Margaret Thatcher and Katherine Hamnett in 1984-02. Yes, this is my favourite photograph of Maggie.
“There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.” Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), quoted in, Women’s Own (1987-10-31). Yet, Maggie could be charming, as shown in the above photograph from 1984, with Katharine Eleanor Hamnett (née Appleton; 1947 – ), an activist and English fashion designer best known for her political T-shirts, such as the one she is wearing criticizing American Pershing missiles in Britain. She was invited to a reception at #10 Downing Street, London, after being selected as fashion designer of the year, 1984. Hamnett was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours, for services to the fashion industry. Then, on 2024-02-20, Hamnett publicly relinquished her CBE distinction in protest against the UK government’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Wearing an all-caps t-shirt reading “DISGUSTED TO BE BRITISH” she said she was against Britain’s role in the Gaza genocide before disposing of her distinction in a rubbish bin/ trash can/ garbage can.
I have journeyed by train in England, for the last time.
On British trains we encounted the phrase See It, Say It, Sort It, numerous times in the course of every journey. The details of this phrase will remain vague for some paragraphs, as I attempt to show how I am interpreting it, to gain greater control over my life, as it is forced to interact with rail corporations intent on profiting from me.
On Wednesday 2024-07-31, I was a passenger in coach 1 of a 12 car train from Stratford station in London to Gatwick airport. My estimate is that there are a minimum of 100 people aboard each car, or somewhere between 1 200 and 1 500 people in total. I am not sure what train it was because while numerous audio and video announcements are made including a listing of all of the stops the train will make, the train itself was not uniquely identified. At no time are we told we are on board train, say 12345 running on route 6789. So we are left with a rather vague time we left a particular station (if it is remembered).
I suspect this lack of a unique identification number is policy. It is a deliberate measure to ensure that there is no opportunity for passengers to summon help. Throughout the journey, we are given a coded message: See it, say it, sort it. Passengers are encouraged to speak to staff, or contact transport police. Yet, I interpret the phrase as a fictitious attempt to compensate for the lack of conductors, or any other personnel looking after the needs of passengers. There were no such personnel onboard many of the trains I was on. On some trains personnel came onboard to ensure everyone had a ticket. In other words, these people were solely looking after the needs of the various owners who operate trains, not the needs of passengers.
Incident 1: a woman with a first-class ticket and seating place, arrives in second-class to have a business conversation with someone by phone. While that someone cannot be heard, her voice dominates the soundscape, and we are given intimate, detailed information that should be kept private. After fifteen minutes, at the end of her conversation, she retreats to the privacy of the first class compartment.
Incident 2: a gang of youth enters the compartment and play Detroit rappers at high volume for their own entertainment and, I suspect, to deliberately make the journey less comfortable for the other passengers. A passenger, possibly aged 30, attempted to silence these youth to no avail. He then sat beside me, and said that he now understood his grandfather complaining about the youth.
… and so back again to the meaningless phrase, see it, say it, sort it. Sort it makes no sense. It is the transport police who will decide if and when they will intervene. When the train reached Gatwick and we left the train, there were still no police or staff available to deal with the youth. They simply carried on, undoubtedly disturbing new passengers for the rest of the journey to Brighton.
I have stayed at Travelodge, for the last time.
While every other place we have stayed at during our trip has offered free WiFi connected internet for the duration of our stay, Travelodge offers one half-hour free, or a surcharge for additional 24 hours of connectivity. This is unacceptable. In the future, I will be checking the fine print about internet usage.
Other complaints with Travelodge have to do with their breakfasts. They offered cold scrambled eggs, and lots of sugar and salt. Nutrition, not so much. I was particularly offended by the oranges. At the theoretical level, I have no issues with oranges wanting to reproduce themselves, but prefer to eat seedless oranges. In the offering from Travelodge every fruit sack had a large seed. In addition, the bread was unpleasant to eat. I have no issues with the bread I eat in Norway. Even in New Westminster, Canada, I grew up with a bakery 4 blocks from home, the National System of Baking. In contrast to other brands, it produced nutritious, edible bread.
Travelodge switches from left to right: Hallway light on, bathroom light off, bedroom light on. At Cliff Cottage all light switches act like the one for the bedroom light, on the right.
