30 July 2005

A quick note from me from Iceland

Iceland is … expensive (which we expected) cute in some ways, not amazingly friendly and a day or so is enough. In Reykjavik anyway.

The whole country of 250,000 people has their heating and hot water supplied by Geothermal means, they are on the edge of a tectonic plate and hot water is everywhere just below the surface. They have a hydrogen service station as well, leaders in this technology apparently.

There is a magnificent cultural centre/museum/revolving restaurant on the hill above town. Called the Perla it’s a well known landmark. We walked up there and went for dinner. We were a touch underdressed, but we ate well! Clyde thought it was cheap too, until he realised that the rate was one US dollar for 60 kroner, not 160. The person he asked had said 1 for 60! Glad he paid. The interesting thing about it is that it was the hot water storage for the town, and the reservoirs are the cylindrical structures you can see in the photos plated with aluminium sheet. The Museum and restaurant were built a few years ago in between and above these, making a truly spectacular building.

The next day I hired a car and we went to see the Geysers, quite spectacular but I didn’t take my camera. We had met by then a Danish guy and his ex German air force mate. They were waiting for the winds to allow them to go to Greenland and then down to his holiday house in Belize (The old British Honduras ). Went with them to a restaurant they knew, really nice food and somewhat more affordable than the Perla! Anyway they were full of advice and help, as well as a good bottle of scotch!

Dieter the ex air force guy told a very funny story about a joint exercise with the Norwegian air force Any time the fighter jets were in a country with lower liquor taxes for the return flight home they would take the braking parachute out of the back of the plane and fill it with booze. Of course they would have to make sure their landing was spot on so that they would not need to deploy the chute! Anyway one of the Norwegian pilots came in hot and forgot, pulling the handle and spreading booze and broken glass all over the runway. Apparently there was hell to pay!

Off to the UK today, have yet to do the flight plan but going straight to an airport near London so about 6 hours I guess. Hopefully things will be a bit more relaxed in the cockpit.