Parísarhjól

The Reykjavik Ferris Wheel

The idea of ​​a Ferris wheel at the port of Reykjavík has come up again and again in recent years. It goes back to a city working group that discussed ideas for improving the quality of life of city residents and the possibility of offering special outdoor activities near the sea. Many found the idea "funny", and partly on the premise that neither the city nor the port would have to cover the costs of the Ferris wheel, in September 2023 a majority in the Reykjavík city parliament voted in favor of then-mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson's proposal, to commission a feasibility study for a Ferris wheel on Miðbakki.

However, in a survey in September 2023, only 34% of the population liked the idea, and 42% of people rejected the idea of ​​setting up a Ferris wheel on a trial basis at the old harbor in Reykjavík. Younger respondents tended to like the idea better than older ones and people from Reykjavík were 46% against the Ferris wheel, while in other areas only 35% were against it.

In March 2024 , the city of Reykjavík put the project out to tender , with the potential operator supposed to cover the entire costs of building and operating the Ferris wheel, while the city would make the area at the harbor available for a certain period of time. The height limit for the Ferris wheel was around 30 meters, and the construction must "withstand Icelandic conditions", including the peculiarities of wind and weather.

Taylor's Tivoli car
(at the folk festival in Selfoss)

Four potential operators contacted the city within the tender period, and in May the contract was awarded to the company Taylors Tivoli Iceland ehf as a pilot project for a summer period . The owner of the company, Kane Taylor, runs rides at Icelandic folk festivals ("tívolí") and owns other Ferris wheels, so he has relevant experience.

The contract runs until September 2024 , meaning the operator pays 1 million ISK (the equivalent of around €6,600) per month for the use of the area at the harbor, where there is actually a kind of bicycle parkour.

The Ferris wheel should be 32 meters high and have 24 carriages , usually with 6 seats each, but it should also offer wheelchair access. Around 140 people could travel if all cabins were full.

The Ferris wheel was shipped to Iceland in pieces and was originally scheduled to be installed at the harbor on Miðbakki in early June 2024. It could actually be built and put into operation on the national holiday, June 17, 2024 .

Reykjavík (2024) - London and Vienna (2016)

Ferris Wheel - Ferris Wheel - Parisarhjól

The English term "Ferris Wheel" goes back to George Ferris, the inventor of the Ferris wheel at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The Ferris Wheel at that time was a good 80 meters high. A British engineer then bought the patent for the Ferris wheels from Ferris and built four more Ferris wheels in Europe. The only one of these wheels that is still standing today is the Vienna Ferris Wheel in the Prater with a height of around 64 meters , which was built in 1897 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Also well known is the London Eye , the 135 meter high Ferris wheel on the Thames, which was put into operation in 2000. It is now considered one of the symbols of the British capital.

The Icelandic word for "Ferris wheel", namely "Parísarhjól", the "Paris wheel", goes back to the Ferris wheel that was built on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 . It was in operation until 1920 and, with a diameter of 100 meters, was the largest Ferris wheel in the world throughout its operational life.

Opening hours

The Ferris wheel is scheduled to remain open until September 15, 2024 , daily from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. (subject to short-term closures due to weather ).

Prices

The price for a ride on the Ferris wheel in Reykjavík is 3,000 ISK for an adult , which is the equivalent of almost €20, and for a child under 1.40 m 2,000 ISK (the equivalent of around €13.25). There is a discount for 4 people, then the trip for all four will cost 10,000 ISK (a good €66).

If you book a ticket online on the website reykjavikwheel.is, it costs 500 ISK (around €3.30) less per person.

Price comparison

Above: Ferris wheel at the Wiesbaden Christmas market
Below: Vienna Ferris Wheel and London Eye

Just for fun, I looked online to find out how much a ride on a Ferris wheel costs somewhere else:

For the London Eye, an advance ticket for adults costs 29 pounds, or around €33, according to the homepage, otherwise the price is probably around 42 pounds, or €49. For children aged 2 to 15, the ticket is slightly cheaper in advance at 26 pounds or regular 38 pounds; children under 2 years don't cost anything.

In Vienna you probably pay €14 for an adult and €6.50 for a child for a 12-minute ride on the historic Ferris wheel.

At the recent fair in Frankfurt, as far as I found online, it was around €6 per adult and €4 per child.

Reactions of the population

In the first week after the Ferris wheel opened, an average of 150 people rode it per day. Considering that around 140 people could ride the Ferris wheel when fully occupied, I don't think that's that much.