Then I read in several sources that Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Elko, Nevada, is adding two fees all guests must pay, in addition to the standard 15% tax: There’s a $12.95 nightly energy recovery fee and a 3% credit card surcharge. It was noted that credit card surcharges for hotels are incredibly rare, used only by rogue hotels. Then one comment noted that H Hotel near LAX airport has a Safety and Protection of their employees fee, at $10.00 plus $12.95 for each day.
I have flown Westjet, for the last time.
Westjet wants people who prefer to sit together to make an additional payment for this privilege. I am uncertain who they are expecting to put up with this policy, because the major carriers have understood that they cannot act in this way. Budget airlines are in a price squeeze, as they see it. They need the same prices as the majors to survive, because they have the same expenses, but want to appear cheaper. Their solution is to offer a cheap base price, and then to charge for addons customers want, so that the end price is about equal. The Southwestern style of humourous commentary, given by some cabin crew member, does not compensate for disrupting a basic primate need of a troop having to stay together. Westjet, Ryanair and other airlines know this. Those who don’t are encouraged to read Desmond Morris’ (1928 -), The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s study of the human animal (1967).
Language usage
Yes, I am the sort of person your mother warned you about. I use language for dramatic effect. When I write that I have done something for the last time, there is an unspoken condition that clearly assumes this is the situation, unless something changes! What has to be changed is never mentioned.
The Solent Flyer, a Griffon Hoverwork 12000TD hovercraft, produced in 2016. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.
Some people may regard a hovercraft as a boat/ ship/ vessel. Those associated with providing hovercraft services do not. For them, it is an aircraft, belonging to its own special category. There are numerous varieties of aircraft: gliders = planes without engines. relying on natural air currents for lift; airplanes = engine-driven, fixed-wing, heavier-than-air craft; rotorcraft (including helicopters and gyroplanes); lighter than air craft (including baloons, zeppelins, dirigibles and blimps); and hovercraft. There are other categories involving parachutes, and weight-shift controls, not to mention rockets.
Hovercraft are distinct, differing from ground effect vehicles and hydrofoils that require forward motion to create lift. Hovercraft can lift themselves without directional movement.
There have been many people involved in the design of hovercraft, and it is incorrect to assign the design to any one person.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) first mentioned surface-effect vehicles, and used the term hovering in 1716.
John Isaac Thornycroft (1843 – 1928) explored the concept of an air-cushion vehicle in the 1870s, as a way of reducing the drag experienced by vessels.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857 – 1935), an aerospace pioneer, visionary and author of works on interplanetary space travel, space station construction and airship design, lay the theoretical groundwork for powered movement over a cushion of air.
Dagobert Müller von Thomamühl (1880–1956) built the world’s first air cushion boat (Luftkissengleitboot) in 1915.
The chronological order of people will be disrupted to insert Toivo J. Kaario (1912 – 1970). In 1932, he had decided to build a ground-effect vehicle. This materialized as Pintaliitäjäprototyypin = Surface Soarer Prototype built in 1934, and tested in 1935-01. Patosiipi No. 2 was tested in 1935-1936. The ground-effect wing of Kaario’s early designs had an almost non-existent ability to block the loss of air being blown down by the propeller. The Patosiipi No. 2 was able to lift, but the ground-effect lift was weak. Another full-sized prototype was built with a skirt underneath, which added to the lift by trapping the high pressure air that had been forced. This device was first tested on land and then on the water and was found to be slower but with more lift over an uneven surface.
An illustration with two conflicting claims: 1) A sketch made by Toivo J. Kaario, showing an advanced hovercraft design for the Finnish military ; 2) A L-5 hovercraft, for the Red Navy, by the V. I. Levkov Design Bureau.
Aerodynamicist Vladimir Levkov (1895 – 1954) experimented with sidewall hovercraft. He built models in 1927 and 1932. He built a prototype (L-1) in 1934. This could reach a speed of over 60 km/h, but proved to be unreliable. Another prototype (L-5) weighed 8.6 tonnes, was powered by two 664 kW engines. He was aware of the research of Kaario, and used this in his own work. On its cushion of air, it could achieve speeds of 140km/hr = 73 knots.
Levkov was dissatisfied with his results, especially the aviation engines designed to operate at colder temperatures . The Red Navy wanted to press hovercraft into service as soon as possible, and in 1938 some upgraded L-5s saw operational service. A L-5 hovercraft was used to transport the four-man crew of North Pole 1, a Soviet arctic drift station, to an icebreaker after their research was completed.
Cockerell’s hovercraft model from 1955 in the Science Museum, London. Photo: The Wub, 2024-04-22.
