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Published: September 30th 2017
Geo: 64.2573, -21.1443
Well folks.... I realize my blogs have been super boring this trip but frankly, we've been going-going-going and not sleeping much so by the time I write my blog I've given no thought to what I might say and all my wit is out the window. My apologies. Having said that, today was a very interesting day and I hope I can convey that in this entry as I am well-rested and awake (it's around 9pm here - we are six hours ahead of you).
Everything that is "the best" in Iceland is GOLD or GOLDEN and in Icelandic language that is "Gull" - even their beer brewed on the island (which is very popular but we've not tried any yet) is called Gull. So, today we took the "Golden Circle" tour outside of Reykjavik and went to some very interesting geographical locations made from fire (volcanoes) and ice (glaciers). Before I tell you about our stops on the tour, I want to explain that Iceland was created from a giant volcano erupting out of the sea. It is truly just a large volcano itself, or so it seems. All the "dirt" you would normally have in Missouri is volcanic
ash here. I think this is why a lot of the buildings are painted a dark grey - so if they get dirty, you can't tell. It is clear the very first time you start driving from the airport that the fields are just large volcanic rocks. They brought moss in from another country years ago and it took and now there is moss growing on some/most of the rocks and so it looks prettier now but it's still just fields and fields of volcanic rock and ash. Underneath most of the island are geothermal hot spas and water bubbling up (it starts out at around 220 degrees F) and the Icelandic people now use this water to heat the city streets (they are all heated for the winter), for energy, etc... Many of the farms, seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, have their own small geothermal setups to power their homes, water their greenhouses, to shower, etc. They very rarely have to worry about electricity bills or leaving the lights on all day in Iceland - especially around this time of year when the days are getting shorter and shorter. December 21st is their shortest day of the
year - sunrise is from around 11:30am to around 3:30pm - 4 hours of daylight only. During the summer months, however, they have almost 24 hours of daylight with June 21st being dark from approximately midnight to 3am - only 3 hours of dark. So, now that you know Iceland is very close to the Artic Circle and basically a large volcano with smaller volcanos within it, geysirs, geothermal pools of water, and crazy weather....now let's talk about our tour.... :-)
Our first stop was at a tomato farm. The tomatoes are grown year-round in greenhouses using 100% geothermal water and heat and energy. From seed to picking day is 10 weeks. There are no pesticides used as they brought in a small bug from Holland which crawls around the tomatoes and rids it from any naturally-occurring pests. They are pollinated by bumble bees brought in from Holland also. Every 8 weeks a Queen bee and her workers (the female worker bees are brought in - no males - as the females work much harder than the male workers and the male workers try to mate instead of working - go figure)...and the bees pollinate the plants and mark each plant
after they have done their work so another female bee does not come after her and do the same work. One bee can pollinate up to 2,000 plants a day! They are hard workers and die after 8 weeks which is why new bees are brought in. So, the tomatoes are just like our tomatoes and they were kept in very brightly lit greenhouses which were also very warm. They are under the lights 17 hours per day. They are picked at 7am and taken to the local supermarkets for sale by 9am. This particular tomato farm serves 18% of all Iceland's needs. The owners also had a café where they were selling homemade tomato soup made from the tomatoes picked early that morning - Kamie tried it along with many others from our tour and they all loved it. I did not try it as it was too early in the morning for me to eat tomato soup but we did buy some of their tomato-based pasta sauce. They said it had been made this week and is good for a very long time. They also make bbq sauce and many other items they were selling.
Our next stop
was Geysir - pronounced "Guy-ser" or "Gay-ser" - our guide pronounced it both ways many times. This is just a tourist stop to show one of many still-erupting geothermal areas. There is currently a Geysir by the name of Strokkur which erupts every 5 to 7 minutes but while we were there it seemed much more often and one time Kamie was joking around and it erupted behind him. I think he about erupted from the scare but I was laughing and laughing. This area also shows the beautiful mountains. The mountains are usually covered in snow in November and they actually do have a couple of ski lodges and they have cleared paths to ski on these volcanic, rocky mountains (amazing, huh?) but there is not enough snow this year. Actually, our guide told us today that on the record, there has been no snow in Iceland yet this year (just up high in the mountains) even though it has already snowed in Italy this week. They told us today was some of the best weather they have ever had for a trip like this in November and we were very lucky to have such beautiful, clear views of
everything.
By the way, we were looking at the giant gift shop next to Geysir and a hat I wanted there was a bargain at only $45. Kamie and I play a game now and see if we can find ONE thing in any gift shop that is under TEN U.S. DOLLARS - it is very rare that there is anything and there was nothing in this gift shop. I watched a lady charge $42 for two Christmas ornaments. Of course, I could buy a hat for $45 but then I would probably just leave it on the bus by accident or something...
Our next stop was Gullfoss Falls. A beautiful waterfall and an 80-meter deep crater created many years ago when a glacier started melting and the water carved its way between the volcanic ash. Now, of course, this is volcanic rocks and the water is still pounding it's way down from the mountains. It really is beautiful to see. The mist is all around from the water pouring at such a high rate and it is very loud here. We got a good workout walking up and down about a thousand stairs at this stop so it's a good thing
Geothermal spots in the mountains
Many people hike the mountains and then take a swim in these naturally-occurring spasthis is the first place we found Icelandic chocolate for under $10 per bar (no kidding).
We last visited Thingvellir National Park - it is pronounced the same way it is spelled but in Iceland, they have several letters of their alphabet that we do not have so they sorta spell it with a "P" at the front - it's a symbol that looks like a P at least. This national park is almost sacred-like to Icelanders for many reasons - one being this is where they became the Republic of Iceland in 1944. That is correct. They are only 72 years old as a country - very young. All of the people in Icelandic people have met here for many reasons over the years.... including meetings to hang men who had done wrong or to drown women whom they considered witches by popular vote or women who had been caught being sexually deviant somehow. There is a bridge in one of my pictures over a pool of water and that was the drowning pool. Icelanders still have celebrations here every summer and the park is full of people on picnics and etc in the summer. Also, this park is very
important as it is where today we "walked to America" - this park is where you can see the two tectonic plates - we literally walked between two continents today - the American and the Eurasian - the plates collided here years ago but now they are slowing pulling apart from one another and they have created a huge canyon which you can walk through (we did). You can also SCUBA dive under the lake and swim/snorkel/SCUBA between the two plates. You also have to pay the equivalent of just over 2 American dollars to pee here. I wasn't even impressed with the pee paper!
Kamie and I spent a few moments looking out at this beautiful park and the water and he said what a great day it had been....and he wished for some snow. I told him the day would be perfect if it snowed on our way back into Reykjavik. Five minutes later as we were driving home for the day...we were in the two front seats of a very large Coach bus....HUGE SNOWFLAKES began swirling everywhere!! The entire bus was astounded! We were under a snow cloud for all of five minutes before it stopped. It
was beautiful and perfect while it lasted. We were back at our hotel room by 6pm. We haven't ate yet so I heated a pot of tea and ate some crackers while Kamie snores next to me tonight. If all else fails....there is that chocolate which none of you need anyway! ;-)
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M&M
non-member comment
:) What a beautiful picture!!