Iceland — Land of fire and ice

The mountain scenery at Akureyri, on the northern coast, is also nice. This second-largest city in Iceland, which boasts of an alpine setting that would not be out of place in the Swiss Alps, oozes charm.

Look at any map of Iceland, and you'll see several large sections of white scattered across its face. These are the glaciers. Once you learn that "jokull" is the suffix that means glacier, their names won't seem so intimidating: Vatnajokull, Myrdalsjokull, Eyjafjallajokull, Hofsjokull, Snaefellsjokull, Gigjokull.

The granddaddy of them all is Vatnajokull. Covering about 3,280 square miles (1/12 of the country), this icecap is larger than all the other glaciers in Europe combined and is the largest icecap in the world outside of polar regions. It is thought to be about 2,500 years old and is 3,300 feet thick in places.

Smaller, but easily accessible is Myrdalsjokull, which is a popular area for snowmobiling — in the middle of the summer. (Note: Try not to snowmobile in the pouring rain, unless you want to get soaked!) It is rather amazing to think that under those hundreds of feet of snow, there is a dormant volcano. An eruption would create not only fire but also flood from the melting ice.

Many of the glaciers have tongues that melt into lagoons, but none is more spectacular than Jokulsarlon, which lies at the foot of Breithamerkurjokull (actually one of the broadest tongues on Vatnajokull's south side). Also known as Iceberg Lagoon, it is famous for the football-field-size icebergs that have broken off to float in the lagoon. Boat rides will take you among the bergs, which come in fanciful shapes and can be white, gray, cobalt blue or jade green, depending on their size, age and how many times they might have flipped over.

It is easy to imagine Jules Verne in a place such as this — filled, as it is, with otherworldly shapes and colors.

But if the varied and contrasting landscape of Iceland makes you think of Verne's adventures, it also calls to mind the words of poet Robert Frost: "Some say the world will end in fire/Some say ice." Frost himself holds "with those who favor fire," although he admits that ice "is also great/and would suffice."

After viewing the power and effect of both these forces throughout this beautiful country, it kind of makes you wonder which side of the debate you'd favor.

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E-mail: carma@desnews.com