Christopher Cockerell (1910 – 1999) bought Ripplecraft Ltd., a small Norfolk boat and caravan hire company. This was not a very profitable venture, but left him time to work on ideas for a hovercraft. He tested his theories using a vacuum cleaner and two tin cans, and found them to have merit. By 1955, he had built a working model from balsa wood and had filed his first hovercraft patent: GB 854211. In the autumn of 1958, the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) placed an order with Saunders-Roe for the first full-scale hovercraft, designated SR.N1 (Saunders-Roe – Nautical One), based on the prior work of Cockerell. This craft was completed, and first crossed the English Channel From Dover to Calais on 1959-07-25.
Originally, a skirt was not part of a hovercraft design. It was an independent invention made by a Royal Navy officer, C.H. Latimer-Needham (1900 – 1975), who sold his idea to Westland (by then the parent of Saunders-Roe’s helicopter and hovercraft interests), and who worked with Cockerell to develop the idea further.
It should be noted that obtaining patents for ideas related to hovercraft was not always easy. Much of the work was regarded as military secrets.
Approximately, 20 years after the first crossing of the English Channel = la Manche, on 1979-08-03 Trish and I took a trip by Hovercraft from Ramsgate to Calais on a Hoverlloyd craft. Its name remains unknown, and we have no photograph of it. Our letter home, at the time read:
“We left the Roe’s [presumably the people renting us a room] early on Friday morning, stopping near the Ealing Broadway Tube Station for breakfast at the local Wimpy bar (2 eggs and chips, milk). We then took a bus to Acton Town, transferred to a second bus and enjoyed a leisurely ride through the suburbs of London. At Marble Arch we alighted from the bus, walked through Hyde Park ending up at Victoria Station.
“We purchased a ticket for the Hoverlloyd that flies from Ramgate to Calais (at about 2’ above the surface), then took the tube from Victoria to Euston Stations and the Britannia Air Coach Station. After a lunch at a local Italian café, we boarded a coach and enjoyed a tour of the English countryside.
“The Hovercraft crossing took about 40 minutes. The stewardesses aboard were quick to offer duty-free drinks, etc. aboard. Then offer cigarettes, bottles of liquor, a second time. Immigration and customs are easier than at the US/Canadian border. The officer looks to see if you have a passport (he doesn’t even open it) , you are then cleared.
“We then boarded a second coach which toured the French countryside and enjoyed what we could of the trip. At the French/Belgian border, there was no passport control and customs was only interested in the registration of the bus.
“We arrived in Brussels at about 10:00 pm, just late enough for the youth hostel to be closed. Se we spent the first part of the night in a garage. After the wind picked up and made sleeping impossible we moved our shelter to the train station.”
End of quotation from letter.
Our 1979 journey was onboard a SR.N4 Mark II. The fuselage had a length of 39.68 m, a width of 23.77 m, a height of 11.48 m and a mass of 200 tonnes. This provided the craft with a capacity of 278 passengers and 36 cars. The four Rolls-Royce Marine Proteus gas turbine engines produced 2 500 kW of power.
A SR.N4 hovercraft inbound in Peggwell Bay, where Hoverlloyd had its British Ramsgate hoverport. Photo: Nick Smith, 1980-08-?.
There is a Hovercraft museum, at Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire with the SR.N4 GH-2006 Princess Margaret on display. Another opportunity to see ancient hovercraft in action is in the following films: The Princess Margaret appeared in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) SR.N4 GH-2005 Sure appeared in La Gifle (1974) and in The Black Windmill(1974). An unspecified SR.N4 appeared in Hopscotch (1980).
My next trip on a hovercraft was with Alasdair on 2024-07-18, almost 65 years to the day, after SR.N1’s first trip, and 45 years after my first trip. It was forward and back on the route from Southsea to Ryde, Isle of Wight. This service is provided by Hover Travel, which uses a pair of Griffon Hoverwork 12000TD craft, purchased in 2016. Griffon states that passengers will find this a high quality experience, with cabin noise below 75dB, fast entry and exit, at a top speed exceeding 45 Knots = 83 km/h. The 12000 in the name refers to the payload in kilograms.
Interior of the Solent Flyer. It will seat 80 passengers. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.
