Old Geezer Gazing at Gushing Geyser in the Gushing Rain Near Reykjavik Iceland

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I wasn’t feeling all that chipper to start our first day in Iceland, and no doubt my upset stomach was due to far too many glasses of wine the previous evening. Sharon got me one of her peppermint Tums after I returned from the shower; and, that did seem to help. I probably should have taken one last night. Temperatures were warmer than Greenland with the possibility of showers. Sharon had booked us on a “Golden Circle” private tour with about a dozen other people. Duncan and Pam were also booked on this same tour.

A hard roll sandwich is becoming “go-to” choice for tour early tour days; and, Sharon was happy to get another large chocolate croissant with her toast and potatoes. This morning I opted for two of their small chocolate milks to wash it down. And Sharon needed some help with that big croissant. On the way back to the cabin we greeted our cabin steward who wished us a nice day. Sharon noted, “You’re going to be busy today though, aren’t you?” The captain notified us yesterday that the crew and stewards would be doing a “Deep Clean” of the ship. When we got back to the cabin we saw that all of the bedding had already been removed.

We had no trouble getting off the Rotterdam; but, the ramp was quite steep getting down to the pier. We were told to “walk to the right” to get to our tour bus; but, all that we saw to the right was an awfully long pier that seemed to stretch on forever. The shuttle bus to the left look much more inviting, and it indicated that it ran to the terminal and back. We chose the shuttle and it took us to the pier entrance. There were many mostly large super-coaches waiting for the throngs of departing cruisers who booked excursions on the ship. Other ships would be in town today, and one of those was the Prisendam. Then we noticed perhaps half a dozen smaller shuttles to the right in which Sharon said were “The Private Bus Lot”. The large coaches were for the HAL tours. We’d been told to search for the “Geo-Iceland” coach; but, there was none. Our meeting time was 8:30 to 9:00 AM; but, it wasn’t quite 8:15 AM so I supposed they weren’t here yet. The guy that seemed to be directing people by the private busses didn’t seem to know Geo-Iceland from Horizons and just gestured his hand in a dismissive manner uttering “Over there… It’s Geo-Iceland Horizons… Same thing.” We headed “over there” but; we rather imagined our initial instincts were right. I found a place to sit, Sharon stood closer to the private lot, and it wasn’t long before I hear a faint “John” and a small private bus was arriving with “Geo-Iceland” blazoned on it just as Sharon’s email predicted. We boarded promptly at 8:30 along with seven others, and were ready to go except for the final five people our driver/guide Oscar was hoping to find. Oscar was checking on the phone what to do, when a couple did show up and breezed on the bus with the women airily asking as she boarded, “Ooh, were YOU waiting for US?” She didn’t do much to endear herself with us. Evidently the other person who was expected had called the tour office and was having problems finding us. Oscar told us that somebody from their office would try to meet him and get him to our first stop; but, he didn’t think that it was likely that they’d catch up with us. Another couple didn’t show up at all and at the end of the day there were one of those that hadn’t pre-paid for the tour. Sharon and most of the others had to pay to even book the tour (Sharon booked it last Oct). Oscar told us in a rapid Scandinavian accented English, “If you have any emergency and need to catch my attention, please just use my name… and aren’t you happy that I don’t have a name like Sumarliōi!” He said that we’d have about a one and one-half hour drive; and warned us, “At our first stop, please use the restrooms; because, the next facilities will not be until another two and one-half hours.” Oscar began a non-stop banter that his rapid speaking and heavy accent forced you to pay attention to and was actually very entertaining. He emphasized of course how wonderful a place Iceland is to live, with its free education, free health care, guaranteed financial assistance to buy your first home, and later in the tour he did of course concede that nothing is actually free; because, it’s financed by the 37.5% tax that he pays. There is no property tax and the average income is among the highest in Europe at about $75,000. I may have mis-understood him, and this may have been household income; because, Google lists the annual average income at about $35,000 per year. He noted that people in Iceland enjoy full employment and a very high standard of living. The suicide rate is just slightly higher than in the US; and, one-tenth of that of Greenland. There are a scant 300,000 people living in Iceland and about 100,000 horses. They have many greenhouses taking advantage of the ample geothermal heating available. We won’t be home in time for Team Trivia today, so I will just intersperse some interesting “Icelandic Trivia”. For example, to show you how this will work, I pose a question such as “What country in the EU produces the most bananas?” That’s right, you would answer “Iceland”! There are a lot of greenhouses and they take pride in the vegetables that they produce. We passed a restaurant that Oscar said did all of its cooking using geothermal steam to cook the food; and, using only Icelandic produce. Iceland is very restrictive on what can come to this island. No fresh meat or livestock can be imported. Trivia Question: “Which EU country has no mosquitoes?” Houses tend to be large; because, they are so easy to heat. Hot water pipes come into Reykjavik. Oscar said that the water reaches his home at 80˚ C and is used for space heating (radiators), heating his outdoor spas in his garden and then to heat the driveway to keep it ice/snow free. What a deal, no need to shovel snow. The pipes that bring the hot water to Reykjavik come from miles outside town through triple insulated pipes. The middle insulation layer is made from volcanic rock, and achieves a temperature drop of just 3˚ C from the source to arriving in Reykjavik. Trivia Question: “What country in Europe has the most volcanoes?” Oscar tried to claim “in the world”; but there are three ahead of Iceland, and they might surprise you. There is Indonesia in third place, behind Russia in second, and led by the USA! An interesting point of interest, driving through Reykjavik you are bound to notice more than one KFC; but, not one single McDonalds. Oscar noted, that both McDonalds and Burger King opened outlets in Reykjavik; but, both brands failed. What is it that Oscar said, “Their quality is not so good. There are just so many places to get a good burger in Iceland, they just never caught on.” I’m guessing that they don’t place a premium on convenience in Iceland. Oscar then said, “Global Warming…” He continued with a hush, “I’m always amazed how a chill seems to fill the bus when I mention this in a busload of Americans.” His point was that the waters around Iceland are warming and have attracted schools of mackerel. These have been eating the food that the puffins like to dive for; and, consequently the puffin population is in decline in Iceland. He also mentioned how polar bears would once drift ashore in Iceland on icebergs that would reach this far; but, now they tend to melt before the get close enough for the polar bear to reach the shore. It doesn’t matter Oscar said, polar bears can’t survive hear anyway.

