Iceland rocks! (with bonus Rush reference)

On the way to Reykjavic from the Keflavic Airport, I noticed large towers of deliberately stacked rocks, which, from a certain angle and distance, looked as if they had the silhouettes of people.

What a strange and cool welcome, I thought.

Then we just kept seeing them them. The rocks – many, if not all, are volcanic – seemed magically stacked or at least magically balanced.

A small tower of rocks in front of more stacks that we found on our walk along the Reykjavic seashore. 

These reminded me of Celtic cairns we had seen in Ireland. (For Rush fans, they also reminded me of the cover of the band's 1996 album, "Test for Echo.")

Courtesy: Rush.com

But clearly Icelandic cairns are a thing. Only here, they're called:Vörður, which comes from the Old Norse word varða that means "to guard," according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. (Side note for pronunciation: the ð takes on a th sound.)

So what are they guarding in modern day Iceland? Sometimes the sea. Or the shore, depending on your perspective. The rocks along the harbor in downtown Reykjavic were filled with ones like these:

More stacks and carefully arranged piles of rocks. 

Elizabeth got a shot of me trying to memorialize this geo-trend. 

But when it comes to rocks, that's not all.

Santiago Sierra, a Spanish artist created the monument below of a boulder split by a metal cone, which stands across the street from the Iceland Parliament building like some watchful or omniscient sentiment. Sierra installed the monument in 2012 in the wake of protests over the financial crisis in 2008-09 in Iceland, which was hit hard.  For more on this, Icelandic journalist Snorri Pall Jonsson Ulfhildarson wrote a pretty comprehensive think piece about the complexity of and questions raised by the monument.

The rock's sign plate quotes the "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" of 1793 aimed at echoing sentiments from the French Revolution: "When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties."

Of course, not all rocks have to be spit from volcanos, stacked in magical towers or split in half for political/civic monuments. Sometimes they're just good to stand on. 

Elizabeth had to buy a hat. It wouldn't be an international trip if we didn't misjudge the weather a little.