Iceland Tour - City of Vik

 

Now you know Iceland is a greenish country consist of grass and low level trees. Only 11% consist of glaciers. On the other hand Greenland has full of ice. So why did the they called Iceland as ice-land. Because Vikings did not want more people to come to this verdant country and settle. They sent a word around saying that country is full of ice.

So we arrived at Vik for our next two items in the itinerary. See the Kötlujökull glacier and hike the mountain around Vik.

Iceland is self sufficient with their energy needs, 70% coming from hydro power and rest is from the geo thermal power stations.

Geothermal power plants use steam to produce electricity. The steam comes from reservoirs of hot water found a few miles or more below the earth's surface. (The hot magma heats the water)

The pictures here show first small Hydro Power station of Vik and geo thermal power station we saw on the road. The Mountain just outside the hotel, is the one we climbed.

The black beach here was used for Game of thrones- Last season. The beach is black because of the lava and ashes from katla volcano.

Jaffna Cigars

So, I went there

to jaffna to see

how they rolled that

famous Jaffna cigar  

he smoked them 

all  the time 

his nick name was "suruttuva"

bought from the Jaffna shop

near the junction

which went into flames

some dark day

they were smelly 

they said

but it was the most 

beautiful smell 

for me

Today I lit up

one cigar in my garden

I had the smell 

as it was before

father's smell

I had this

wonderful feeling 

and hapiness 

with one puff

and with one sip of

Ceylon tea  

- Ajith D 13/09/2023

- Thank you Prasanna Yogarajah for taking me to see how they roll the original Jaffna cigars

Iceland Tour - The Thingvellir National Park

 

Here is the official version of our next place of our visit a few days ago.

The Thingvellir National Park covers an area of 237 square kilometres, located in the Bláskógabyggð (Blaskogabyggd) municipality, about 50 km SW of Reykjavik. The area is part of a fissure zone traversing Iceland, positioned on the Mid-Atlantic ridge.

That means what you see here is where the two tectonic plates meet. North Atlantic and European. These two plates grind each other and some times one go over the other creating earthquakes and volcano eruptions. (This is a loose explanation)Nice area to walk but what they say is thrilling. There are hundreds of tremors or Mini earthquakes happen daily, here. But don’t worry, they are very low in Richter scale and you don’t feel them at all.

For any Game of thrones fans - guess in which season they showed this area?I let you to find out. Clue is Sansa Stark.

And this is also a historical place because Icelander grandees gathered for their first parliament right here. And it was the Europe’s first parliament. Never knew that.

Here is the official version for the nerds.

The Alþingi (assembly) at Þingvellir was Iceland's supreme legislative and judicial authority from its establishment in 930 until 1271. The Lögberg or Law Rock was the focal point of the Alþingi and a natural platform for holding speeches.

- Ajith