Hoverwork’s goals with the Griffon 12000 TD hovercraft, were to create a robust yet light-weight craft, while updating technology and ensuring production quality improvements. They claim these hovercraft offer low running and maintenance costs. Vital measurements: Length = 23.7 m; beam = 12.8m; passengers = 80. Payload 12 000 kg.
From 2024, Oita Hovercraft is operating a 33-kilometre hovercraft route between the city centre of Oita city and Oita airport. Hovercraft were used from 1970 to 2009, but became financially unviable. A hovercraft takes 25 minutes, each way, in contrast to a bus that uses over an hour. Thus, a political decision was made by the Governor of Oita in 2020 to use hovercraft once again. Oita Hovercraft has acquired 3 x 12000TD hovercraft from Griffon Hoverwork, the same type that is used in the Solent.
While this weblog post is mainly about the civilian use of hovercraft, there are also civil defense (including ambulance and fire services) uses. Some uses, by location.
The Canadian Coast Guard uses hovercraft to break light ice. Numerous fire departments around the US/ Canadian Great Lakes operate hovercraft for water and ice rescues. The US Postal Service began using a Hoverwork AP1-88 in 1998 to haul mail, freight, and passengers from Bethel, Alaska, to and from eight small villages along the Kuskokwim River. Hovercraft service is suspended for several weeks each year while the river is beginning to freeze to minimize damage to the river ice surface. Similarly, since 2006, a cargo/ passenger version of the Hoverwork BHT130, has been used as a high-speed ferry for up to 47 passengers and 21 500 kg of freight serving the remote Alaskan villages of King Cove and Cold Bay.
In Scotland, a Griffon rescue hovercraft has been in use with the Airport Fire Service at Dundee Airport. It is used in the event of an aircraft ditching in the Tay estuary. Since 2008, the Red Cross has offered a flood-rescue service hovercraft based in Inverness, Scotland.
In Finland, small hovercraft are widely used for maritime rescue and during the rasputitsa = mud season.
On Madagascar, HoverAid, an international NGO, has used a hovercraft to reach the most remote places on the island since 2006.
Military Uses
In 1996, Lieutenant commander K. L. Schmitz, United States Navy, concluded a report: “The LCAC [Landing Craft Air Cushion] lift capacity, speed, and maneuverability provides greater flexibility to the Marine-Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) punch. It will keep the MAGTF at the center of the military’s power projection mission well into the next century. Both the LCAC and LCU [Landing Craft Utility] have served the naval forces well and each has plenty to contribute to future operations. The investment in LCAC has been made; they have proven their value to the naval expeditionary forces. Despite heavy maintenance and operating costs, now is not the time to consider LCAC retirement.”
In the report itself it was noted that LCACs can access 80% of beaches, while LCUs can only access 20%. From this and other reports one can conclude that military LCACs are expensive and temperamental, while LCUs are cheap.
Prologue
Yes, convention states that a prolog(ue) should be placed at the beginning of a work. As people may have noticed previously, I sometimes defy convention. This is one of those situations.
My son, Alasdair, had spent the beginning of July on a road trip through southern Norway, visiting places he had not seen before. He finished his journey at our house, spending a couple of days resting to begin the next part of his holiday, and taking me along as his accomplice.
My wife, Trish, accompanied us to TRD, Trondheim Airport, to drive Buzz home. We entered the terminal building, passed through security, then immigration to exit Schengen territory. We ate a poor, but overpriced breakfast, before we boarded the Norwegian plane, bound for Gatwick. Alasdair was asleep even before the plane alighted from the runway.
On arrival at Gatwick, we used an app to pass through immigration, then walked through customs on our way to the train station. We used a Welsh app to buy train tickets, but not everything worked as quickly as intended. Why a Welsh app? Because one can buy train tickets from numerous providers. For external providers of a journey, a surcharge is added. Except the Welsh are unique. They do not add that surcharge. We arrived at the correct train platform with two minutes to spare. We were on our way to Portsmouth Harbour.
Exiting the train, we bought some provisions at the local Co-op store, then walked south to Hover Travel, and from there soon onto the Solent Flyer.
Interlude on the Isle of Wight
After we arrived at Ryde, we decided to eat dinner. The main problem was that there was a discrepancy between map and terrain. The eateries that Alasdair had found online, did not exist in reality. We decided to eat some Sri Lanken food. It proved to be a foolhardy choice, possibly the worst meal of our trip.
