Thousand Islands

[Kyle]A nice day finally happened. We woke not to the forecast rain, but to partly cloudy skies. We lifted the anchor at Cassidy's Bay and headed downriver.

A beautiful calm day meandering through the Thousand Islands region

Our first brief stop was to be in Clayton, New York, to stretch our legs a bit. They have a municipal dock there that used to be free for three hours, but is now a mere $7 for four hours. We figured that would be enough time to do some light provisioning and have some lunch before heading out again.

Then I realized we could also use some fuel after a day of two-engine motoring to get through the Welland Canal, so we added that mini-stop as well.

At the Municipal dock, we learned that the office that collects the $7 isn't open yet for the season. Dockage was back to being free, although we were on our own for showers and laundry.

We decided to start with getting the grocery run out of the way. The store was only about five blocks away. At the checkout, I was bagging things furiously when the whole operation came to an abrupt stop. I looked up and realized we were finished. I guess it's been a while since we've been to a supermarket and bought fewer than two trolley loads.

Once we got our mini-haul of provisions back to Begonia, we headed out for a proper walk through the town. Clayton is very tidy and the trees being covered in springtime buds and blossoms made it even more so. Unfortunately, like with the docks, most everything we would have wanted to see, like museums and restaurants, were also not yet open for the season. That made almost our whole exploration just a meandering walk through trim streets of post-war and Victorian houses. Just before we got back to Begonia, we did find the one pub that was open and decided to drop off our lunch money there.

Clayton (in NY State) provided a great place to amble, if we'd had more time we would have also visited its extensive Antique Boat Museum

For our next brief stop, Maryanne convinced me to tie up at the Rock Island lighthouse. Since it was less than a hundred meters off our route, I could hardly say no.

As we arrived, it quickly became clear that Begonia was too big for any of the docks there, apart from the T-head, which was marked with signs saying, "Tour Boats Only".

Three people were boarding a small pontoon boat at one of the other docks. After introductions, we learned they were staff preparing for the next day's season opener. They said no tour boats would be coming around before then, so feel free to use the dock. Just don't stay overnight. They also apologized for all of the buildings being closed but joked that we would at least be saved the $3 fee for entry. Then they bid us a good afternoon and left.

This made me give Maryanne a very wary look, for I knew that if the island were going to have any crime, it was going to have to come from her. Regardless, we enjoyed scampering around Rock Island, taking pictures and helping each other over the, uh...rocks.

We had Rock Island and its lighthouse all to ourselves

Twenty-eight minutes later, we had seen all we could see and were back aboard the boat again. The weather we had missed in the morning now seemed like it was thinking about arriving. The headwinds picked up, the clouds thickened and it was getting colder.

The whole area is littered with properties of all sizes and budgets, and often making use of even the smallest patches of rock above the water to build upon. That windvane is a life size bear!

We motored under the Thousand Islands Bridge and rounded Heart Island to the docks on the other side, where we were repelled by signs saying, "No Mooring 7pm to 10am". No worries, we'll just head about fifteen boat lengths over there and drop anchor.

Heart Island contains Boldt Castle, which probably comprises half its mass. Boldt is also closed for the season, but there was no way we're going to miss it, so Begonia will get to anchor in it's shadow for a couple of nights until it is not. We'll say much more about it later, but it's the kind of place where, if we take less than a thousand photos, it will have to be taken as a sign that we are getting much more discriminating about which ones will eventually be keepers and which will not. Many of the other local residents along the shoreline seem to be trying hard to keep up with the giant, well-manicured dwelling theme, which is at least making for an exceedingly pretty anchorage for us and all of the other boats anchored here. Wait, there are none yet. It's just us.

Eager to beat the throngs, we tied up a Heart Island's visitor dock as soon as the adjacent signage said it was allowed. We then presented ourselves and our printed tickets to the entry kiosk. The nice woman there told us it would be a few minutes. It was Opening Day and the staff weren't quite ready for us yet. I did my best to try to accept the unlikely probability that not one of the employees owned a timepiece. We were told the first tour boat was scheduled to arrive at 10:40. How would they know? Oh, yeah. There will be a boat coming around the corner.

They let us in at 10:35. Since it was not yet raining, we started our exploration with a lap of the grounds, starting at the old gate and the six-story children's play house that looked like something out of one of the Dr. Seuss books that it predates.

At the far end of the island, we found that the impressive and elaborate structure there, complete with an arched stone bridge for access, was the power house, where the generators, water pumps and a very nice keeper's apartment were housed.

We meandered through the gardens to the Castle, named not because it was fortified, like a European one, but rather because it is just very big at about 60,000 square feet (5,500 sq m). For comparison, if I remember correctly, the White House in Washington , D.C. is about 50,000 square feet.

As expected, the Castle is beautiful and grand and a bit more tastefully less over-the-top than, say, Hearst Castle. It certainly looks like it would have been a magical place to spend time for the leisure class.

