Iceland: Geysers, Icelandic Conference, and the Northern Lights

Here we are in Iceland! It´s nice and relaxing and now Pieter can say that he´s driven in a foreign country :) Navigating is a whole fun activity by itself though. Every street name is at least 10 letters and they're not English phoenetic, so navigating by map it a challenge. At church, it was Icelandic Conference today. All members from all 7 branches in the country were there (about 75). A 70 (Olsen) was there as well as the mission president from Denmark. People were super friendly and we had a great time. Then we went and saw their geysers which was kind of like Yellowstone and where the North American and Eurasian continental plates are separating. If freezing though! The steam from the geysers freezing in midair. 

Iceland farms road

Mountains, the country is actually pretty flat, driving around reminded me of a pretty Nevada

Steaming water

Geyser going off

Water rippling with activity

Frozen steam

 

 

Breathtaking Northern Lights pictures courtesy of my friend, Lyn. My batteries died from the cold before things got really amazing. 

We got back just in time for a ward member who is a tour guide to take us, 2 girls also visiting, and 8 other people to the mountains to see the Northern Lights (so we´re definitely glad we went to church, it was super good). We seriously lucked out! Solar storm activity (what causes the Northern Lights) was at a 9/9 and it was perfectly clear. A local tour guide said that they were the best he'd seen since before November. Anyway, there are no words and pictures don't do them justice. The whole sky was swirling with stripes of green. It really is incredible! At about 11, we all got back into the van to warm up and head back and the engine started sputtering. The tour guide started laying on the gas, but it was to no avail. The engine died and wouldn't start back up. After some puttering under the hood, he found that a wire had come off of the alternator and the battery was completely dead. So, here we were, stuck on a rural mountain road, in the dark, with single digit temperature. Our driver made some desperate sounding phone calls (they were in Icelandic, so I'm not sure what all got said). He flagged down a car that passed by. That car tried to jump us, but apparently a tiny sedan doesn't have the power to jump a 15 passenger van. Finally, a little after midnight, another van was able to reach us, so we transferred over and they were able to jump the van. We finally got back to our hotel around 1 and konked out.

 

 

In the morning, got up, ate, checked out, did some shopping in downtown Reykjavik and then drove to the airport in Keflavik (it shares a runway with a US base). We watched the sea crash against the coast, arrived at the airport and went back to New York. One bumpy 5.5 hour flight, 1 hour subway ride, a 7 hour Greyhound ride, followed by a 30 minute city bus ride, and we made it home before 6:30am. Just in time, to sleep and make it to work by noon. We had a great time! (you all better note that I'm blogging about it and we all know how often I take the effort to blog) It seriously was the best thing we could have done with the money and it was so nice to finally get a vacation and see the world! Until next time!

Paris: Friday: Sainte-Chapelle, Les Invalides, and Eiffel Tower

Friday, our last full day in Paris, we went to Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle is a former church that was built by King Louis IX (the only French King to become a saint) to serve as a larger than life reliquery for the Crown of Thorns that he purchased from the Emperor of Constantinople who was struggling financially. He bought it for what would be $500,000,000 euros. The entire upper floor of the church is stained glass and tells the entire story of the Bible through pictures. Only the King and his family worshiped there and remarkably it survived the last 800 years in excellent condition. They are restoring the glass in 4 of the window right now so we missed out on seeing the books of Judges, Joshua and Ezekial. 

Map of the chapel

Lower level of the Chapel

Statue of King Henry the 9th of France, the crusader who bought the Crown of Thorns and had the chapel constructed

Walls of the lower level painted blue and red for his mother

Adam and Eve in the Garden

Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel offering their sacrifices to God

Cain slaying Abel

Noah's ark

Moses at the burning bush

God appearing to Moses in the burning bush

Moses with horns (result of a mistranslation)

Where they are restoring some of the windows

Tree of Jesse. Window showing the lineage of Christ

Rose window at the Back of the Chapel

Upper level under the rose window

Where the crown of thorns originally sat. Now it is in Notre Dame

Mary being told that she will be the mother of Christ by the Angel Gabriel

The Navitity (lower) and the shepherds being told of the birth by Gabriel (upper)

The adoration of the Christ

The Magi meeting with Herod (lower)

Christ with the cross

Christ being mocked with the purple robe and crown of thorns

St. Sebastian being shot with arrows

Statue of St. John, the only one they can tell who it is because it is without a beard

A prophet condemning praying before idols

The Rose window tells the book of Revelations

Telling the story of the king's mother getting the Crown of Thorns

Search for the crown of thorns

Crown of Thorns in Saint Chappelle above the altar

After the chapel, we went and saw one of the few surviving metro signs at the Metropolitan line and then went down to Les Invalides. Les Invalides is a veteran's hospital that was built by Louis XIV. To be there though, the veterans had to worship at the chapel there every day. Now, it is used as Napoleon and his family's tomb. His body lies in 6 sarcophagi under the middle of the dome. In the buildings around the capitola, there is a museum of the military in France from 1870 through WWII. This was Pieter's favorite museum of the trip. They had every gun and uniform used by every branch on both sides of every conflict, including a mud soaked coat from the trenches of  WWI. 

Les Invalides. Inside is Napoleon's tomb, WWI and WWII museum, and a VA

After the museum closed, yes we were the last ones out, we walked down to the Eiffel Tower with every intention of going to the top. Sadly, the top level was closed and the 1st level is being reconstructed, leaving only the 2nd level. They only had one bank of elevators open and the line stretched somewhere on the order of forever, so we ended up not going up. Have to save something for next time, right? So we went back, purchased some souvenirs, had a really nice French dinner, and said au revoir to Paris!