The other task on Wight, was to take the local railway from Ryde to Lake. Lake is one stop past Sandown. One of Trish’s aunts, by marriage, was born at Sandown, but lived some streets away (W 32nd Avenue) in Vancouver, when Trish was growing up. This aunt’s brother, who was also born at Sandown, lived at the end of the block where Trish lived (W 37th Avenue).
The trip back to Ryde was more problematic, because the train was cancelled. It then was necessary to delay our departure time on the hovercraft by one hour.
Epilogue
Once the Solent Flyer arrived back at Southsea, it was time to take a train back to Gatwick, then the shuttle from the south terminal to the north terminal. We had booked accomodation at the local Travelodge. Despite knowing where both ends of the route lay, between the north terminal and the hotel, it was difficult to find the most appropriate pathway. We used about half an hour to cover the distance, walking (and to some degree backtracking).
Earlier, I read a comment from my sister-in-law, Aileen Adams. She wrote: Thank you for the map. It helps to put things in perpective.
I thought I could be more informative about Nordic geography, especially related to a recent trip which should produce a total of six weblog posts, in addition to this one. Four of those posts have already been published. This weblog post uses three maps. The map above shows Trøndelag county. Below is a political map showing some of the Nordic countries. In addition, at the end of the post there is a rail map.
Trondhjems Amt (Norwegian) = Trondhjem county (English) was created in 1687. In 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denmark-Norway. Trondheim fjord provides some of the dividing line, with Stjørdal and Meråker being the most southerly counties in North Trøndelag. The western part of Trøndelag can be more difficult to understand, as Osen, Roan, Åfjord, Bjung, Ørland and the western half of Indre Fosen, previously called Rissa, were in South Trøndelag. From the eastern half of Indre Fosen, previously called Leksvik, we used to drive north into south Trøndelag! The counties were reunited in 2018 after a vote in the two counties in 2016. We live in Inderøy which is almost in the middle of the map. There is a sound = Skarnsund, between the letters d and e in the name. We live at the extreme south-east of that sound. Previously, the area west of that sound was its own municipality, Mosvik. The two municipalities merged on 2012-01-01.
Trøndelag (together with parts of Møre og Romsdal) was briefly ceded to Sweden in 1658 in the Treaty of Roskilde. It was returned to Denmark-Norway after the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660. During that time, the Swedes conscripted 2 000 males in Trøndelag, including boys down to 15 years of age, to fight against Poland and Brandenburg. Only about one-third of the conscripts ever returned to their homes; some of them were forced to settle in the then Swedish Duchy of Estonia, as the Swedes thought it would be easier to rule the Trønders there.
Norden = the Nordic countries, is a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It consists of Denmark, Faroe Islands (Danish autonomous territory), Finland, Greenland (Danish autonomous territory), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Åland (Finnish autonomous region). The map does not show either the Faroe Islands or Greenland. In my mind, the former Soviet, current Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are increasingly associated with the Nordic countries.
The Shetlands, Orkneys, Hebrides and the Isle of Mann were once part of Norway. For example, the Vikings arrived in Shetland around 850 AD which resulted in about 600 years of Norse rule. This period shaped culture and traditions despite the transfer of the islands to Scotland in 1469. In 2020-09, the Shetland Islands Council voted to explore replacing the council with a new system of government which controls a fairer share of the islands revenue streams and has a greater influence over their own affairs, which could include lucrative oil fields and fishing waters. In 1967, 1986 and 2022, Orkney Islands Council voted for a motion to explore greater autonomy and Nordic connections.
Northern Scandinavia
Alasdair travelled via OSL Oslo airport Gardermoen while I travelled separately from Inderøy via TRD Trondheim airport Værnes to EVE Harstad/ Narvik airport, Evenes on Wednesday, 2024-05-08 to begin an exploration of northern Scandinavia. Alasdair flew on a Norwegian Airlines Boeing 737-800, while I took a Bombardier Q400 turboprop.
We stayed in Harstad the first night. A weblog post about the art of Harstad has been published. The next day we travelled by bus to Narvik, where we spent the next night, starting 2024-05-09. Again, a weblog post about the art of Narvik has been published. Both Harstad and Narvik can be found on the map, north of Bodø but south of Tromsø.
Originally, we had planned to take the train from Narvik to Kiruna on 2024-05-10, but due to a earlier train derailment, we had to use a bus for the first part of the journey. Since Norway, Sweden and Finland are among the 29 European countries to have signed the Schengen agreement, officially abolishing border controls at their mutual borders, we did not experience any border controls on our trip.
