Whilst WOTAN has been doing a fine job running the blog I've been holidaying in Iceland with my lady. I didn't find any space toys there but I did find jet propulsion, lunar landscapes, midnight suns and explosive nasa-humbling power everywhere! We were so awe-struck I had to share a few holiday snaps with you, so I hope you don't mind! First up is this wonderful house above, our dream home, sited just below the mighty Snaefellsjokull glacier (yes, even mightier than WOTAN), the setting for Jules Verne's epic novel 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'.
Almost everywhere in West Iceland are extinct volcanoes, like this one above, in the tectonic rift, where the American and Eurasian plates are slowly but surely ripping apart. Some are perfect cones like heaps of sugar and some are blown-apart and full of green water. Surrounding them all are vast circular fields of jagged black lava covered in pale green lichen. Eerie, moon-like and primeval.
Gullfoss, above, is the Niagara of Iceland. Huge and breath-taking. The British tried to buy it years ago but the farmer's daughter, on who's land it was, thankfully said no! She's a national hero now!
Like the Dutch and land-reclaimation, the Icelanders have conquered geo-thermal heat. It's truly amazing to think that the cold water from their taps is from glacial melt-waters and the hot water is from inside the earth. The process is beautifully simple: the magma-heated water at 200C is far too hot for the island's homes, so it is used to heat up glacial melt-water. It is then piped to Reykjavic over 25 Km away and comes out of the hot tap around 85C! Nothing goes to waste and the super-hot steam, above, is used to drive turbines to make the country's electricity! It is a wonder to behold. If the Icelanders ever have a space programme it will be geo-thermally powered!
And finally the big guy himself - GEYSIR! Imagine a 50 foot fountain of red-hot water and steam and you have some idea of this, the original geysir. Actually, through tourists throwing in so many rocks and coins, Geysir has stopped 'working' properly, so the picture above is of the neighbouring STROKKUR. Just don't stand too close!
Whilst WOTAN has been doing a fine job running the blog I've been holidaying in Iceland with my lady. I didn't find any space toys there but I did find jet propulsion, lunar landscapes, midnight suns and explosive nasa-humbling power everywhere! We were so awe-struck I had to share a few holiday snaps with you, so I hope you don't mind! First up is this wonderful house above, our dream home, sited just below the mighty Snaefellsjokull glacier (yes, even mightier than WOTAN), the setting for Jules Verne's epic novel 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'.
Almost everywhere in West Iceland are extinct volcanoes, like this one above, in the tectonic rift, where the American and Eurasian plates are slowly but surely ripping apart. Some are perfect cones like heaps of sugar and some are blown-apart and full of green water. Surrounding them all are vast circular fields of jagged black lava covered in pale green lichen. Eerie, moon-like and primeval.
Gullfoss, above, is the Niagara of Iceland. Huge and breath-taking. The British tried to buy it years ago but the farmer's daughter, on who's land it was, thankfully said no! She's a national hero now!
Like the Dutch and land-reclaimation, the Icelanders have conquered geo-thermal heat. It's truly amazing to think that the cold water from their taps is from glacial melt-waters and the hot water is from inside the earth. The process is beautifully simple: the magma-heated water at 200C is far too hot for the island's homes, so it is used to heat up glacial melt-water. It is then piped to Reykjavic over 25 Km away and comes out of the hot tap around 85C! Nothing goes to waste and the super-hot steam, above, is used to drive turbines to make the country's electricity! It is a wonder to behold. If the Icelanders ever have a space programme it will be geo-thermally powered!
And finally the big guy himself - GEYSIR! Imagine a 50 foot fountain of red-hot water and steam and you have some idea of this, the original geysir. Actually, through tourists throwing in so many rocks and coins, Geysir has stopped 'working' properly, so the picture above is of the neighbouring STROKKUR. Just don't stand too close!
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