Thursday, August 28, 2008

Strákarnir okkar...

Strákarnir okkar, "our boys" are back. Back with their silver medal from Beijing.



Islanders were there to greet them back and a party was thrown in their honour.

The Icelandic Handball Team:
  • Alexander Petersson
  • Arnór Atlason
  • Ásgeir Örn Hallgrímsson
  • Bjarni Fritzson
  • Björgvin Páll Gústavsson
  • Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson
  • Hreiðar Guðmundsson
  • Ingimundur Ingimundarson
  • Logi Geirsson
  • Ólafur Stefánsson
  • Róbert Gunnarsson
  • Sigfús Sigurðsson
  • Snorri Steinn Guðjónsson
  • Sturla Ásgeirsson
  • Sverre Jakobsson


Another achievement was the completion of the Reykjavík marathon by Romana Eder, a 103 year old Austrian woman, , who completed the full marathon in just over 4 hours!

This took place last saturday, August 23rd. Over 10.000 people were registered for one of the runs: marathon, half-marathon, 10kms, 3kms fun-run, or the lazy-town run (for kids).



The marathon is taking place the same day than the Menningarnott, "culture night". One of the most celebrated event of the year. Free concerts, free museums, exhibitions and art everywhere and of course the fireworks show in the harbour.



Weather outside: Partly Sunny, 12°C

Friday, August 15, 2008

Iceland like a tourist...

I have a friend who lives in Germany visiting me therefore I decided to go for a ride in the south of the country and do a lot of the touristic sites. I have done them several times and usually off season. This was an opportunity to see the sites as most tourists would see them.


We started by going to Sólheimajökull, a tongue of the glacier Mýrdalsjökull, accessible from road N°1. I last visited this place in 2004 and I was amazed to see how further inland the ice is. You have to walk a few hundred meters extra before reaching the edge of the glacier. Global warming!!!


Next stop, the famous waterfall of Skógafoss. This was the first time I saw people camping in front of the waterfall. This is the beginning/end of a trail going/coming to/from Þórsmörk. I stopped there in May and there was only a car or two, but this time there were about 20 cars and a lot of people were either in front of the waterfall or walking up the stair leading to the top.


Third stop on our program: Seljalandsfoss. This waterfall is really "appreciated" by tourists due to the fact that you can walk behind it. It was amazing to see the 20-30 cars and 4 buses parked in front of the waterfall. Taking a "landscape" picture was a bit of a challenge as people where everywhere.

The two last sites on the program were Gullfoss and Geysir. As they are part of the Golden Circle these two sites are constantly "crowded" so no surprise here. This was my third visit of Geysir this year.

We finished our day by stopping at the caldera of Kerið, not much people here but it was already 7pm.

This touristic day was 12hrs long and included 450kms of good and bad roads, 6 touristic sites, 2 french hitchhikers, one BBQ in the sun.

Weather outside: Mostly Sunny, 12°C