Kiruna was uncomfortably cold, but we enjoyed looking at the old and new towns. On 2024-05-11, we continued our train journey through Gällevare and Boden to Luleå. Those locations can also be found on the railway map, below.
We continued the train journey on 2024-05-12 to Haparanda in Sweden. We had to retrace part of our journey to Boden, then took a different rail line to Haparanda. The rail line is shown on the map, but Haparanda is not. Its sister city Torneo, on the Finnish side of the border, is. From there we bussed to Kemi, where we could once again take a train.
In the weblog post about Haparanda – Torneo – Kemi, the Merenkurkku (Finnish) = throat of the sea (literal translation) = Kvarken (Swedish) = Quark Ridge (English) a narrow region separating Bothnian Bay from the rest of the Bothnian Sea. Its approximate location can be found on the map between Vaasa in Finland, and Umeå in Sweden.
We continued our journey south to Oulu, where we spent the night. A weblog post about Oulu is being prepared. The following day (2024-05-13) we took a train from Oulu to Seinäjoki, where we changed trains. This second train took us to Vaasa. Another weblog post about Vaasa is also being prepared.
On tuesday, 2024-05-14, we took a bus to the VAA, the Vaasa airport. From there we flew on a SAS (Scandinavian Airlines Systems) Canadair Regional Jet 900 to ARN Stockholm airport Arlanda in Sweden. We then flew on a Airbus A220 jet onwards to TRD.
We were met at TRD by Trish and Buzz, who drove us back to Cliff Cottage in Inderøy. TRD is located in Stjørdal municipality, in the former north Trøndelag.
My son, Alasdair, and I arrived at the airport on Vágar, on Monday, 2023-07-10, for a short adventure that will last until Friday, 2023-07-14. After picking up our rental car, a Hyundai Kona diesel with manual transmission, we headed off towards the neighbouring island of Streymoy!
Unlike Iceland, which met us with desolation, we were met by fog which helped us suspend our judgement. We soon stopped at a food store, where we encountered three young workers who, true to tradition, complained about their elders. They were helpful, and we were able to purchase necessities for our domestic life.
We took the easy way out buying coffee that was already ground. The food store had a machine to grind coffee beans.
We then continued on to our accommodation at Kvivik, run by Petra Iversen. It was a comfortable basement suite, suitable for two people.
Domestic necessities
Healthy eating? Puffed wheat coated with honey and sugar, along with orange flavoured yoghurt.Safely stored in a freezer, two varieties of ice cream chocolate and licorice.We took the easy way out buying coffee that was already ground. The food store had a machine to grind coffee beans. Indeed, we later found that our hostess had a coffee bean grinder in her kitchen. This took me back to the early 1980s, when Trish worked at a coffee and tea store that ground coffee to the specifications of its clients.
Alasdair noted, correctly it turned out, that our accommodation had been outfitted by a woman. Appliances included a filter coffee maker and kettle, microwave oven, conventional oven, induction stove top, freezer and refrigerator, as well as a dishwasher and a battery operated, bagless vacuum cleaner. Dishes, plates, glasses, cups and flatware were found in abundance, in the cupboards. I especially liked her red, rubberized coffee cups. This place felt more like home, than any other place we had stayed in previously on this trip.
On Tuesday evening, we met our hostess, to pay for our accommodation. She had a coffee bean grinder in her kitchen. This took me back to the early 1980s, when Trish worked at a coffee and tea store in Molde that ground coffee to the specifications of its clients.
The coffee cup, turned upside down.Tvis Køkken = kitchen, from Holstebro, Denmark.
On this trip I have decided that my role is to look at culture rather than nature. Thus, I was delighted to find two works of art from our accommodation that are included here for everyone’s enjoyment.
On our last evening, we were given a sample of Faroe cuisine, complete with whale blubber and mutton.
On Monday, 2023-07-10 it was time to leave Iceland, and to head to the Faroe Islands. Excitement that morning consisted of an earthquake warning, followed almost immediately by a few earth-shaking moments that appeared to do no damage. We were up and showered before breakfast at 8:00, with a departure at 8:30, in order to return our rental car before the 10:30 deadline. The only problem was that our flight’s departure was delayed by four hours. So we had lots of time to explore the town of Keflavik.