In a survey at the end of June, 15% of Icelanders said they had already ridden the Ferris wheel or at least thought they would ride it. The current mayor of Reykjavík, Einar Þorsteinsson, was quite satisfied with this - after all, that would be almost 60,000 people who would perhaps ride the Ferris wheel.

In fact, the number of visitors probably falls short of the expectations of the city and the operator. There wasn't much activity around the Ferris wheel, as Kane Taylor, the owner of the operating company Taylor Tivoli Iceland ehf., explained in a newspaper interview at the end of July. But that is also due to the bad weather and the sometimes very negative publicity. He also has various marketing ideas, in particular they want to get more locals excited about the Ferris wheel. There is now an offer through a telephone provider where you can buy two tickets for the price of one. Taylor said he hoped the measures would have an impact in the future and that visitor numbers would improve. A balance will be drawn at the end of the summer.

The city also emphasizes that this is a pilot project and that a decision will be made at the end of the summer whether the bike will be rebuilt next year.

When we were in Reykjavík during the week, we also took a look at the Ferris wheel. A few young people were playing football nearby, a number of tourists were walking along the harbor, but there was actually no one at the Ferris wheel, not a single person was riding the bike, even though it was spinning diligently.

To be honest - we didn't go along either.

On the one hand, the price isn't a bargain, and on the other hand, my husband is afraid of heights.

I had thought about going for a ride to look at Reykjavík and the local mountain Esja "from above" from a height of around 30 meters, but somehow I just didn't feel like it, this completely deserted bike and then the location at the harbor, feeling crammed in between the newly built, relatively high houses on one side and a cruise ship on the other. The cruise ship that was at the port that day was one of the smaller ships with a good 500 passengers (the really large cruise ships don't dock at the "old port" in Miðbakki, but a little further out at the "new" port of Skarfabakki, where, by the way the ferry to Viðey also starts). But spend 20 € or with children (over 1.40 m) then even almost 40 €, just to be able to see the passengers in their cabins and on the deck...?

I just didn't like the location, I missed the space, the view...

I'm curious to see what the conclusion of the city and the operator will be at the end of the summer, and whether the pilot project will be continued next summer...

When we were in the city again at the weekend , this time in calmer weather, the Ferris wheel was busier , at least four of the cabins were occupied, one even had four or five people.

You can stand towards the Ferris wheel however you want - it's all a question of perspective!

[Translated from here.]

Retrospect - Gleðigangan 2024

On Saturday we were again at Gleðiganga , the annual Pride parade in Reykjavík .

The "hinsegin dagar" , the " queer days ", have been celebrated in Reykjavík since 1999. The first parade through the city took place in 2000, with around 12,000 visitors.

The Icelandic word " gleðiganga " means something like " run of joy ".

A proud partner of the Pride Parade is also the city of Reykjavík , which takes part in the parade every year with a large group. The city says it is proud of its queer employees.

The mayor also marches every year, here in the picture the incumbent mayor Einar Þorsteinsson is walking next to his wife, who is pushing their offspring in the stroller, and is holding up a poster: The fight is not over yet, we are proudly carrying on!

The parade began at the stroke of the Hallgrímskirkja bell at 2 p.m.

Here's another reminder: Don't panic about HIV-positive people. Nowadays, those affected are treated with appropriate medication so that they do not pose any risk of infection!

I found the Gleðiganga this year more political than usual.

Here is a group who, among other things, are holding up signs with the demand or statement "Hinsegin flóttafólk á heima hér", "Queer refugees are at home here".

This was followed by a group demanding freedom for queer people in Venezuela. There is also a specific reason for this:

According to media reports, around seven families from Venezuela, who had been living in Iceland for one to two years but whose asylum applications had been rejected, were deported from Iceland in the evening on the day of the Pride Parade. A group of Venezuelans protested at the airport in Keflavík against the deportation of their compatriots.

According to the chairwoman of the General Affairs Committee, the affected people were "encouraged" to voluntarily return to Venezuela. In a press release on Saturday, she said that the proportion of asylum seekers in Iceland is very high in relation to the population and that the government's aim in recent years has been to reduce this proportion.

For a time, people from Venezuela applying for international protection in Iceland were granted temporary residency rights, but a decision to this effect in 2022 was reversed in 2023. The immigration authority was authorized to reject applications for international protection from people from Venezuela on the grounds that the situation in their home country is improving. Since the beginning of 2024, Iceland has been deporting rejected asylum seekers to Venezuela.

