Most of the nearly 3000 people here make their living by fishing, some work at nearby Blue Lagoon, the tourist industry, the geothermal power plant and probably at the nearby Biotechnology geothermal greenhouse.
Even in the still pouring rain, the small museum on the edge of town caught our attention.There are not many land mammal species living in Iceland so the reindeer antlers looked like a good lead for a discussion. But then ... the place looked quite abandoned so we just kept on diving.
Shooting from the moving car driving through the empty streets made me think of the wild west.. But neither my camera nor the rest of the crew we willing to stop and step out into the cold downpour.
The talks of the first settlements in the area start at about year 950 but the real municipality has taken roots much much later - some 900 years after the first settlers had shown up.
The Old Church
Raised in the 1909 mostly by recycling materials from another old church served the people of Grindavík until 1982. As we traveled Iceland, we found out that many of their churches have beautiful, super-modern architecture - someone noted that many old churches were either damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes and had to be rebuild.
Raised in the 1909 mostly by recycling materials from another old church served the people of Grindavík until 1982. As we traveled Iceland, we found out that many of their churches have beautiful, super-modern architecture - someone noted that many old churches were either damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes and had to be rebuild.
An old industrial building on the edge of town. I have no idea what purpose it served - we just liked the rustic appearance and the ghostly feeling of it.
Someone said that the Icelanders love to eat ice cream. They love it so much that they will even queue for it outside in a blizzard. This shop window painting supports the claim .... I just loved the whole works,
There was going to be no queuing up outside for us. With the cold wind ripping our clothes right off (well, OK, leave the underwear and such), we managed to push our way into the local cafe. There we got a good talk about the recent economic crisis, coffee and klejna - the oh-so-good Icelandic pastry.
All presented and served by the locals who know the first-hand best. It was a real treat.
We also learned that somewhere in the area is one of the the tallest Icelandic structures - a 305 m tall transmission tower of sorts ..... wow, with all those earthquakes and wild weather!
We just liked the appearance of these neat houses.The only things that we, the avid gardeners, were missing was the presence of greenery. No gardens nearly anywhere. I guess that one would have to experience more than just a touristy visit to a place to fully understand a place.
Touring the area one will come across some interesting sites in the wind-rain battered lava fields. Just a few kilometers from Grindavik we discovered a cave that seemed to have been made by a burp in the sizzling flow. A large bubble of sorts - man. how painfully little we know!
"Boy in a bubble" - solidified lava, thankfully; cold and harmless.
At one end inside the cave there was a low and narrow opening that seemed to lead into an under-the-lava corridor.
Maybe a bubble-to bubble tunnel - THAT we shall never know.
Maybe a bubble-to bubble tunnel - THAT we shall never know.
But even there, dark, cold and humid, was a thriving carpet of first colonizers - the invisible bacteria and lichens and mosses slowly but successfully claiming the new frontier.
Not far from Grindavik is a geothermal power plant and, on the other side of it, the Blue Lagoon.
A life-line between the geothermal and Grindavik - the red pipes carry their gift of the Earth to the people in town. Their water and electricity are cheap, they told us. Not exhaustible for now. But some are raising their voices against the global companies that realized the potential of the cheap production of .... smelting the aluminum for example ..... and who are trying to move their works to Iceland.
Just about in the mid-distance between the power plant and the town this small sign caught my eye:
A greenhouse! Huh?????
Not just any greenhouse! A sophisticated Biotechnology lab in the middle of nowhere! Now, that really talked to me since in one of my previous jobs this was very much what I did!
I must admit that there, in the middle of the Smoky Peninsula ( Reykjanes translates as such) a heavy pang of nostalgia knocked me to my knees
(well, more likely to be able to read and to protect the camera since it was raining so hard).
I raised my head and there it was - far away, shining like a jewel in the fog. We wanted to drive there but there was a padlocked gate on the access road - no visitors, thank you!
Back to your retirement and keep on driving!
What an amazing day.
Check them out for yourself: http://orfgenetics.com/
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