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Reykjavík’s Music Festival and Cinematic Adventures
The Innipúkinn Music Festival is being held for the tenth time in downtown Reykjavík starting today July 29 and ending on Sunday July 31; the festival is Reykjavík’s main bank holiday weekend event. All the concerts will take place in the Idnó Theater and Restaurant and tickets for the events can be bought online. Weekend-long access to all concerts costs a total of ISK 4500 (USD 39 or EUR 27). The festival features Icelandic bands and was first held in 2002. Other events taking place in Reykjavík city over the weekend are concerts in the Harpa concert and conference hall and A Summer of Icelandic Cinema
, a local cinematic event where Icelandic films are being shown, will be held at Bíó Paradís, a new cinema located on Hverfisgata 54. In Árbaejarsafn museum the programming will be dedicated to children’s culture and games, Morgunbladid reports. On Sunday the program starts at 1 pm and will revolve around their present exhibition Komdu að Leika ("Come Play”); old-fashioned children games from previous centuries will be played and outdoor toys for children to play with will be made available to them. On Monday, a public holiday, children aged 8 to 12 years of age can attend a kiting course free of charge in the Kornhús
("The House of Corn”) from 1 pm to 4 pm. The Dillon House will be serving hot drinks.
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Fin Whale seen in the Bay today, July 25th !!!!
From our whale diary.. ! Only one word FIN WHALE, FIN WHALE, FIN WHALE, ok maybe more then one word :) what an exciting trip!!! We saw this huge animal ....second largest animal on the planet, could grow nearly to 27m long and can weight 80t. We saw the blow so many times it was amazing, only the blow could reach 6m. The black back and the dorsal fin in the evening sun....it´s just a wonderful creature. This very unusual visitor was even new to our crew members...they have never seen one in their life so we shared this incredible experience all together with our passengers:)
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Basking Shark seen for two days now
Today and Yesterday we spotted a Basking Shark in the bay. We really got close to the shark so the passengers got a good view of this second largest fish ! The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second largest living fish, after the whale shark. It is a cosmopolitan migratory species, found in all the world's temperate oceans. It is a slow moving and generally harmless filter feeder and has anatomical adaptations to filter feeding, such as a greatly enlarged mouth and highly developed gill rakers. The shape of its snout is conical and the gill slits extend around the top and bottom of its head. The gill rakers are dark and bristle-like and are used to catch plankton as water filters through the mouth and over the gills. The basking shark is usually grayish-brown i
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Seal Habitation in Northern Iceland Studied
The Institute of Freshwater Fisheries and the Icelandic Seal Center are currently conducting a twofold study of the local seal habitation by Vatnsnes peninsula in the Western Húnathing county in northern Iceland. In one of the studies researchers investigate the effects the seals have on the salmon population in estuaries; the second research study focuses its attention on the effects the presence of tourists has on the local seal population, ruv.is reports. Somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 seals dwell on Vatnsnes and regular tourist excursions take place in the area, operated from Hvammstangi, where tourists travel by sea to seal habitations.
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The road across Mýrdalssandur closed - Reconstruction is underway
Following a glacial flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier last Saturday, which swept away the bridge across Múlakvísl river, the road across Mýrdalssandur in South Iceland is closed (Road nr. 1 - The Ring Road). Reconstruction of the bridge is underway, and alternative means of transportation across the river are under consideration. As from today large 4x4 trucks will ferry people and smaller cars over the river. Authorities will make every effort to restore traffic across Mýrdalssandur back to normal as soon as possible but it is expected that building a new bridge will take about 2 weeks.
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Activity in Hekla Volcano in South Iceland Subsiding
The unusual activity that was picked up by sensors in the volcano Hekla in south Iceland during and before last weekend has now mostly subsided. Even so, travelers are warned about hiking on the volcano. Gunnar B. Gudmundsson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told Fréttabladid that the movements registered were between ten and 20 millimeters, which isn’t considered to be of any significance. "However, there is some activity in the volcano’s depths. One can say it is ready to erupt, but whether it erupts tomorrow or in 20 years, we don’t know,” he explained. Hekla has erupted in ten-year intervals in the past decades and the last eruption was in 2000. Gudmundsson said that earthquakes usually indicate an imminent eruption one or two hours before it begins, and in such a case the seismic activity would be much stronger than what was measured last weekend.
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The Coldest Month of June Since 1952
The Coldest Month of June Since 1952 Last month was recorded to be the coldest June Iceland has seen in more than a decade. According to information given to Morgunbladid by The Icelandic Met Office, the northeastern parts of Iceland were particularly cool. The average temperature in Reykjavík was 9.2°C and 6.7°C in Akureyri, or 2.4 degrees below average. Akureyri has not seen such low temperatures in more than half a century, or since 1959, and the summer in Reykjavík has not been this cool since 1999.Morgunbladid spoke to meteorologist Trausti Jónsson and asked about the cool temperatures in June. "I can’t say if the weather will improve or not. There are records of several cold months of June but every such summer has been up and down.