A minor volcanic eruption had already begun as we drove across the Reykjanes Peninsula. We were told that no volcanic ash has been emitted, but noticed an unusual mist as we approached Keflavik Airport. Later, we learned there was a 200-meter long fissure on the slopes of the Litli Hrútur mountain, from which lava emerged as a series of lava fountains.
Unlike the day when we first rented our car, there were more staff than customers at the Budget/ Avis airport office. Alasdair reported the broken windshield, and paid the deductible for the damages. His travel insurance later refunded this amount.
We spent much of our time in Keflavik visiting a municipal park. Photos on our way there are shown below. There were many children in the park, and their activity of choice seemed to be standing in front of robotic lawn mowers, waiting for them to stop, then turn to avoid the human obstruction.
Later, we also walked into the business district, where we found a store that sold flags large enough for our flagpole, a typical souvenir for us. We were surprised to find that it was cheaper to buy an Icelandic flag in Norway, than in Iceland.
Necessities: Microwave communications tower, and water tower
Höfn is the Icelandic term for harbour. It is also a place in the south-east of Iceland, which has a model of the solar system. This weblog post is about this model. It is fairly accurate in terms of relative distance between solar system bodies, with the exception of the location of Pluto.
There are several characteristics to enjoy about a model like this. One of the most important is that it can be reproduced almost everywhere in the world. So, you too could create one, at a smaller scale in a room or garden, or at a larger scale across your county/ state/ province/ country. In this particular case, it is 2.8 km long. However, it could be any length desired. Then there is the data, with all sorts of interesting facts about the sun, and each planet. An example is the sun’s diameter in real life (1.4 million km = 1.4 Gm), and on the model (45 cm). The solar system model bodies are illustrated in two different ways. There is a photographic representation, as it would be seen through a telescope. There is a more naive representation, made by a pupil at the local school.
Not everyone is able to respond to scaled proportions appropriately. I remember one test to see if people understood the scale of the universe. Ask them if the moon or an elephant is larger. I thought it was a dumb question to ask, until one person seriously replied that an elephant is larger.
The Sun
The Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
The Asteroid Belt
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Weaknesses. I may criticize others for not knowing the true size of the moon. Yet, I have my own failings. No one would describe the photographs of the solar system information panels as professional. They were taken with a smart phone on a sunny day, which meant that because of my light sensitivity, I had to wear sunglasses while photographing them. Most of the time, I failed to capture the entire sign. Even when I did, it was not centred.
I explored the first part of the solar system, closest to the sun, with others, then went out on my own to explore the rest of it, some hours later. I was able to trace it, but unable to retrace the route back to our accommodation. I hadn’t recorded the accommodation address, so had no reference point to use on my smartphone map. Fortunately, I was able to give my location to Alasdair, who rescued me. It was totally undramatic. Yes, I may understand scale, but I don’t have a geographic sense of position, a fact well known to the others in my family.
Venturing into Seyðisfjörður involved about 20 km of driving in fog. While there, much of the fog lifted, so the return drive only involved about 10 km of fog over the 600 m high Fjarðarheiði mountain pass.
The area has a history dating back to the tenth century. It has also been the site of the world’s first modern industrialized whaling station, established in 1864. In 1906, the first telegraph cable connecting Iceland to Europe (and the world) made landfall here. In 1913, it was also the location of Iceland’s first high-voltage AC power plant, that included a hydroelectric dam. During World War II, it housed a British/ American military base.
While for most of the post-war period the economic focus was on fishing, today, it is tourism. the Icelandic port for the Smyril Line ferry M.S. Nörrona, built in 2003, that connects Iceland with Hirtshals, Denmark and Tórshavn, in the Faroe Islands.
The village was also a filming location for the Icelandic crime series, Trapped.
On 2020-12-18, the largest landslide in an Icelandic residential area hit, destroying thirteen houses and the Technical Museum of East Iceland! Many other buildings also suffered damage. Within hours, the entire village was evacuated.
Now, near the Smyril ferry terminal, a display explains the landslide in detail, especially the fate of individuals, complete with photographs by Katja Goljat and Matja Rust.
The Landslide Project
Yes, there are about 30 additional images and text like the previous two!
The traffic lights in Akureyri feature red hearts for stop. Pedestrian tourists like this, and comment on them waiting for the lights to change. As with most second-largest cities they have to do something, preferably positive, to shift the focus away from the largest city and onto themselves. Akureyri had a population of 19 219 in 2021, occupying 138 km2.