Our first stop was at a rest area built on the intersection of two continental plates. You could get something to drink here, or some food, or use the facilities. They wanted $1 to use the facility. There was a box leading to the restrooms; men to the left, women to the right with a slit in the top to put in money. On the side was a flag of perhaps two dozen countries, and how much of that countries currency should be deposited for “maintaining the toilets”. Most people were not noticing the box, or pretending not to notice the box. I slipped in $1 when I left because I happened to have a dollar bill with me. Sharon saw me do this, and exclaimed, “They want you to pay!” The rest stop is a large rambling building/mall with many parts; one showed the result of a local home of what happened to following an earthquake. The kitchen looked like what happened to my kitchen in my condo back after the Northridge Quake: cupboard doors open, dishes and glasses thrown on the floor and broken and a total mess. Nearby was a floor divided by a jagged ribbon of smoked plexiglass about two feet wide that revealed a divide in the earth below the building. Cracks appeared in the rock through which you could see red hot embers. On the concrete floor the inscription read “North America Plate” and an arrow and on the other side of the glass ribbon “European Plate” and an arrow in the opposite direction.

We drove on to Kerio Crater where a beautiful Crater Lake had filled in with bluish-green water. Adventurous people could walk the crater rim as Duncan and Pam had done. Sharon and I just sat and enjoyed the view. The breeze was refreshing. Duncan even ventured down to the water which required a considerable descent. The final section had steps down to the water. This of course required a considerable ascent to get back to bus, and Duncan definitely had that “Okay, we don’t need to do that again look on his face.”

Our next stop was a waterfall; which, Oscar took considerable pride in noting that most tour guides don’t take their visitors to see this smaller waterfall just off the road. The falls were quite wide; but, the drop was not a high vertical fall. There was a lot of water, and around the bend there was a fisherman casting from a rock out in the river.

The Gollfoss (Golden Waterfall) was our next stop, and we donned our jackets when we got out of the bus. The winds were blowing the considerable spray from the water fall our way and we chose not to take pictures with the camera from this lower vantage. We did use our cell phones to take some pictures. We scaled the stairs up to the upper parking area where the bus would pick us up again. As we rose above the spray, we felt comfortable to take some pictures with the camera. The surrounding country is also beautiful.

