.

From Höfn you have a splendid view westwards to Vatnajökull’s plentiful extensions.

Höfn. Idun reminisces about growing up on Svalbard, Spitsbergen.

At the western side of Höfn, by the seaside, there is a nice hiking trail. The starting point is by the harbor, and the theme is astronomy. The solar planets are located along the path, sizes and distances are made to scale. Fascinating! By a small headland you will find an outdoor exhibition, with beautiful pictures of Vatnajökull, local happenings, and also a stone exhibition.

Gabbro exhibition by the hiking trail along Hornafjörður.

Arriving Höfn one late evening in September, we went to this headland to have a bath. It was perfect. A cliff hanger to be used as a natural wardrobe – it couldn’t be better!

What wasn’t perfect was the weather – gale. It was a rather cool experience. Because of the wind, we were freezing cold long before entering the water, and the bay of Hornafjörður is affected by melting water from the glaciers. Besides the cold, the Höfn ‘beach’ consisted of small, pointed stones… Not the best bathing experience, really. But we were contended (and no, we have never regretted a bath). After the bath we went straight to a restaurant for a wonderful dinner.

Evening panorama from the wardrobe. Idun struggles a bit with the word ‘horizontal’.

Back in Höfn in March, we wanted to give our favorite wardrobe another chance, calm seas were a promising start. Knut was ready to enter the fjord first – wearing swimming shoes this time. But he didn’t throw himself into the water right away. Halfway out he stopped, wondering, looking around. ‘Strange. There are a lot of feathers here. Plenty!’ Then he was silent for a while, until he suddenly shouted: ‘We shall not swim here! Those are not feathers, but toilet paper!’

The conclusion was basically that a bath in Höfn is not right. At least not right there, right then.

The abandoned houses

When driving around Iceland, it’s impossible not to notice all the abandoned farms.

Guesthouse and rusty but not abandoned barn at Rauðaberg.

If you add all that you don’t see as well – the number is high! Abandoned houses and barns built in turf (before the use of concrete took over), surrender to nature to such an extent that after a few years they are not visible except as small piles of grass.

Flatey. The shed practicing to become earth.

However, the concrete structures are visible many many years. A lot of them are ugly, but some are actually quite beautiful in all their decay. By Highway 1, west of Höfn, not far from Rauðaberg, there are some ancient houses decorated with new and modern graffiti.

Decorated old concrete with a view eastwards to Höfn.

Iceland has undergone a period of heavy urbanization, and when it comes to the capital area – to the extreme. Of Iceland’s 350,000 inhabitants, 65% lived in Reykjavik and the surrounding area in 2021.

In the heart of Haukadalen, not far from Rauðaberg, we had our coldest bath to date, in March, only a few days after a nice bath at the same place in beautiful spring weather. This time minus 4 degrees and a fresh gale, so we were freezing long before we started to undress. Knut was first ready, and plowed the ice towards the pool while Idun took pictures.

Yes, it is also time for a bath in minus four degrees. But admittedly, the idea of a hot pot was clearly also rather present in our brains.

A rather fresh bath in the ‘Nameless’ waterfall

Getting dressed afterwards was a rather cumbersome affair, since the fingers had trouble cooperating. But regrets? We have a few! But any baths are not among them.

Rauðaberg waterfall

Exactly one year ago, we took the first of a series of baths in Iceland. Some of us were going crazy of day after day with home office, and Iceland had a corona infection rate close to zero and was excempt from the Norwegian governments general advice of not travelling abroad. That made Iceland a good place to visit, we thought.

With help from Jon Sveinsson, who runs the Facebook site “Iceland, the photographer’s paradise”, we got a very good deal for a guest house at Rauðaberg for our quarantine period!

The first 5 days we could not enter any hot baths due to quarantine, but that’s no problem when you like cold baths as much as the hot!

If you ever get out of Reykjavík: It is possible to find splendid hiking tours outside the lists of Icelandic tourist attractions! Actually, it is very nice to go for a regular walk along valleys or by the shoreline. Does this sound boring? Not at all! Calm down, breathe deeply in the fresh air, and enjoy going for a walk without planning and queues and crowds of people.

During the quarantine at Rauðaberg, one day we went along the ‘Hauka’ (Hawk) valley below the mountains.

On the way we saw several farms, houses, fenced clusters of trees and plenty of small, beautiful waterfalls.

This is how it looks like when Knut thinks he is well camouflaged.

There were a lot of birds in the mountains. Mostly seagulls, but also ravens. The ravens always appear in pairs. No wonder the Norse mythology equipped Oðin with two ravens: Huginn and Muninn.

Entering the end of the valley we found a field of trees; pines and larch. A memorial has been erected by the road in honor of the forester who started planting trees here. And finally we arrived at a two level waterfall.

This got to be our personal bathing waterfall during the quarantine week. It was an excellent experience to swim in the pool below the waterfall. Such a beautiful place, with a waterfall that does not even have a name (that we could find). The fascinating thing about all waterfalls is how much strength they have when you stand in them, but when you check afterwards what flows out, there is close to nothing! How is it possible that something that looks like a small stream roars and knocks the air out of you when it falls over the waterfall edge? Water for sure is powerful!

