Nothing warms my heart like Iceland

I cannot say enough about Iceland and it's many arctic charms. If you have ever been curious about this amazing country (located midway between the U.S. and Europe) I suggest a visit during the summer where there is almost 24 hours of sunlight a day or in the winter when there is almost none at all. The country was first settled in the 10th century by Vikings and their Irish slaves and today's Icelanders have pretty much retained Old Norse their ancestrsal language. The country itself is about the size of Kentucky and is the most volcanically active place on Earth today. Located in the North Atlantic just south of the Arctic circle where the American and European continental plates meet and split apart creating a hyperactive geologic hotspot where the island positively erupts steaming with volcanos, geysers and hot springs. In the past 500 years 1/3 of all volcanic eruptions happened in Iceland, so often in fact that a volcano erupts on average once every 5 years. 

Don't let the name Iceland fool you because the weather is warmed by the North Atlantic current which makes the country's winters more mild than in NewYork City and it's summers are sunny, comfy and cool, so it never gets too cold or too warm. The Icelandic terrain is rugged with majestic snow capped mountain ranges and long valleys, which are easily navigable through a network of accessible roads. Brendan and I rented a car and toured the southwest portion of the country with ease and privacy. The hotels are not cheap so we rented a gorgeous penthouse apartment (cheaper than most hotels) in downtown Reykjavik, the northernmost capital in the world home to about 60% of the country's 300,000 people. From Reykjavik we toured most of the southwest of Iceland through Thingvillir Lake and the famous Golden Circle where the original Geysir can be found and where the world's first parliament met and still does. We also took a dip in the geothermal spa of the Blue Lagoon, the most visited spot in Iceland and it's healing waters are like taking a dip in warm bluish milk. Of the many cities we visited on our 100 day tour around the world Reykjavik left a deep impression and I cannot wait to return and explore more of what the city and the country has to offer.

Photos

In downtown Reykjavik standing in front of Church of Iceland, Hallgrimskirkia, the tallest structure in Reykjavik and a dominant part of the city's skyline.

Reykjavik's only two gay bars 

 Iceland's National Library

Tjörnin, (The Pond)  in central Reykjavík

A monument to their Old Norse heritage a large 

Viking ship looks over Reykjavik's shore

Mountain ranges along our drive

Öxarárfoss Waterfall one of the main attractions of Thingvellir National Park

Horses grazing on the land

Beautiful rivers all over the place

Brendan walking in front of the Althing (literally means All Thing or General Assembly)

 is the world's first parliament from the year 930 AD and it still exists and functions today.

View of Thingvillir Lake and National Park

Hot springs of the Golden Circle

The Kerio volcano is an inactive volcano crater in Iceland containing a small lake.

Brendan standing in front of Gullfloss, or Golden Falls

More waterfalls

Approaching the Geysers of Haukadalur, the first Geysers recorded in history by Europeans settlers and it where we get the name.

We are in pretty hot water here

The hot tub is ready

Blue algae growing in the hot springs

Entrance to Blue Lagoon Spa and Clinic

Blue algae is responsible for making the Blue Lagoon really blue

People taking a healing dip in the Blue Lagoon

Me standing on the edge of the Blue Lagoon

A close up view of the half salt water half fresh water on volcanic rock

View of the midnight sun atop our penthouse in Reykjavik

Powerful Gullfloss Waterfall

Boiling Little Geyser

Just a minor glimpse of the energy being released from the center of the Earth

Visiting Hitler's Paradise Camp

    Brendan and I took a powerful sightseeing tour to Terezin, or Theresienstadt, a World War II concentration camp and Jewish ghetto town located north of Prague. This former garrison town was built at the end of the 18th century by Emperor Joseph II as a system of military fortresses to protect Prague and the northern part of the country. However, when the Nazis took control of Czechoslovakia during World War II, they converted the whole garrison town into a concentration camp and Jewish ghetto. Jewish War Veterans, the elderly, musicians, artists, actors, and otherwise internationally famous Jews were sent here from all over Europe. It was considered Paradise Camp because it had slightly better conditions than all other Nazi camps though it served as a short transit camp and you were likely to be transported to a death camp within a few months. 