Oscar then spirited us off to the Geysir Hot Spring Area. Oscar noted that the Geysir spouting spring is where we get the English word “Geyser”. It’s first recorded eruption occurred back in the thirteenth century, and until the 1960’s it would spout water into the air every six or seven hours. It then suddenly went dormant for five decades. Last year it again erupted three times, and there was some optimism that it may again become active. We were however coming to see Geysir’s smaller cousin who tends to erupt every six or seven minutes; not, the impressive height Geysir was capable of reaching; but, still in the neighborhood of up to fifty feet. Oscar said, “Please don’t put your hands into the water that pools about the geyser. Take my word for it, the water is hot!” Then he continued with a grin, “But never mind, should you fall in, we tour guides are very good at knowing when to pull you out when you are done.” This was also our lunch break spot, and we were given ninety minutes to explore the geyser and to have lunch in either the ala carte restaurant, Italian restaurant or fast food restaurant. “As long as it’s not the Italian Restaurant,” Sharon insists. We decided to go watch the geyser first. As we approached, we saw it erupt; but, the camera was inside my jacket protecting it from a sprinkle that had started up. Oscar had suggested, “When you go and watch the geyser, you might want to consider the wind. Stand on the dry side of the geyser.” Well, with the rain coming down it wasn’t so easy to spot the dry side; so, we took our cue from where people were standing. I readied the camera, and kept hitting the zoom switch to keep the camera from going to sleep. The next eruption sort of startled me, and basically used the point and click technique and did capture the end of the eruption as the water was falling back to the base. Oscar had recommended staying for two or three eruptions. I figured, I saw the first one; and, that was what I’d come for and I did capture something with the camera. Sharon wanted to stay and wait for the next event. Besides, it is raining harder now. On my way back, I did catch the next event… what a bust. It was a poof of steam and water that rose in an anticlimactic gush about fifteen feet in the air before sloshing on the ground. I knew that Sharon wasn’t going to be thrilled. And this old geezer wasn’t that impressed either.

We decided to eat in the ala carte restaurant which was not the most organized place. It’s a cafeteria-like affair; but, you need to go to each station and get what you want. There are pizzas and paninis and three kinds of soup and pastries and cookies and cake… Sharon got us a couple of sodas, I got a lamb sandwich with rhubarb jelly and a chocolate chip cookie. Sharon got some chocolate cake. We paid with a credit card, found a place to eat at a community table and had lunch.

After lunch we stopped by the European plate riff. The rain had let up. Oscar warned to tread carefully. At first nobody rose to get out of the bus; so, I did go out. He was right about treading carefully over to the edge where you could see down into the massive riff of the European plate. The North American plate was on the other side of the lake that now lay between the two continental plates. On our way to the next stop we came to a traffic jam, which seemed out of the ordinary. Then there were people running back and forth, and Oscar noticed, “There’s been an accident. It must have just happened.” It appeared that a car drove off the road and into one of those large lava rocks.

It took just ten minutes or so to make our way over to the Pingvellir National Park where we could see the North American plate up close and personal. This was also the land where many scenes in “The Game of Thrones” had been filmed; and, Sharon and I could see the similarities. Oscar dropped us off in the lower parking lot. He’d shown us another waterfall that had also been used in “The Game of Thrones”, and told us that if we walked the trail around and up and then back and up again on the other side of the ridge, and it all just sounded like too much walking for me. It was a mostly flat walk that grew steeper at the end, passing over the water flowing down into the valley from the waterfall that was no longer visible from the parking lot area. A bridge took us to the other side and now we walked next to the shear side of the North American Plate that was towering over us. The rocks are all volcanic looking. We were soaked by the time we got to the bus. We took our jackets off, put them in the overhead and collapsed in our seats like two drowned rats.

The weather was worsening. Oscar took a vote, to go back by way of the Highway, or to take another road around the rim of a crater, more scenic he assured us; but, it takes an extra 20 minutes. Nobody objected. Oscar stopped at one vantage by one of the hot water wells that was a source of hot water for Reykjavik. I felt obliged to get out, snapped a couple of pictures, and got right back inside; but, now I was really soaked. This might not have been the brightest idea that I’ve had as for the first time I felt chilled as well.

A steady drizzle poured on us when we arrived back at the port. I wanted to wait for the bus; but, it was nowhere to be found. Sharon continued on; and, soon I too decided to follow. As we approached the access booth to cross through the fence separating us from the ship we reached a throng of others also trying to get on the ship. Why is there always a backlog during inclement weather? People were lined up the gangplank, and the line was not moving. It must have taken twenty minutes to get on board. Nobody was smiling as the crew is saying such things as “Welcome back”.

I took a shower when we got back, and we went off to dinner. And wouldn’t you know: We wound up quite by accident sharing a table for six with Duncan and Pam. I had the Baked Polenta Caprese and the Thai Shrimp Bisque for my appetizer. I chose the Shrimp and Scallop Coconut Red Curry; which, I thought was very good. Sharon enjoyed the Cold Apple Vichyssoise; and, she had to make do with the everyday steak and baked potato. For the first week, there were choices for Sharon, and then one choice for Sharon, and now it seems like she’s pretty much limited to the everyday steak or chicken. Well, at least she has a choice!

We were ready to call it a day, there being no Show tonight and the casino is closed while we are in port.

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