The refugees from Venezuela decided to come to Iceland because they believed they would be safe here, especially since the country does not have diplomatic relations with Venezuela. Individuals affected by the flight on Saturday evening told Icelandic media that they had "voluntarily" signed a willingness to leave the country because otherwise they were threatened with the police. The immigration authority is of the opinion that, despite the unrest after the presidential election on July 28, 2024, deportations to the South American country can still be judged to be so safe that there is no obstacle to the departure of rejected asylum seekers to Venezuela; There should be no special regulations for Venezuelans.

Another group protested for freedom in Palestine under the slogan "No Pride in Genocide". Many participants in the parade wore Palestinian scarves. Sometimes "Intifada" was chanted, if I understood correctly.

Amnesty International called for human rights under the motto “Human Rights are my Pride”.

Beautiful, flashy, colorful and powerful - the costume with the white feathers always needed someone to help. But it looked very nice!

By the way, as every year, the Fríkirkja parish priest stood on a table in front of his church door in full regalia, with a flower chain around his neck and flags in his hand, and eagerly and cheerfully blessed the procession as it passed by.

I noticed afterwards that the steps to the altar in Hallgrímskirkja , the parish church of the Icelandic State Church ( Íslenska þjóðkirkja ), were also decorated with a large rainbow flag. The statement on the church's account states that the "hinsegin dagar" are important, they "draw attention to inequality and violence and break the silence." "The Hallgrímskirkja supports the fight for the rights of the queer community". I would also like to see such an explanation from the large churches in other countries, especially in my home country Germany!

Here again the call for more moral courage: We support our queer friends. What's wrong with you?

The end of the 2004 Pride Parade was the float with the large wedding cake, with the well-known Icelandic singer Páll Óskar and his husband Antonio standing on the cake. The two have been newly married since March 2024. Antonio came to Iceland as a refugee from Venezuela and he and Páll met on a dating app and fell in love. With the wedding cake they also wanted to celebrate living in a country where they can get married.

Páll said in an interview that he wanted to "bake a wedding cake" to commemorate the first rights granted to queer people in 1996, when gays and lesbians were allowed to enter into permanent, state-recognized relationships. “These were the first signs that we were not second-class citizens,” said Páll Óskar. “So the wedding cake means a lot to a lot of people.”

In Iceland, there has been a registered partnership for same-sex couples since 1996, and the marriage laws were reformed in June 2010. The first couple to make use of the new legal regulations were the then Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and her partner, the writer Jónina Leósdóttir . For comparison: In Germany, registered partnerships have only existed since 2001, and “marriage for all” has existed since October 2017.

What I find particularly nice about all the parades is that the spectators join the end of the procession and then a large stream of people , happy and in a good mood, follow the procession, here on the way to the concert area at the Tjörnin city pond, to Hljómskálagarður , where the parade is always followed by a colorful open-air festival.

Takk fyrir komuna! Thanks for coming, thanks for letting us be there!

[Translated from here.]

Jarðarberjasprengja

Strawberry bomb

This was actually a recipe for a rhubarb bomb, but as is the case in Icelandic supermarkets outside Reykjavík - it's often a matter of luck what I get, especially with fruit and vegetables. I even often have problems getting cucumbers - it's even more difficult with fruit... Long story short: there was no rhubarb in the supermarket, neither fresh nor frozen. So the planned rhubarb bomb quickly became a strawberry bomb. Also very tasty!

I find this sweet mixture of whipped cream, meringue and fruit very typically Icelandic.

Ingredients for the strawberry sauce

400 g strawberries

4 Tbsp water

1 pinch of ground vanilla

4 Tbsp brown sugar

Ingredients for the meringue

200 g white sugar

4 egg whites

1 pinch of salt

250 ml whipping cream

Preparation

Wash and clean the strawberries and put them in a pot with the water, sugar and vanilla.

Simmer over low heat until the strawberries have become nice and soft; then chill the mixture.

Meanwhile prepare the meringue:

Preheat the oven to 275 °F (140 °C) upper/lower heat.

In a tall bowl, mix the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they start to stiffen slightly.

Add half of the sugar and beat on high until stiff.

Add the second half of the sugar and continue beating briefly.

Then spread the mixture as evenly as possible on a baking tray lined with baking paper...

...and bake in a preheated oven at 275 °F (140 °C) upper and lower heat for 60 minutes.

Whip the cream until stiff and pour it into the bowl or divide it into the glasses/bowls.

Crumble the meringue and pour over the cream.

Pour the cold strawberry sauce over the whole thing.

You can either serve the dessert in a bowl for everyone or in portions in a glass.