Boldt Castle (Heart Island)

The Boat House

The story of Boldt Castle is a sad one, though. The island was bought, and construction was commissioned by George Boldt, which took place between 1900 and 1904. George was a self-made man who grew up poor in Prussia. He emigrated to the United States and (with a lot of input and support from his wife) eventually ended up building the original Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, now the site of the Empire State Building, where the room rates must have been 90% profit.

Soon, George was a bo-zillionaire. He bought Heart Island and built Boldt Castle for his wife, Louise, as a gift for summertime getaways. It's basically the same impulse that drives me to make my wife, Maryanne Louise, coffee every morning, except that I'm not a big show off about it.

The Castle was nearly done, like so close that the last of the finishings had already arrived in New York City to be forwarded on, when Louise, aged forty-two, died of what appears to be sudden heart failure. Knowing that he would never see Louise dance in the ballroom or entertain high society guests on the veranda, George was so distraught that he immediately ordered construction to stop and apparently never set foot on the island again. He died twelve years later.

The island was abandoned, left to the mercy of the weather and vandals, until the Thousand Island Bridge Authority took over and started the current restoration program. Their goal is not to finish the build, but get it back to the condition it was in when George ordered construction to halt.

From Heart Island, we then took the short boat ride to the Yacht house, where George's many, many fancy boats were kept. Today, the overflow is in the Clayton Antique Boat Museum. The Yacht house has the ability to house and haul out all of the boats within. Included in the building is a Yacht House Keeper's apartment that is nicer than any place I have ever lived. Plus, it has views of Boldt Castle. George, having risen through the ranks of the hotel industry, was apparently much better in his treatment of his staff than most of the old money dudes he was trying so hard to emulate.

Today, Boldt castle is the most popular tourist attraction in the Thousand Islands region. It is also understandably a popular venue for weddings.

Not being on the same schedule as the tour boat crowds, Maryanne and I had the luxury of time to really explore the castle and the Island's grounds. Then, once we had had our fill, we headed a few miles downriver to another private anchorage where we could enjoy the views from our own "veranda".

[Maryanne]During our stay at Heart Island, it seemed the whole world was witness to an unusually strong Aurora display of KP9. I'd been excited about it from the first hint of the forecasts, but the weather where we were proved to completely block any possible view with heavy clouds. UGH! Here is a picture from near my home in England where the aurora was overhead (an extremely rare event for so far south).

Aurora back in England (night of 10th/11th May) - Credit:Joel Spencer

A couple of nights later we did get to see some (much weaker) Aurora, but the pleasure still felt a little bitter-sweet

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Anchorage location >> On google maps

The Thousand Islands area (both in USA and Canada) is a picturesque region of many islands (way more than 1000) dotted with "cottages" from shacks to castles. Popular for boaters and visitors alike.

Iceland (Part 4 of 4)

[Kyle]Since our hotel was so near the center of Reykjavik, we only had to walk a block or so before we got into the pedestrianized tourist areas. After Maryanne grabbed a couple of crutches, we worked out a system where she would go at half speed while I darted back and forth taking photos as directed.

Reykjavik is a nice, clean city which would make for some pleasant strolling had the weather not been sleeting and a bit blustery. This is when the city's assortment of warm international cafés and toasty bakeries helped take the edge off. Also in abundance are lots of shops selling high-quality local woolens. We had no baggage space for all of that, although it did look nice, so we ended up basically eating our way across the city.

Maryanne made her way about town with her 'new' crutches

We walked along 'rainbow' street to the Cathderal and took the lift to the top for the views

After a brief non-food stop to go to the top of the spire at Hallgrimskirka, Reyjavik's distinctive cathedral, which was built to resemble the basalt columns of cooled lava in the mountains, we popped into Café Loki for a taste of some traditional Icelandic fare.

This is not for the faint-hearted, as Icelandic food is reputed to be an acquired taste. This was apparent as soon as we ducked inside out of the snow. There was something just a bit off about the smell. We perused the menu. Personally, I was hoping for a nice, strudel-like dessert or perhaps a tame cheese plate or something, but nothing like that seemed to be on offer. All of the items were way too pricey to be risking the cost for something we might not want to finish. The last of these was a sampler consisting of two dice-sized cubes of fermented (like for months) shark meat and a shot of the local spirit. This, we knew not to get. To quote one BBC presenter who had ordered that very item in this very restaurant, “That is awful! Both those things are awful!” Thus, it was a bit of a relief when the staff completely ignored us and two other patrons as we all waited for a table in the otherwise empty restaurant, despite Maryanne being front and center with her crutches. We made a hasty, if somewhat ungainly exit.

Instead, we went across the street for some of Iceland's unofficial food - hot dogs. Since restaurants are generally pretty expensive, the unassuming hot dog stand has become the eating-out option of choice for many Icelanders. They are numerous, inexpensive, and loaded with choices for toppings. Many also do soups with free refills.

