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On day three in Iceland we hit the road. With several maps and directions from Thor we decided to take on parts of what is known as the Golden Circle road tour.
We started with the geothermal power plant about 45 km to the east of Reykjavik. Drawing from he large amount of geothermal activity where the North American and European plates come together, Iceland is powered mostly by hot water from deep in the earth. At the plant they draw water that is 300 degrees centigrade (to covert to F you roughly multiply by 2 and add 32...you can just forget the extra 32 here). They use the steam from the water to drive two huge turbines that power the generators that create 30% of Iceland's electricity. The water is cooled and then piped to Reykjavik where it heats 99.9% of the homes (wonder who got left out and where they find a repair guy if their system fails?). We noticed a slight sulphur smell to the hot water in the home where we are staying, this explains it. There are no waste emissions at all from this process, and the city even uses the run off
warm water to heat sidewalks and remove snow in the winter.
From the plant we drove to Geysir, where the first geyser was named after the village and thus gave the name geyser to the world. The place teams with hot pots and springs, and repeated warnings to keep your hands out of the water. We found the warning board, with its final admonition that the nearest hospital was 62km away humorous. And necessary given the number of tourists that could not resist trying to touch the water.
Next stop was Gullfoss, a mighty waterfall of some 30 meters. Seems the nation still is able to observe this national treasure, unimpeded, due to several farmers who refused to lease it for power when the British wanted to install a private generator.
With all this water around we knew we had to find a place for the traditional soak. Our target was a commercial natural pool called the 'secret lagoon' but on the way there Michael spotted some smaller thermal pools on the map. We made a couple of detours on back roads until we came to the small village of Hruni.
There we found a hot spring pool that was 'guarded' by the woman whose family owned it. It had been first dug by her grandfather for a sheep bath, then a small bath house was added (complete with turf roof) by her father and a second pool built. We joined several other intrepid travelers for a hour long soak in the pool overlooking the valley. Just what we wanted to find.
We managed a stop for pizza, at a place that was playing the Iceland v. Finland world basketball cup qualifiers. Who knew there was a World Cup in basketball, we could actually do well in that one (sorry US soccer fans...). And speaking of food, earlier in the day we had had a bagel with birch wood smoked salmon. It was good, but not as good as the delicacy Thorhere and Arthora had served us on our first night here. To begin that meal we had lamb tongue smoked char....yep, fish smoked over lamb tongue. When we asked about it the simple answer was that early settlers used every bit of every animal...and besides, it tasted great.
We then headed south to the
Myrdalsjokull, or Myrdals Glacier. We hiked up to and actually on to the glacier, not too far, they are somewhat dangerous. It was awe-inspiring to stand on the retreating tongue of the glacier and gaze up at the walls that it had carved centuries ago. The perspective one gets on human history when confronted with geological time is helpful in turbulent times like these.
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