artKeflavik is known for two things - the proximity to the International Airport that is used as a hub by the major airlines that come to Iceland, and the no-longer present NATO base. NATO closed up shop here a couple of years ago which sparked fears of a housing glut and job losses as all the base housing would soon be public. Instead, the area was transferred to a local college and what was NATO and a US Naval Air Station is now a campus! New apartments here in Keflavik (the town at the foot of the hill on which the old airbase sits) are going up and Sigga tells me the immigrant population is rising as many come for construction jobs. Personally I'm surprised this little burgh isn't more popular with people from the capital, Reykjavik, which is just 40 miles or so away from here. No traffic, no bustle, beautiful views, and wonderful fishing history.
The school I visit is in neighboring Njardvik which is literally just a mile down the road from Keflavik and is also a waterfront fishing village.
This Reykjanes peninsula of Iceland juts out of the SW corner of the mainland of Iceland and is geologically pretty active with underground volcanic vents. It is the home of the Blue Lagoon and some of the steam vents pipe hot water all the way to the capital city. Sigga had joked with me on my first visit that a local mayor was the one behind a lot of expense being put into road projects and public art (sculpture). He was, if I recall, refered to as the "roundabout mayor" due to the number of roundabout encountered when you reach this area, many with fountains and sculptures in the center of them and very attractive brick work on sidewalks and crosswalks. This has resulted in my observation that this is the town of 'tiny dancers', as listening to the cars drive over the pavers with their steel studded winter tires is like listening to a dozen tap dancers gone wild.
Where was I? Oh, yes! A stroll through town down to the small harbour and then back along the seawall.
First encounter is this interesting wall mural on the side of a building that now houses an art gallery for local aritsts. It appears to honor the women working shoreside with the catch as their husbands are out to sea :
Down at the harbour itself, where the restaurant and Duus' Mariner's museum I mentioned yesterday is located, there is this ship. I guess you could say it has been caught on the wrong side of the rocks, LOL!
A brief google of the boat's name seems to bring up a local news item refering to the Duus museum - I'm guessing the museum which sits on the opposite side of the parking lot out of site to the left of this picture, agreed to place the fishing boat at a permanent mooring here at the beginning of what is a sea-walk under construction. A temporary gangway is nearby as is electrical wiring indicating it will be accessible once all is in place :
Now turning a walking back eastward towards the town, the first memorial has a plaque in Icelandic so I can't say what it is about, other than it appears to honor the lives of 3 or 4 local fishermen lost at sea in 1930.
Maybe the ship was recovered but not the men and this was its anchor? :
Meanwhile, a trawler exits the harbour and heads into the bay - I cropped the high resolution image to create the header, the detail of the snowy cliffs 20 miles eastward are amazing and something I was not even focusing on! :
The same ship as framed from within a link of the anchor above :
Cotinuing up the seawall walk there is a park area between it and the local street about 100 feet away with picnic tables and bbq pits. In the center is this sculpture that I found someone on-line had identified as
"Anchor Boat" - modern sculpture is very popular here in Iceland with some very unique takes on the shapes
of things like viking ships and birds (more about that in a minute!) :
Way off in the distance is an aluminum plant. Out in the bay there was a small craft. Somewhere in the direction of both came the repeated loud BOOMS! of something. It wasn't large enough to be a trawler,
so I didn't think the little boat might be using cannons to fire netting over a school of fish. But I was unaware
of any excavations going on in the area that might be using explosives either. After taking this picture and then
seeing it high rez, I noticed that they lone guy on it, appears to be a lone gunman! WTF? :
The boat does have orange marking, and the man has an orange jumpsuit, and a half hour later or so I
spied this ship coming out of another harbour. This second ship is clearly a training vessel for the
Icelandic Coast Guard (with the loss of the US NAS, they now have fewer resources for sea rescues), complete with orange markings and men and women in orange jumpsuits - I'm not going to even hazard
a guess what the lone gunman/ICG man was doing out there!
Back into 'town' there is a small inlet with several tourist boats as well as a few commercial fishing trawlers. Summer is whale watching season and this one, appropriately named, is the local charter for excursions :
Also nearby, peering over the seawall, I spotted this little natural cove, with the very distinctive shapes
of molten lava etched into it :
On other nearby rocks sat some of Reykjanes Peninsula's largest population, Cormorants. I've yet to see
any Puffins, but Cormorants? I seen plenty! I guess they are revered for their fishing abilities and maybe even as guides for fishermen since they will be found bobbing on the water and diving for their catch. I contemplated a silly thought and searched on google only to be disappointed - look for "bird rising from the ashes" and you get references to the Pheonix. Try "bird rising from the water" (or ocean, or depth, or sea) and you don't get cormorant. Oh well.
So, little wonder that some artist decided to do a modernistic appreciation of them to be set here on
the shore complete with its own yet to be completed spotlights :
