The Golden Circle - Iceland Day 3

Today, we took an incredible driving tour through Iceland's Golden Circle, a national park that includes volcanoes, waterfalls, and glaciers - oh my!

This awesome selfie is at our first stop - a volcano called Hengil. It was the first time I had a chance to walk around Iceland's natural world (that is to say, went beyond Reykjavik) and it was glorious. The temperature was in the mid-60s with a refreshing breeze, and everywhere I turned there was a fresh bit of scenery to take in and admire.

The route that we had taken to climb halfway up this volcano was lined with a large pipe, which you can see in the photo on the left. This pipe is used to transport water that has been heated through thermal energy (aka - warmed up via volcano) to Reykjavik and other towns throughout Iceland. Thus, there is no shortage of hot water in Iceland. It does have a higher sulfur content than we're used to in the States, but the hot water is plentiful, eco-friendly, and inexpensive.

Ready for more geology? I know I am!

The reason Iceland is so volcanic and is technically still forming is because it sits on the divide between the North American and Eurasian continental plates. The divide runs from the southwest to the northeast and stretches 2 centimeters each year, so technically Iceland is getting bigger! The photo above, taken at Þingvellir (thing-vuh-lear) National Park very clearly shows the rift between the continental plates.

In this photo to the left, I was divided between two continents. The rock wall on the left-hand side is North American and the wall to the right is Eurasian.

Now for some Saga stuff! Þingvellir national park is where the first form of European parliament was created. After Iceland became a bit more settled, the country was divided into four sections, each with a chieftain. Each year for two weeks in June, the chieftains and as many buddies as they could muster would meet at Þingvellir for an Alþingi, where everyone would meet up, exchange gossip, and bring any grievances to the chieftains to settle. Also at this time, the lawspeaker (one of the chieftains) would stand on law rock and yell out from memory all of the laws that were in place at the time. This would take the lawspeaker three days to do. Poor li'l viking must have needed some tea after that. Since the Alþingi brings so many people together, lots of plot lines from the sagas cross over at an Alþingi. Many of the Sagas also have happy endings that include an end to bloody feuds thanks to everyone's respect for the decisions made at the Alþingi.

I'd really love to show you a picture of law rock, but I can't! Because I definitely thought this was law rock:

But it's not! Law rock is more of a bit of stone that juts out of the land. I have no idea what I'm standing next to in this picture because the inscription is in Icelandic.

At one Alþingi in the year 1000, there was a great debate over whether or not Icelanders should continue worshipping the old gods or become Catholic, like the rest of Europe. The debate was so great, in fact, that civil war was about to break out. The lawspeaker at the time, Thorgeir Thorkelsson, was pagan but greatly respected by each side of the debate, so it was left to him to make the decision. Doing what any of us would do when given a weighty matter to decide, he went into his tent and covered himself with lots of animal skins for a day and a night. When he emerged, he declared that Iceland would become Christian, but those who wished to continue worshiping the old gods could do so in private. So Iceland literally became Christian overnight.

The church in the image below is the same location of the first church built in Iceland.

From Þingvellir we traveled to Gullfoss, Europe's largest, double-decker waterfall. The Gulfoss tourist stop also happens to mark the last bit of civilization before the inhabitable highlands take over the island. I took a screen shot of our location to show just how much of Iceland is considered "wasteland."

In this photo, the golden line that runs the circumference of Iceland is Route 1. Iceland is roughly the size of Virginia, and you could, if you wanted to, drive the entirety of the island in one loop.

Gullfoss means "golden waterfall." One reason for the name comes from a Norse saying: "Where a rainbow touches the ground, gold can be found." And, because of the sun and the amount of spray, there is often a rainbow or two to be seen at Gulllfoss. This picture doesn't show it, but there was a point where you could see the rainbow touching the ground. Of course, to get to that ground you would have had to climb over the safety fence and repel yourself down slippery, mossy rocks to a cliff edge, but who knows - there might have been a leprechaun waiting with some gold down there?

Look! A glacier!

Fun fact: Water melted directly from a glacier is dirty and filled with sand and sediment. Iceland's glacier water, however, runs through the lava rocks and comes out totally purified. Did I mention that you can drink water from any faucet in Iceland? It's all way purer than the chlorinated nonsense that we call drinking water in the U.S.

Now, let's talk about geysirs. But first, another fun fact: "Geysir" is the one word that Iceland has contributed to international languages.

Geysir, the geysir for which all other geysirs are named, has not gone off for some years now, but here is Strokkur, Geysir's little brother.

First, we have a steaming hole in the ground....

And then....

Kablam!!! Water spouts 30 meters high! And thanks to the sulphur, the smell of rotten eggs goes everywhere!

I'm getting exhausted living through all of this again, so here were the last two stops.

First, another waterfall! Not a double-decker, but still quite beautiful. That contraption on the left-hand side of the waterfall is a salmon ladder! When our tour guide pointed it out, someone in our group made a snarky comment that the salmon in Alaska don't need a ladder to help them. Touché, American salmon-lover, touché.

Then we saw a beautiful church that had a re-creation of what a sod house church would have looked like from the Saga era, which was perfect after having seen the Reykjavik settlement the day before!

And then, after all that touring about, we stayed magically awake for a 1AM flight to...... Copenhagen!!!