It doesn't hurt the dessert if it's a little steeped, so you can prepare it well, keep it in the fridge and then serve it to your guests.

[Translated from here.]

Hinsegin dagar 2024 - Reykjavík Pride

The "hinsegin dagar" (Reykjavík Pride) is THE queer festival here in Iceland, and has been since 1999. The event always takes place after the merchant's weekend at the beginning of August, with numerous events, discussions and festivals. The highlight is the Gleðiganga , the pride parade through the streets of Reykjavík.

The parade starts every Saturday at 2 p.m. at Hallgrímskirkja and then moves down Skólavörðustígur, the "Rainbow Street", then Laugarvegur and past Tjörnin to Hljómskálagarðurinn, where a large event area is set up.

The "hinsegin dagar" in Reykjavík are supported through various events throughout the country, in many places temporary rainbows are painted on the streets as a sign of solidarity and support - like here in Hveragerði .

The mayor of Hveragerði, Péter G. Markan, had painted a large rainbow flag here on this street on Wednesday evening, together with young people with visions and older people who still have visions - as the mayor wrote on Facebook: "As a reminder that Everyone has the right to freedom, recognition and peace."

On Thursday night, the flag was daubed with black paint, with a swastika and homophobic slogans.

The mayor's reaction:

He invited people to paint again on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. He called for people to meet hate with love, the graffiti was wiped away and it became - even more so now! - the street in front of Skyrgerðin is also painted in rainbow colors. There can only be one reaction to the graffiti: " #The rainbow is getting bigger and brighter - it shines beautifully."

The graffiti is a reminder that the fight for recognition and equality will continue, the mayor said on his Facebook page:

Hátrið ut, kærleikanum allt!

Hate out, love for all!

We drove past Hveragerði on Friday and looked at the bigger, brighter rainbow.

And today we drive to Reykjavík and are on the road at Gleðiganga from 2 p.m.

[Translated from here.]

Flúðir um Versló - Traktoratorfæran

And have you ever been to a tractor race, really through mud and water?

Such a race takes place every year in Flúðir, on the merchant's weekend at the beginning of August. This year we took the opportunity to take a look at the event.

Flúðir is a town with around 800 inhabitants in the municipality of Hrunamannahreppur in southern Iceland. There is a lot of geothermal energy and hot springs here, the place was created around the greenhouses that were built here. There are still many greenhouses here today, but also outdoor cultivation. There is even a mushroom farm. Fresh vegetables from the farms can be bought here in the Small Farm Shop (Litla Bændabúðin) near one of the greenhouses.

The school in Flúðir (Flúðaskóli) was founded back in 1929 and was one of the first boarding schools in the country. Today it is no longer a boarding school, the school runs up to the 10th grade, but the upper grades are also attended by children from neighboring communities.

By the way, "Flúdír" is the Icelandic word for rapids, but the rapids in the Litla-Laxá river have now disappeared as a result of various construction projects.

There is also a large campsite in Flúðir and in summer a large folk festival takes place here on the merchant's weekend, the "verslunarmannahelgi", or "Versló" for short - Flúðir around Versló.

The merchant's weekend with the public holiday on Monday is a long weekend for many Icelanders and practically the biggest travel weekend of the year in Iceland. People go to the countryside in droves and there are many big festivals and celebrations. The most famous festival of the weekend is Þjóðhátið í Vestmannaeyjum, the big folk festival in the Westman Islands. But there are also many folk festivals in the countryside, such as here in Flúðir at "Flúðir um Versló".

Source: Flúðir around Versló

In addition to an extensive music program with various well-known Icelandic bands, there was a full family program here throughout the weekend - and it even didn't rain at any of the events (comparatively a miracle, given the rainy Icelandic summer this year). There was a lot on offer, especially for children, from the bouncy castle to the magician to the BMX race and the "furðubátakeppni" on Sunday afternoon, a "miracle boat competition" in which around 20 homemade boats that were pulled across the river take part.

The highlight on Saturday afternoon was the Traktoratorfæra, the annual world tractor championship in Torfdalur, at 3 p.m.

The "Peat Valley" is located by the Litla-Laxá river, behind the campsite, so to speak. Here's a view from above over the event site. In the background you can see the slope where the tractor event takes place.

I read something in the media about “several thousand visitors” to the Traktoratorfæra, yes, come on, we had gotten that far with our rough estimates!

Similar to this, I imagine the first Thing gatherings of the Icelanders over 1,000 years ago in Þingvellir, when the masses of people had come together and everyone was sitting together up the slope.