      Terezin is eerily preserved in it's 1940's state and is sparsely populated today feeling more like a quasi ghost town frozen in time as many of it's citizens are involved in the town as a Holocaust tourist site. During the 3.5 years the town served as a concentration camp more than 150,000 Jews were sent there. Although it was not an extermination camp about 33,000 people died in the ghetto itself, mostly because of the appalling conditions arising out of extreme population density and lack of adequate food and medicine. About 88,000 inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps that by the end of the war there were only 17,247 survivors only 123 children survived out of the 15,000 children sent there. This was our first visit to a concentration camp and it left an incredibly powerful impression on the psyche about how this place could exist the way it did. If you ever go to The Czech Republic make sure you get yourself over here, it only take an hour to get to from Prague and it will give you a deeper knowledge about life in the not so distant past about the horrific struggles so many normal modern people like yourself experienced during the war years.

 
Former main entrance into Terzin ghetto and concentration camp

Town church and streets at Terezin

Streetview in Terezin

A building in town that was the barracks of men and boys of working age

 
The museum of ghetto

Jewish stars that were required for Jews to wear on their clothes.

Normal view of beds in the barracks

Tiny warehouse room that served as a synagogue for the many thousands of people, it was in the very back of a building and was about 250 square feet

Ceiling decoration of Star of David

Terezin’s “Hidden Synagogue.” This site was discovered during 

the remodeling of a private home in 1997.

I am in awe of this little synagogue and

 the people that prayed here for relief and sanity.

A railroad track and memorial plaque

A close up view of plaque

View of mortuary

Jewish memorial prayer room for the departed, at it's overpacked capacity 35 people died every day, at first buried in coffins, then mass graves without coffins, then cremated and ashes thrown into nearby river. 22,000 ashes of victims scattered in river Ohe.

Initial coffins for ghetto dead

View inside where bodies were prepared for burial

A white paper box containing ashes of each victim

 

Cemetery next to crematorium 

Terezin Crematorium 

Entrance to crematoria

Room where bodies were prepared for cremation

2 of the 4 crematoria ovens

For many the only way out of the ghetto

Cemetery of Terezin

Star of David and memorial at new cemetery 
near Small Fortress at Terezin

Entrance to Small Fortress which was the prison of the ghetto

The infamous "Arbeit Macht" Frei sign,

 (Work Will Set You Free)

Block A entrance at Prison camp

Beds in prison rooms

Toilet for prisoners

Washroom at prison camp

Hospital room at prison camp 

Bone Church of the Czech Republic

Upon the suggestion of my best friend Xavier Caylor of San Francisco who once visited The Czech Republic said that I must see Bone Church while Brendan and I are visiting the country. Bone Church or more precisley named The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Catholic chapel built in the middle ages and is located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. This creepy chapel is decorated in human remains of between 40,000 and 70,000 bones that are artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. Urban myth has it that a monk went mad and made things from the bones, and there are stories to suggest that partially blind monks entrusted with the care of the chapel were the first to begin piling the bones into geometric shapes. So if you ever travel to Prague, rent a car and take a nice drive through the countryside about an hour south of the city and visit this place. It is incredibly interesting and should not take more than 15 minutes to get the idea and move onto the next attraction. 

 The Sedlec Ossuary or Bone Church

Floor at the entrance to the Bone Church

 Bone Chandeliers and other decorations

 The family crest of the Schwartzenberg family who once owned the land at the time commissioned this bone decoration as a reminder of the impermanence of human life and inescapable death.

One of the several huge piles of bones 12 feet high and 12 feet wide

 Many of the skulls have holes in them showing that 

many of the people died violent deaths

Brendan standing in the middle of the church.

Lamps and urns made of bones

Bone Church Video