Lisa and myself left Whitesburg for Baltimore on June 13th,
and spent the morning of the 14th touring the sloop-of-war U.S.S.
Constellation in Baltimore Harbor before leaving to visit her family in Malta,
NY. On the 17th Lisa was
kind enough to drive me to Saratoga National Battlefield, just 12 miles from
her hometown. On June 22nd we left JFK airport in New York City
for Keflavik Airport in Iceland, where we’ll remain until June 26th. At this point we are still three weeks from
the Mongol Rally start date and are essentially camping our way to England,
Iceland being a 4-day layover prior to landing in Europe. We arrived at 11:30pm local time, the sun
still hovering just above the horizon, and boarded a bus for the 45 minute ride
to the capital, Reykjavik. We rented a
small patch of grass at a local campsite and attempted to sleep, in our small
tent, under the endless daylight of summer so near the Arctic Circle. On the mornings of the 23rd and 24th
we walked to downtown Reykjavik, admired the city’s architecture and toured a
number of the country’s museums. We
learned about the early settlement of Iceland, dating back to 871 A.D., the
development of the local fishing industries and vibrant maritime heritage, as
well as the unique language and culture that have all come to define modern
Iceland. The country is clean, neat and
exceedingly well maintained, and the people friendly and hospitable (and all of
them English speakers, much to our relief).
The landscape is largely treeless but is covered by a variety of
grasses, mosses and lichens that give it a green hue. We visited the commemorative statue of Leif
Eriksson and the steeple of Hallgrimmskirkja Church for a better view. From there we could see mountains of volcanic
origin, wisps of steam from distant geysers, broad and expansive plains formed
by lava flows and numerous fjords and inlets to the ocean. We have just one more day before we pack up
our campsite and board a flight to The Netherlands and mainland Europe. From there we go to England and make final
preparations for a long journey eastward.