Well, maybe there wasn't such an improvised bridge over the river back then... but it held up well!

Then we looked for a place on the slope and the event began.

A total of 7 drivers took part in the tractor race with their somewhat modified tractors. "Torfæra" is the Icelandic word for a "place that is difficult to pass", "torfær" means "impassable". A "torfæruhjól" is a "cross-country bike". The event was a kind of cross-country race for small tractors.

To be honest, I didn't really understand the details - there was a parkour marked out with flags through this mud-and-water landscape here for the tractors, which they had to complete first in one direction and then in the other. They sometimes plowed through the water and emitted considerable clouds of black smoke!

At the end of each lap the tractors had to come out of the water again via this point. Sometimes it didn't work straight away, sometimes it really took several attempts and the presenter and audience roared and cheered with enthusiasm until it was finally achieved. Even my offspring, who wasn't really that convinced by the event, really took part - yippee!

However, everything didn't always go well in the water fight, at times it looked very critical, but the tractor still held on bravely....

... but for one driver the water pooled too high above the vehicle and the engine successfully drowned, in the truest sense of the word.

One of the small racing tractors had to be pulled out of the water by the large tractor using a thick tow rope.

At the end, the racing tractors all did a few wild laps on the lake - I have no idea, maybe there was a system behind it, I just didn't recognize it..? But it was fun and loud and people went along enthusiastically.

To be honest - I didn't really understand who won or whether there was even a winner. There was talk of judges and scoring, but unfortunately my Icelandic still doesn't reach that far. In any case, no one was visibly honored. I believe.

After the tractors, there were two adapted racing cars out of competition, which felt like they were just flying over the water at high speed and with a large water fountain.

One car managed to "fly over", the second didn't, it crashed. Initial attempts to pull the car out with the large tractor were not successful; finally the crane moved in and ultimately lifted the car out of the water and back onto land with its large shovels.

On the way back we saw one of the tractors being towed through the river by another one, the rear tractor had a completely flat tire on the right back... but in the end it rolled away at half power along a gravel path.

My conclusion of the day..? It was something different, lots of people, a good atmosphere and definitely an experience!

[Translated from here.]

Uppáhalds gulrótarkakan mín

My current favorite carrot cake

I have baked countless carrot cakes over the last 10 or 15 years, in many different variations and variants. The cake is my daughter's declared favorite cake; she has wanted it for her birthday for years, and of course I also baked a carrot cake for her confirmation, her wedding and the christening of her grandchild.

Some of them were rather opulent cakes, some were quick, simple cakes baked in a classic loaf pan, some with cream cheese or cream, and some just with icing.

Over the years my recipes have changed, and the last few times I baked carrot cake with peaches in it, along with chopped hazelnuts and almonds. At the moment, this is my current favorite version of an Icelandic carrot cake.

Recently a friend of mine, who I wanted to bake a cake for, asked me if she would like the carrot cake..? Yes, of course, of course! And when we had visitors over the next few days, I baked carrot cake again and the visitors raved that it was, without a lie, the best carrot cake they had ever eaten... Well, that makes you feel...!

Ingredients for the dough

250 g soft butter

250 g brown sugar

5 eggs (separate)

170 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

100 g chopped hazelnuts

100 g chopped almonds

1 can of peaches

1 pinch of salt

250 g carrots, peeled and grated

Ingredients for the glaze

400 g cream cheese

250 g mascarpone

200 g powdered sugar

2 Tbsp peach water

2 - 3 Tbsp chopped hazelnuts

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

Mix the butter and brown sugar until fluffy, then add the egg yolks one at a time and mix.

Add flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix.

Take the peaches out of the can and chop them into small pieces.

Add the chopped peaches to the batter and 3 tablespoons of the liquid from the can.

Also stir the grated carrots into the dough.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and carefully fold them into the dough.

Then divide the dough into two portions, put each in a springform pan lined with baking paper (9 - 10 inches (approx. 24 cm) in diameter), smooth it out and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 40 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

Then let the two cake layers cool thoroughly.

For the cream, mix the powdered sugar with cream cheese, mascarpone and approx. 2 tablespoons of liquid from the peach can.

Place the first cake layer on a cake plate or similar, spread about 1/3 of the cream on top and then place the second cake layer on top.

For decorative purposes, transfer some of the cream into a large syringe with a star nozzle, then spread the remaining cream onto the top cake base.

Scatter the chopped hazelnuts over the cream and pipe the remaining cream all over.

If possible, let the cake sit in the fridge for several hours and then serve well chilled.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]