travel red

A jet of water burst on the starboard side of our boat, and jet splashed deck. There is barely time to understand what happens before a flash of silver whale skin to burst the surface, dives under a wave and plunges into the dark fathoms of the North Atlantic. Here, in view of Reykjavík, whale watchers and whale sail the seas for these powerful beasts. The minke whale, known for his bad breath, the blue whale, whose tongue alone outweighs the African elephant and the humpback whale jumping all have patrolled deep under our boat.

* Related Article: Mini-Guide to Reykjavik, Iceland

They may not be sea monsters described in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, but Iceland is the setting for his famous novel. hero of Jules Verne - the eccentric professor and his nephew Liedenbrock long-suffering, Axel - discover a numerical index in an old Icelandic manuscript which sends them to the island in search of a passage to the core of the planet. The adventure follows the characters to be found in the underground seas filled with prehistoric sea monsters, dodging the lava flows and passage bottomless chasms. The strange world underground that Jules Verne described is not too far from the countryside to the surface in Iceland. This, after all, is a place where storms ravage craters of volcanoes, where the soil may crack open and devour agricultural land, where new islands have emerged overnight in the surrounding seas.

Pull into the port of Reykjavik, as a hero of Jules Verne did, it seems remarkable that anyone could make their home in this inhospitable country. huge cliffs business around, looking like they might lurch forward at any time and push the small town into the sea Reykjavík is sitting on the edge of the Arctic Circle with a contempt that would make its founders proud Viking. In summer, revelers flock into the streets of the runtur - Analysis bar famous for its excesses and irreverence (a nightclub is not even the faces of the Icelandic bankers plastered on his urinals). In winter, the crowds disappear inside cafes, while the thrill of corrugated iron houses in booming arctic winds.

Guarding the city is Hallgrímskirkja, the church where, from the belfry, the outline of Snæfellsjökull can just be seen. This snow-capped volcano, barely visible behind a veil of mist, a professor Liedenbrock destination - the mountain where an ancient riddle has spoken of a crater at the top that leads to the center of the Earth. The volcano strikes, threatening on the horizon - one of the many sleeping giants in Iceland that could one day move, sending torrents of fire, rock and ash raining. Lurking in the mist, seems Snæfellsjökull dared follow in the footsteps of the heroes of Jules Verne - across its slopes and whether the summit really does hide a gateway to a world beneath our feet.

Stykkishólmur
"How can we know with certainty that it is not broken out of Sneffels? The fact that this monster has slept since 1229 does not mean he does not wake up. And if so, what will become of us? -Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

We are not talking about pregnant women, "barks the teacher. "We talk about volcanoes, there is no deadline - no timetable for an eruption.

Posted in: on Saturday, January 22, 2011 at at 9:05 AM