Food and sightseeing

Maryanne said her ankle was still feeling tolerable, so we took the long way home via parks, ponds, and Christmas markets. The last of these was even held in a big, well-heated indoor convention area. Then it was a fuh-reezing walk back to the hotel via the wind blown waterfront.

A cute cat cafe was one of the many stops, and the christmas season was clearly underway with roasting chestnuts, yule characters in the street, and lots of christmas jumpers in the pub

We wandered all over town and ended at the waterfront and the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre (with hand bell ringing and local fare to sample)

We ended the night with a trip to the nearby lighthouse for our last aurora

We were pretty sure we had done a pretty good job of seeing most of the touristy things in Reykjavik on the first day. Because of that and also a little bit to avoid daytime parking charges, we drove up into the mountains to see Geysir. This is the geological feature after which all of the others are named, so that's why this one gets to be a proper noun. There was a full-on blizzard going on there by the time we arrived. The blowing snow, icy path, and poor visibility made our visit there a bit shorter than it would have been on a nicer day.

We drove part of the 'Golden Circle' with it's Geysirs, and more waterfalls

Even though the blizzard was intensifying, we drove the extra few miles to Gullfoss. Gullfoss isn't Iceland's highest waterfall or the one with the most voluminous flow, but it is the most visited, since it is both impressive and not too far from Reykjavik.

Due to the recent precipitation, the flow was quite impressive today. Maryanne had decided to skip seeing the falls because the walk from the lot was both long and icy, so I did a tour of the overlooks myself. Once I did an about face to head back to Maryanne and the car, I couldn't help but notice a special, up-close parking lot for bus tours and people with mobility problems. I half walked, half skated back to Maryanne to give her the news that she wouldn't have to miss seeing it in person after all.

Worried the weather was going to close in on us, we bid a hasty retreat back to the city for a stint at the Perlan Museum.

The Perlan is built in the pentagonal space inside and between the five giant geothermal hot water tanks that supply and heat the city and surrounding areas. The museum has the usual interesting museum stuff. The three big highlights were a planetarium show with beautiful time-lapse photography of the Aurora Borealis from various locations in Iceland, an artificial ice cave, and a short large-format movie of the Fadragadsfjall eruption in 2021. The photography in that one was absolutely incredible. Also, we got to have a taste of licorice gelato, which I actually liked very much.

At the entrance to the ice cave was a copy of a memorial plaque that was laid atop Ok, one of the volcanoes visible from Reykjavik. It reads:

A Letter to the Future

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path.
This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done.
Only you know if we did I it.

August 2019
Atmospheric CO²: 415ppm

The Perlan Museum enabled us to again get close to the ice (but this time in a giant freezer) - it had plenty of other exhibts also

The Perlan museum also has its own Aurora display (much better than we were capturing)

With one more day in Iceland, we decided to do a short trip to the Reykjanes peninsula to the geothermal areas west of the closed road to Grindavik. This area is admittedly less picturesque than some others, but it's proximity to Reykjavik/Keflavik was a bonus.

My main reason for wanting to go was a bit of a cheesy one: to walk over the Bridge Between Two Continents. Here, the edges of both the North American and the Eurasian Tectonic plates can clearly be seen on either side of the rift created as they part at a rate of 2cm/yr.

And on our last full day we visited the Viking Museum and the Reykjanes peninsula. There is obviously plenty of geological activity (even well outside of the closed areas), The last picture is one of the few places you can 'see' the American and European continent ripping apart (the Mid-Atlantic Rift)

We also went to the dramatic South Coast, where a touching memorial to the Great Auk that was hunted to extinction in the mid-nineteenth century now stands. The forlorn statue looks out across the sea to the rocky islands where the last one in Iceland perished.

Just a couple miles from the power station, the Gunnuhver Thermal area has a few features we were able to see. Of particular interest to as was that the main hot spring, which we had most frequently seen depicted as a steaming pool. Now it was a bubbling geyser billowing huge clouds of steam downwind.

For our last night in Iceland, we stayed in a significantly downgraded accommodation that at least had the benefit of being right at the Keflavik airport for our early flight. When we awoke at 3am, the big news was that the Sundhnúkagígar eruption, which had most recently been reducing in probability, had happened and that it was stronger than anticipated. A 3.5km fissure had opened up that was spewing lava. The eruption was localized and low enough in ash content that the airline was not anticipating any service disruptions.

On the drive to the airport, the jagged red line of lava was clearly visible. That explains the geyser yesterday. We were just over there ten hours ago!

Our view from the car, and the helicopter view on the news of the overnight eruption

At the terminal, through the windows at the gate, lava could even be seen bubbling and spitting in the distance. We ended up on the wrong side of the plane to see it very well after takeoff, but the departure path did a long curve around the yellow-hot fissure as it climbed and turned toward the British Isles for a long overdue family visit.