A glimpse of an Aurora
All the people attending the course have now arrived in Reykjavik. After breakfast, while those who'd flown in overnight from the US were catching up on sleep, I went to the Harpa Concert Hall to take some photos of this extraordinary building.
It had snowed overnight - a decent 5cm. So I took a slightly different and less icy route and found some fun street art along the way. The Harpa is one of Reykjavik's architecturally exciting buildings, with big spaces that can be used for opera, concerts, exhibitions, fairs and meetings. In fact over the weekend they had a food fair highlighting foods from around Iceland - herbs, jams, icecream (using liquid nitrogen that was dangerously close to the operator's body), skyr (Icelandic yoghurt) and chocolate (tested and found to be delicious).
Inside Harpa, the light comes in from all sides, and with many different hues of greens and blues, and even some yellow and pink. The shapes, colours and various facets of glass are based on the inside of a glacier - the photo below is one I took this morning inside the main entry.
Through the day we've had snow, sunshine, sleet, blue sky and grey clouds. This afternoon it was time to reorganise gear for the next 4 days when we head south & east of Reykjavik, and to then have our first meeting & briefing with Liza and Ira.
Our route has changed a little from the original plan due to persistent ice in certain areas. We each now have "spikes" to put over our boots to keep us safe on the icy stretches. It all still sounds amazing, with lots to learn along the way - and tonight did not disappoint!
This evening we went back to Harpa to take photos before sunset and to enjoy dinner. And "just in case," I brought along my camera, wide lens, tripod and warm gear.
After a yummy dinner (Arctic Char, gnocchi, lamb and fruit), it was time to walk back to our hotel. People left in batches - Sue and I left with Ira and Liza, and as we walked out the front of the building the clouds had broken up,with stars visible in some places.
Then Liza said "There it is!" And above me I saw vertical streaks of green - clearly an Aurora! Having only ever see white ones, it was amazing to see this green colour in the sky - ribbons of green streaks appeared in a couple of places between the clouds.
But soon the pesky clouds were coming across with only bits of Aurora visible from time to time. Sue, Petra and I raced over to an area that would give a good view - I setup my tripod, attached the camera, looked up - cloud. Clouds everywhere, totally obscuring the Northern Lights.
We decided to wait while Ira and Liza went to get the others. It started sleeting - we added more layers and tried to set up the camera settings on each of the cameras - it's much easier in daylight with warm hands and no pressure!
Liza and Ira were soon back with a few of the others, and Ira confirmed that I got it mostly right - I look forward to the opportunity to do it all again, very soon!
What a way to start day one of our course.