My Head's Still In Paris, But My Feet Are Back Home In Anchorage

It took Captain Cook almost two years to sail from England to Alaska, though he didn't really have a map and he went via New Zealand.

This morning, we walked along the Seine and had breakfast in a sidewalk cafe off of the Champs-Élysées.

It was about 8:30am, still a 'cool' 73 or 74˚F after the previous day's high 90s weather.

We left Paris at 2:10pm.  Can you find Waldo?  Or in this case the Eiffel Tower?

Three hours later we'd landed in Reykjavik, Iceland, where it was a brisk 53˚F (12˚C)  And hour or so later we were leaving Iceland.

And soon Greenland was below us.  

A while later we were flying over the sea ice in the Beaufort Sea over far northern Canada.
[You can enlarge and focus any of these pictures by clicking on it)

The sea ice was right up against the land.  Look closely below and you can see a pretty massive and sharp cliff.

Based on the inflight route mapper and Worldatlas, I'm guessing this was Banks Island

A little while later, we were flying over the Yukon River.

And then past Denali, though the plane's computer map still called it Mt. McKinley.

















We landed in Anchorage a little over ten hours after leaving Paris, and that included a change of planes in Reykjavik.

And although I'd been reading reports of rain and cold, when we walked over to the Thai Kitchen for dinner it was bright, sunny, and a warm 72 or 73˚F.

While this isn't as amazing as the Star Trek transporter, I'm sure Captain Cook would have had difficulty believing someone could go this far this fast.  Paris is still part of my reality, but I know it will fade soon.

[UPDATE Aug 29 7:24am:  Seems I jumped the gun when I reposted this.  It did get onto Feedburner, so I took down the repost.]

How Many People Speak Icelandic?

If you fly Icelandair (yes Kathy), you can stopover in Reykjavik for free.  The stop is free, but Reykjavik is not an inexpensive place.  We spentTuesday there.  Here's a glimpse.

Jonas Hallgrimson is the Bard of Iceland.  We didn't know that when we saw a statue of him in the park, or when we went to the church named for him.  But I found out as I was checking up on the photos and who the people were.








Here's the organ inside.

Bertel Thorvaldson was the subject of another statue in that same park.  The two statues were of a poet and and artist - not war heroes.  What a pleasant surprise.









And there were flowers in the park.  I'm not sure what these are, but the remind me of the false sunflower we saw in the Anchorage garden tour - but those had variegated leaves.










We stopped in one of the many coffee shops for a snack and wifi.

This blue bike was being used as a gate to block cars from this street.


The Art Museum offered some interesting contemporary Icelandic artists.  This is  Erro's Bureau of Propaganda Fucky Strike








The artist who paints with birds is Helgi Porgies Fridjonsson. (There are some Icelandic letters in his name that I didn't try to duplicate here.  The passengers are getting off the plane we're taking to Paris and I don't know how much time I have so I'm just going to get as much up as I can.)


[I couldn't find anything useful about either of these contemporary Icelandic artists.  Maybe I needed to use the Icelandic alphabet when I googled them.]

The art museum is in a former storage building for fishing boats.  It sits on reclaimed land.  This is and exterior inner court.

There's a lot of construction going on in downtown Reykjavik.  But like Anchorage, they probably have to get as much done in the summer months as possible.




















And finally on the bus back to the airport.  They said this was a lava field.



How many people speak Icelandic?  I'm not sure.  Iceland has  329,000 residents.  Wikipedia says says 93% of them speak Icelandic.  And then there Icelanders who have emigrated to other countries. But it can't be much more than 349,000.

Flying Over Greenland - Icebergs and Glaciers

It was cloudy much of the way, but then I looked out and saw what looked like icebergs.  We left Anchorage at 3:30pm Alaska time and flew north and then east I'm guessing.  So it never got really dark.  And there were icebergs.

You'd think an Anchorage guy wouldn't get that excited about a few icebergs, but we were still at maximum altitude and the landscape was very different from the Alaska/Canada glaciers I'm used to. I suppose this would be a great time to comment on climate change, but never having been over Greenland before, I can't leap to any conclusions from these two pictures.

But the National Snow and Ice Data Center can make claims that I can't.