The Aviation Museum of Iceland is located in Akureyri. A Wikipedia article provides insights into the museum. This weblog post provides some photos!
Lots of planes…… radio equipment …… uniforms …and a waiting hut!
In Akureyri, Fashionista Brock was also pressed into a photo shoot to show off his yellow glasses, in the yellow frame. Credits for the shoot are extensive.
Fashionista Brock appears courtesy of Happy Modelling Agency. Sweater, socks and toque courtesy of Thunderbird Design. Jacket by Haglofs. Chinos from Dressmann. Shoes by and from Allbirds. Yellow Kieth 2 glasses from Face A Face, Paris. Yellow frame coutesy Akureyri municipality. Photo by Charles Justice using an Asus Zenfone 9.
A Whale skeleton from the Húsavík Whale Museum Photo: Húsavík Whale Museum
It took almost a week to find it, but should fate necessitate a move from Inderøy to Iceland, I think I have found a location that would meet my needs, Húsavík. It is a village on the north coast, with a population of 2 307 people, its own airport, the oldest flock of free ranging sheep (from 874) and one of the best museums I have encountered in the world, the Whale Museum.
Of course, such a statement is based on first impressions. That is all one has on a road trip. There is no time to encounter places a second time. This encounter with the town almost didn’t happen. Driving from the outskirts of Akureyri, we visited the waterfall at Goðafoss. We then took the most direct route towards Húsavík, only to find the road blocked by highway crews, who couldn’t be bothered to move their truck from a bridge to allow other traffic to pass. This added an additional 30 km to the trip, which meant that we discussed missing Húsavík altogether.
Wikipedia reminds people that Húsavík served as the setting of the 2020 Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, a comedic story of two Húsavík natives representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest, with one of the film’s songs named after the town. The song itself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 93rd Academy Awards. Both of my children have commented positively about this film.
More on climate. There is no advantage to living at Húsavík during any other season. While we have grown used to winters in Norway, I could appreciate less cold weather and less snow. On a theoretical level, Madeira has appeal. However, unless other family members wanted to move there, it would not be an interesting place. As long as our daughter Shelagh and her husband Derek are living in California, it is more appealing to visit there. Canadian citizens are generally allowed to live up to six months each year in the United States. The most appealing months are November to February.
After eating dinner at a Macadonian run B & S Restaurant, we needed to walk off our meals, walking along the banks of the Blanda River in Blönduós, Iceland. We stopped to admire a modern building with a sod roof, and unusual siding.
We stopped to admire this wall and roof.
At the mouth of the river, we walked away from the river for a block. Then we walked along a street, one block from the river, on the way back. Here we encountered the Icelandic Textile Centre, a research institution, and the Icelandic Textile Museum. It was in the same building that we had appreciated previously.
Kitchen, at the Icelandic Textile Museum
The museum was officially opened at the centennial of Blönduós in 1976, and has been a private foundation since 1993. In 1976 the museum was in a small and narrow building, a former stable of the Women’s School (Kvennaskólinn) in Blönduós. Construction of a new building was started in 2001-10. It was designed by the architect Guðrún Jónsdóttir. It occupies about 250 m2, integrated with the old building. This new building was opened 2003-05-09.
I liked the modernist design of the Textile Museum, and felt that the architecture contrasted with the textiles. The underlying theme of all exhibitions at the museum is the Þráður = thread. The thread is the basis for all textile crafts and connects the past with the present, and the future.
Halldóra Bjarnadóttir (1873-1981), made significant contributions to the museum. She was employed by the National Farmers Union in Iceland and published the „Hlín” magazine for 44 years. Moreover, she founded and operated the Wool- and Textile College at Svalbarði in South-Þingeyjarsýsla. Halldóra dedicated herself to the social and educational affairs of women and was an eager representative of their culture. She collected varieties of weaving and knit patterns as well as many types of small objects related to wool- and textile processing. Many sources point out that she never married, and did not have children.
I had an interesting conversation with a young woman employee at the museum. She explained that Icelandic national costumes are not owned by any individual, but by a family. One person, usually an older woman, is usually responsible for the garment(s). It is considered an honour to have this position. People may ask to wear one or more parts or all of a national costume for various events.
I asked her about male costumes. She could show me photographs, but not the garments. They were not well enough kept to put on display, she said.
Wall hangingClothing
A life in Blönduós would offer people an opportunity to pursue the study of (Icelandic) textiles in depth, and an opportunity to meet others with the same interest.
