I was wiped out from sleeping only about 2 hours before leaving for Europe, and sleeping fitfully on the plane, so I ended up sleeping in--missed breakfast, and booked an excursion trip. Could only do an excursion or go to the Blue Lagoon, because of airport bus schedules. I figured that seeing more than one thing was my best bet. Got picked up at hotel for no extra charge, taken to sales office near the wharf
where I paid, got on the bus and we headed out in the rain. We had to pick up some other people at the Laxness horse farm.
Icelandic horses are of a shorter stock. They are, quite possibly, more like medieval horses than any others, since we know that they were shorter in stature, stocky, hardy and fast. That would complement the fact that Icelandic is probably more similar in pronunciation to it's medieval ancestor, Old Icelandic, than any other standard European language. Halldór Laxness, Iceland's only Nobel Laureate for literature lived 1902-1998 right up the road, and his beautiful what Jag was sitting there. He's known for Independent People, Paradise Reclaimed and The Atom Station
First stop is þingvellir National Park where the first Alþingi, or Parliament, was ever held in Western Civilization.
Shot from atop Law Rock (see below)
þingvellir National Park contains Iceland's largest lake, þingvellir Lake
Chosen representatives would come once a year to the Lögberg, or Law Rock, to mete out justice. This was the only government for 300 some years--no laws besides what this group decided, no taxes, nothin'. It's all lava!
Lögberg
Going down behind the Law Rock
After looking at the park and þingvellir Lake from atop the Law Rock, we went down near the white church to look at one of the rifts filled with ice cold water. It's a steady 35°. Calm though it looks, the current beneath is so strong that it never freezes, despite how cold the air temp is.
The water's so clear, you can see up to 110 meters, or just over 120 yards. BTW--don't have a photo of it because we were back on the bus--but the air's so clear, we could see a mountain 75 miles away, and it looked only a few miles away. Forgot to mention that the river the feeds the lake is five times smaller (less wide) than the one that drains it. How is this possible, I hear you ask? Why, that is not logical, said a Trekkie. Ah, but 'tis, Spock. The FLOW in is so much greater than the flow out, despite the relative size, that Iceland's largest lake is maintained. Area reminds me a lot of Scotland!
Not sure of route, but somewhere along this trip, we saw a bit of Langjökull, the largest glacier in Europe at 1021 km squared.
Next, we went to the double waterfall at Gullfoss.
Shot from above the falls.
Canyon through which the water passes after the falls.
It's incredible force led people to want to harness it. Farmers resisted, and one woman in particular, Sigríður Tómasson, used to walk the 45 kilometers to Reykjavik across the lava fields several times a year in the 1930's. No roads. Her efforts before the modern government--Norwegian in reality, since Iceland didn't have its independence until 1944--paid off. A compromise was made to maintain the falls and to allow some power to be harnessed. Now it's a national park. Crystal clear water is in abundance in Iceland. So much so, that one pays only for access. Each household pays the same per year, whether they use 10 gallons or 10,000.
Next stop, a geothermal field where there's the geyser called Geysir, that gives us the word geyser. The only regularly active geyser, below, blows every 5-8 minutes. Water heats beneath the shaft, the cooler water above in the shaft acts as stopper, pressure builds and it blows. Ground around them is more than 100° F, so invariably they have a couple accidents every year where people get burned by stepping inside the ropes.
Mmmm...sulphur
Shot of a geyser shaft.
Every 5-8 minutes, this happens.
There's a geothermal field like this in Iceland, two in the US, one in New Zealand and one in Chile. During the Middle Ages, only the one in Iceland was known to Europeans and so that's part of the reason the name has stuck. My guess is that what is considered the "field" is much larger than what I have here, since even several kilometers away there were cordoned off areas near farms with steam coming out of the ground.
Anyone got an idea about this flower? They are EVERYWHERE in the lava fields--all around the airport too. This one was at the geothermal fields.
Newer lava fields (under 10,000 years old or so) only have moss on them.
Because we had all been good little tourists, and generally showed up on time at the bus, we had some extra time, so we went to these falls too.
Got back to the hotel to find that they had kindly taken the liberty to book me a shuttle to the airport--pick up at the hotel. Yep, just generally that very nice. Some kid forgot his camera on the trip, they called back to where it was, the next tour bus was going to pick it up and drop it off at the central tourist bureau. Still had some time, so I went down to a vegetarian café for a humus sandwich, latte and coconut pie that was amazing !! A striped yellow house ! No personal photos but, here's a photo from the Reykjavik Grapevine, and a map:
Agrandir le plan
Got the airport and saw a rainbow...at around 23:30:
So, what I saw was was much better than what I heard. While checking in, a group in front of me was having difficulty finding their dog. They saw it be put on the plane at their departure, but now they were checking in to fly to Paris and there was no dog to be found. The plane they had come in on was still on the ground, so they were going to look again...hmm. Speaking of the airline. Very nice staff and great service otherwise--first airline I've ever been on that boards in the middle of the plane. Stewardesses only and all in pumps or heels. Smacks of the 50's?
I must say that I didn't appreciate the insinuation that airport security outside of Iceland sucks. The only thing that was different was that everyone was either patted or wanded down. Would that be practical at JFK or O'Hare? The whole country of Iceland has fewer people than Pittsburgh, PA or Bakersfield CA proper
A geologist at UMM has suggested that Iceland has more attractive women per capita than anywhere else. An exaggeration, but perhaps not too far off, for those of you who like mostly blondes :)
I'm so glad I came here! Takk fyrir to all who made it such a wonderful stay, even if you never read this :)
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