Golden Circle - Iceland

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http://www.heygo.com 14th February

Golden Circle Part I: Thingvellir National Park

Thingvellir is the only place in the world where you can stand between two continental plates.



Thingvellir National Park lies on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a gigantic 16,000-km fissure that stretches between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Iceland is the only place in the world where the fault line is above sea level.



This unique landscape is a result of the blanket of 10,000-year-old lava fields. Several eruptions in the area & shifting tectonic plates.



Thingvellir is known as the birthplace of Iceland as a nation, and home to the oldest ongoing parliament in the world.

The Icelandic Commonwealth period ran from the year 930 until 1262. The law council, Lögrétta, was the supreme institution of the Alþingi, and the Lögberg or Law Rock was its focal point. It was also a natural platform for holding speeches. A Lawspeaker was elected for a three-year term and presided over the council as the Althingi’s mouthpiece. All decisions were made collectively.

Legislative and judicial authority gradually transferred from the hands of Alþingi to Norwegian and later Danish rulers, and the Althingi became more of a ceremonial rite and festival in Icelandic society. The last assembly meeting at Þingvellir was held in 1798.

In 1843, the King of Denmark agreed to host an advisory assembly in Iceland. The following year, the country’s first official election was held, reinstating the Althingi, albeit now based in Reykjavik. With the exception of the period between 1799 and 1844, the Althingi has run consistently since its inception. To this day, it’s still the world’s longest running, ongoing parliament.

The gabled house we could see across the lake is the summer residence of the current Prime Minister.



In 2004, Thingvellir National Park joined the UNESCO World Heritage List.



People can scuba dive in the lake and anglers Anglers from all over the world are drawn here by the world’s largest wild brown trout. Arctic char are also in the lake’s clear freshwater, although I thought our guide Albert said Arctic Shark !!!



Someone in the group asked what animals were in the area, Albert replied Artic Fox, Reindeer, Mink & ‘Teenagers’. So he has a sense of humour that’s for sure.



Golden Circle Part II: Laugarvatn Fontana



Albert drove from the National Park to our second location. As he waited in the warmth of his car waiting for the virtual tour guests to arrive we could see a gabled house from the 1930’s.

We then set off to The Laugarvatn Fontana Spa - Thus popular spa is made up of a series of outdoor mineral baths, pools, saunas and steam rooms, located right next to the ice cold Lake Laugarvatn.

A couple of guests in the spa waved to everyone which I think they enjoyed the interaction.



This idea of building a sauna on top of the hot springs came in 1929, the original sauna, a simple shack with two separate compartments was built for the local community to enjoy.

The Laugarvatn community has a long tradition of harvesting the natural energy to relax and soak in the healing powers of the geothermal waters.

What we saw today didn’t open until 2011.



Albert, our guide took us to the edge of the lake where we could see some of the small hot springs and also where bread is baked in the ground where it is geothermally baked for 22-24 hours. This is Rúgbrauð, a traditional rye bread baked the Icelandic way

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