"Surface melting on Greenland’s Ice Sheet proceeded at a brisk pace, with three spikes in the melt extent in late spring. At this point, the pace rivals but is slightly behind the record surface melt and runoff year of 2012 (record since 1979), although ahead of the three preceding seasons. Melting in 2016 is especially severe in southwestern Greenland, and moving beyond the 1981 to 2010 rate everywhere except the northwestern coast (northern Melville Coast). This has led to the early formation of melt ponds along the southwestern flank of the ice sheet and early run-off from the ice sheet."

Reading the term 'melt pond' took me back to a photo I hadn't planned on putting up where I clearly saw a bright blue pond on one of the glaciers we flew over.  Doesn't look that bright in this picture, but it's the blue mark near the bottom slightly right.

The NSIDC site has images of Greenland showing the days of cumulative ice melt this year.   So, while I can't leap from my pictures of icebergs to comments about climate change, others who study this daily can make such comments.



Here's another glacier with the red moon far in the distance.  I was looking south.   At the time I wasn't at all sure what time it was in Greenland.  It was about 8:15 pm on my watch (Anchorage time) which would make it 4:15 am in Iceland (since it was a 7 hour flight and so we had two hours to go.)  I just checked and there's a two hour difference between Iceland and Greenland, so it was 2:15 am when I took these pictures.










The colors in this picture are very accurate.  The tiny pink moon is in the center of this picture.













It got cloudy again.  Now we're in Reykjavik for the day, our plane to Paris is at 4:20pm.  It's grey, 12˚C, windy, but not raining.

How Long Does It Take To Fly From Anchorage To Reykjavik?

The Alaska Department of Transportation sent out press releases today announcing that the first Icelandair flight arrives Wednesday in Anchorage.

". . . Flight time between Reykjavik and Anchorage on the 189-seat Boeing 757-200 is approximately seven hours. Travelers will connect in Reykjavik with more than 20 destinations in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.  

 Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell will lead the inaugural welcome for Wednesday’s arrival of the Icelandair flight in the airport’s North Terminal lobby. Media should arrive by 3:30 p.m. for a photo opportunity on the airfield and press conference. A second event celebrating the first Icelandair departure from Anchorage will be held Thursday, May 16, beginning at 2 p.m. in the South Terminal."

Now we have two summer options to get to Europe relatively quickly.  Condor Air - a Lufthansa subsidiary - also flies from Anchorage to Europe.  And with jetBlue and Virgin here for the summer we can get to San Francisco and other West Coast destinations a little cheaper than in the winter. 

There's an Anchorage Inaugural tour package for six nights at the cabin hotel plus the flight for 1,482 USD.


There are a bunch of tours available, including this Black and Blue tour:

From $191  per person
   Daily  departures s at 09:00 (pickup at 08:30) - min of 2 pax required to operate the tour
Not available Dec 24, 25, 31, Jan 1
 6 hours
No hotel pick up from hotels outside of Reykjavik
Important : If you are arriving in Iceland on an evening flight from North America, this tour is NOT recommended for your arrival day.  Passengers usually arrive at their hotel around 8am.  Any delays could cause you to miss the tour departure.  Icelandair cannot reimburse passengers for unused portions of a package or land only travel once travel starts.
AH172

Start with the "black" part as you explore the hidden world of the lava field under the Þingvellir national park. Walking in a cave and discovering the marvels that volcanic activity has created in the past is an amazing experience.  The Gjabakkahellir cave is a perfect example of an Icelandic lava tube and is situated in one of the most active volcano areas in the world. After the cave, take a break for a picnic  lunch (included)  before moving on into the blue...

Snorkeling in the Silfra fissure is our second adventure. Silfra fissure is world famous for its heavenly shades of blue. The crystal clear water in the deep fissure gives you a feeling of being weightless as you float down with the lazy current. The snorkeling is a relaxing but exotic trip in an environment most will only encounter in their dreams.

The Black & Blue is an amazing trip, a true journey to the borders of reality and dreams.

Hiking boots required
Bring change of clothes

The videos I could find were scuba, not snorkeling.  And I didn't see any fish.   But it looked nice.  Just wondering how cold the water is.  Wikipedia says it's 100 year old water because it comes from glaciers. 

There's more here.   But I had trouble getting it to recognize Anchorage when trying to find other flights.