Day 3

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Day 3: Wednesday, June 24, 2009

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND

I awoke in a panic convinced I had over slept and missed a tour. Still very groggy from lack of sleep, I rolled out of bed, threw on some cloths and rushed down stairs just in time to see an Iceland Excursions van pulling away from the hotel entrance. I rushed after it only to find that is wasn't there for me, it was simply turning around. Ugh.

Looked at the time,... 8:25 am. My pickup scheduled for 8:30 am. Good, I have 5 whole minutes, whatever shall I do? Off to the hotel breakfast buffet where I ate a bread roll and drank a glass of orange juice. That was all the time available. No sooner did I finish than another Iceland Excursions van arrived. This one was for me. After a few stops for others, we were deposited at the Iceland Excursions office in downtown Reykjavik to exchange vouchers for tickets and to join our respective tours.

The tour I chose was the "Golden Circle Classic" (tour code AH12). I read somewhere that the Golden Circle tour is the most popular tour in Iceland. All the major tour operators offer some version of this tour that includes stops at Gullfoss and Geyser. But beyond that, the tours may differ. My tour for instance also included stops at a geothermal power plant, Pingvellir National Park, and Skalholt. But more about that later.

The Iceland Excursions pamphlet had prices in Euros which seemed odd until you consider how badly the Icelandic economy collapsed. It also listed prices in Krona, but they were mainly for reference. So, though it listed 9200 kr (71.88 USD) beside my tour, I actually paid less because they took the Euro price and performed the currency conversion. It appears the Icelandic Krona has rebounded a bit since the price list was generated.

While on our way out of Reykjavik, our guide got the tour started with some general information about the town.

Fun Fact: There really isn't much natural vegitation on Iceland. To forest the area around Reykjavik, the government planted Alaskan Pines on the outer edge of the city. After some time had passed, the trees didn't appear to grow, so the project was declared a failure. However, they didn't realize the trees were Dwarf Pines, so would never grow much taller than they all ready were.

Joke: How do you find your way out of an Icelandic forest? Answer: Stand up.

First stop on the tour was Nesjavellir, a high temperature geothermal area located about 15 miles east of Reykjavik on the edge of Lake Thingvallavatn. We stopped briefly to take in the scenery from a location that allowed one to see for miles. There was no vegetation (only moss). There were no animals. What one saw was volcanic rock, steam spewing from vents, and Lake Thingvallavatn fading off to the hills in the distance. It was unlike anything I've seen before.

Nearby we visited a geothermal power plan operated by Orkuveita Reykjavirkur. This is one of many such plants that uses geothermal energy to generate electricity and supply hot water. The hot water that is produced is pumped up over the adjacent hill and then flows with gravity down hill for miles to Reykjavik. Over the journey, the water only loses 4 degrees C. There the hot water is used in the normal ways we would imagine, but also to heat buildings.

We got a closer look at Lake Thingvallavatn as we headed north towards Thingvellir National Park. The park, which is on the north side of the lake, is important in a number of respects. Geologically we can see where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plate meetup to form the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Here we can see how the tectonic plates push and pull, grinding away, leaving crevasses in some areas and jutting rocks others. But even more imporant than the geological aspect, historically this is where the oldest parliament of the world was founded in 930.

During this stop, we got some free entertainment when a young college aged girl strip to a swim suit and jumped in one of the streams in an area where the water flows slowly and is crystal clear. It's gorgeous. Problem is, the water there is freezing cold. You should have seen how quickly that girl climbed out of there. I'm guessing they thought the water was heated by a thermal pocket. Sorry, no.

Moving on, we head east for our next stop at Gullfoss, a water fall on the Hvita River. This is one of those things that is difficult to capture sufficiently using a camera. If ever I go to Iceland again, I'd love to take a picnic and just sit out there. It's the Iceland equivalent to Niagra Falls. At one time there were speculators thinking of using the fast moving water as a means to generate electricity. However, since then the land was sold to the state and Gullfoss is now protected.

There is a restarant and shop at Gullfoss, so this is where we stopped for lunch. I had a salmon sandwich and some kind of vegetable soup. It was good and not too expensive.

Out front of the facilities there were some horses milling in their field. I'm guessing the horses are for horseback tours. The Icelandic horses are shorter and perhaps stockier than horses one might see in the USA. When out watching the horses, I could look off in the distance and see hills with glaciers.

After lunch we stopped at Geyser. As the name implies, this is where a geothermal pocket super heats water underground, the water expands drastically such that the pressure forces the water up through a hole in the group and shoots the water into the air. When one goes to "Geyser", you actuall see more than one geyser. There is an area of geothermal activity in which there are a few actual geysers. Our guide said for a while some of the geysers weren't performing as well as they use to, but a recent earth quake has resolved that problem. Sulfer is in the air and along the ground, where there aren't heated pools of water, there are flowers. We had time to see a couple of the geysers go off (see photo).

Our last stop (other than a shop) was Skalholt, a church and archaelogical investigation area. We returned to Reykjavik some time between 5:00-5:30pm. Good tour.

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Photos

Thingvellir National Park
Plate tectonics: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American Plate and Eurasian plates meet.

Gullfoss
Icelandic horses are small and sturdy.

Comments

[Rachel]

wow...
beautiful scenery! rivals scotland :)