Oh, how nice it was to get out of the home office. Away office in Iceland was so much, much better!

Kayaking in Viking Land

Senja is Norway’s second largest island, with an area of 1586 km2 and almost 8000 inhabitants. The name possibly comes from the Norse ‘sundr’ = ‘separated, apart’, and in that case refers to the strongly divided coast. The nature at Senja is spectacular: High mountains, deep fjords and beautiful, white beaches.

Okay nature at Senja, in okay winter weather. The forested island is Tranøy.

On the south side of Senja island is the small island Tranøy (Crane island). On Tranøy, people settled some 2000 years ago. Remains of 3 boat houses from Viking times have been found, and also burial mounds. There we wanted to go kayaking!

Idun’s big brother Frode has vacuumed the second hand market of kayaks for years, so he is well equipped. Knut was corona sick and stayed home, so the seventh kayak was not in use this day.

Tranøy is an old church site, and was under the Archdiocese of Nidaros from 1270. Today there is a rectory on the island, with a museum in the old house.

Several exciting stories are presented in the museum. Here is a picture of a women’s brooch from around the year 900, which was found in the former Tranøy municipality.

Tranøy’s wild sheep. Back to the left you can see burial mounds.

There is a beautiful white beach on Tranøy, but for practical reasons there was no bathing done here this time (‘Someone’ had become hungry, and the food was forgotten in the car). Well back on ‘Mainland-Senja’, however, a bath was just the right thing to do, even though the sea was not quite as shiny as at the start of the trip.

A bath in front of Tranøy is just perfect!

Water can’t be more crystal clear than this, can it?

A bathing bay paradise

From the island of Storfosna (previous post) you can cycle further out to the ocean, to Kråkvåg (Crow Bay).

Holmen Island and Kråkvåg in the background.

On the way, the small island of Holmen is passed, and here they have set up a small bath tub. Unfortunately not in use in February 2022.

Bath tub in changing weather. Kråkvåg in the background.

Kråkvåg is both an island and an archipelago consisting of four islands. The name comes from the crows, which seek refuge here at night. The population of humans is around 50. This is an incredibly beautiful place!

Rocks and beaches at Kråkvåg island. Storslåttøya (big harvest island) in the back.

At Kråkvåg there are dozens of small and large, beautiful white beaches. There are so many that you will always be able to find a sheltered beach. Which comes in rather handy, there is a lot of wind here!

Not very far from beach to beach at Kråkvåg.

While cycling back and forth, unable to choose the best beach for bathing, we found Skjærgårdsstranda (Archipelago beach), and it basically chose itself.

At Skjærgårdsstranda, it’s always the right time for a bath.

The crowd of people was reasonable when we visited Skjærgårdsstranda at the end of February. But in the summer – what a paradise: benches, barbecue, bathtub, bathing bay and sauna! Here we had our fresh winter bath, a little exciting too. There were so big waves this day that a real drag was created in the small bay. Lovely!

At the end of the road you will find Kråkvåg fort, built in the 1980s.

After investing a billion kroner in building the fort, it was closed down before it came into use.

Kråkvåg with the Island Storfosna in the background.

Of course it wasn’t a waste of money. At least the ‘Kråkvåg people’ got a bridge!

This day we cycled almost forty kilometers. It was a hard exercise, because none of us had cycled much during the last 3 months. However, this was solved in the very best way: Accommodation and spa at Hovde farm in Brekstad.

It doesn’t get better than that!

Opera Bath in Kristiansund

Kristiansund with its 25,000 enthusiastic inhabitants started its opera tradition in 1928, 32 years before Oslo got it’s opera.

Kristiansund, with the island ‘Innlandet’ to the left.

Every year, in February, the city is filled with small and large events. The whole city is in party mood, and we have joined the festival several years in a row, naturally enough since Idun has worked for a couple of years in Kristiansund. – Try it yourself – this is fun! Tempting bubbles can be found even in the shoe store! Doesn’t get better than that!

We were tempted, indeed. There were free bubbles and not quite as free shoes before noon on a Saturday.

There were no less than 3 generations of Bræin who were behind Kristansund’s development into an opera city: Christian Bræin, Edvard Bræin and Edvard Fliflet Bræin. The larger productions take place in Kristiansund’s main hall ‘Festiviteten’, but during the opera weeks you can experience small and large cultural events almost anywhere: At a café, restaurants, ‘Sundbåten’ or maybe at the library. The small, charming boat ‘Sundbåten’ has been on route between the ‘lands’ (islands) in Kristiansund since 1876.

While waiting: A view of a “seagull stand” (Måsestativ) but no Sundbåt in sight.

In a city consisting of three islands and one peninsula, there are many swimming opportunities of course. This time we promote the simplest alternative for opera bath enthusiasts visiting Kristiansund: The beautiful, tiny beach by the Thon Hotel on the island ‘Innlandet’.

White mini beach at the Innlandet island.

Here we have bathed several times, both with and without hotel booking, and the water has been crystal clear every single time. The reseptionists send somewhat weird looks as we pass the reception on the way in and out, but so be it.

…and after the bath it’s just the right time to party.