Travel 
Reykjavik – What’s This Thingvellir?
2 – 8 June 2015
Silence in open spaces of Iceland
Silence. Only the occasion bird call, no mammal in sight. A slight wind brushes my ear. I turn 360° to see miles and miles of rumpled tundra, a table mountain dappled with small snow patches, and in the far distance, tall mountaintops draped with ice caps and clouds. The temperature is comfortable but the cool breeze originates across that snow. Two quacking ducks fly over on their way to a large body of water to the south. Otherwise, silence. But I get ahead of the conclusion to my story. (more…)
reputation for storms and rough seas. Well deserved, I learn. Sea Spirit departs what was, in perspective, relative calm seas around the Faroes on its passage across the open waters of the North Atlantic. Destination: the east coast of Iceland. A gain of time means an additional hour of flopping, swaying and bouncing on very rough seas. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being my experience of the Drake Passage Christmas 2007, tonight’s passage rates a 7. It is about 250 miles of 22′ swells. Our captain has “battened down the hatches” for the night. Rough indeed.