Travelers’s Journal: ‘Iceland: Land of Extremes’

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Traveler’s Journal

When: 7 p.m., Thursday, March 15

Where: Sequim High School library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.

Cost: Suggested $5 donation (adults); 18 and younger, free

Presenters: Arvo and Christiane Johnson

Presentation: ‘Iceland: Land of Extremes’

Christiane being from Germany allows us to go back fairly often to visit her family and our friends. This led us looking for best ways to fly back to Europe … into the picture came Iceland Air. They allow up to a week layover without change in airfare, not only did this break up the flight it offered to us a chance to visit a country we both have not seen.

So in 2013 we decided to take a week-long layover on the way to Germany and a week-long layover on the way back to the U.S. Our plan was to do the southern and eastern part of the country in September and the western and northern part in October.

A short drive from Reykjavik is the Golden Circle Tour, which takes you to UNESCO Þingvillir National Park, where you can see the Mid-Atlantic ridge above ground. The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates pull the country apart by a couple of centimeters every year.

Gullfoss Waterfall, one of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland, is truly spectacular and not to be missed.

The original Geysir, which all other Geysers Strokkor got there name from, shoots up a column of water 30 meters into the air every few minutes.

Heading down to the southern coast with its many waterfalls and deserted beaches. We made our way to VIk and Skaftafell, an area that offers walks along black volcanic sand beaches, amazing rock formations, and glacier ice breaking off and flowing down river into the ocean. You can also walk behind thundering waterfall, if you dare, and relax in thermal pools.

The final destination on this half of the trip was Seydisfjordur, we took our time enjoying the incredible scenery and sites. Seydisfjordor was an amazing setting at the end of a fjord where we enjoyed the views from our own hot top.

We then back tracked the next couple of days stopping at our favorite spots on the way Reykjavik to catch our flight to Europe.

Arriving back in Iceland in October we stayed a couple of days in Reykjavik. Then we headed with our own car up the west coast with hopes of traveling the north coast. The weather was considerably colder than a month previous and we were watching the weather closely. We run the risk of getting stranded if we go too far north and the weather turns.

Our first stop was Borgarnes, with beautiful farm settings along the way and fantastic coastline. We took our time before heading to Stykkisholmur Peninsula a remote setting with majestic mountain landscape. With the weather turning worse we explored this area for a couple of days longer and decided not to continue farther north.

The next morning, with about 4-6 inches of fresh snow on the ground, we headed off and as we got closer to Reykjavik where the weather was cold but surprisingly no snow.

Maybe in our earlier travels without the girls we would have taken the risk and dealt with missing the flight later. But like I said earlier, traveling with kids is a little different.

Since 2013 we have the Iceland bug and when we fly back we try to have at least a couple days of layover. The last time we stayed was the middle of winter and we just stayed to relax in the thermal pools for a couple of days. We plan on spending a couple of weeks this summer while heading back to Europe and will definitely explore the north coast.

Iceland is a place you must visit. It is a “Land of Extremes.”

About the presenters

Arvo and Christiane moved to Sequim in 2009 with a love for travel and adventure and have traveled to more than 60 countries.

Christiane is from Germany and Arvo from Southern California and meeting in Chile was the start of their journey together.

Arvo’s passion for photography, Christiane’s for architecture along with the love of the outdoors have led them to many of the world’s wonders.

Their type of travel has evolved since having children but has continued to instill the same passion for travel, culture and adventure into their two daughters: Kaija, 8, and Fenja, 4. Even at their young age they have travelled to half a dozen countries and dozen states.

About the presentations

Traveler’s Journal is a presentation of the Peninsula Trails Coalition with local adventurers sharing their stories and photos with you. All of the money raised is used to buy project supplies and food for the volunteers working on the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Admission is $5 adults, youths 18 and under free. Shows start at 7 p.m. in the Sequim High School Library at 601 N. Sequim Ave. The seating is chairs and some people bring their own cushions.

Each year the dream of a continuous trail from Port Townsend to Forks gets a little closer. In 2017, about 200 volunteers put in more than 9,000 hours of labor on the trail.

One selected photo enlargement will be given each week as a door prize.

Call Arvo Johnson at 360-301-9359 for more information.