The Golden Circle Tour

As I said in last night's mini-post, the tour we did yesterday was probably one of the coolest things I've done in my life. The nature/landscape of Iceland is amazing and our eight-hour tour took us all over the place. We also had perfect weather for it (minus the extreme wind, but it's always windy in Iceland) so everything was beautiful.

There were six of us on the tour plus a guide (who was totally kooky, but who did a great job and taught us a lot) in a small bus. The Golden Circle Tour, called the Golden Circle for the loop you do around the southwestern part of the island, is the most popular tour with tourists in Iceland. I can understand why! Even though everyone does it when they come to Iceland, it's not a tourist trap; it's just the best way to see some of Iceland's coolest sights!

Iceland is a volcanic island with lots of volcanoes. Almost all the land is made of hardened lava and volcanic rock, so the terrain is very different than anything I've seen before. The island also sits on both the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates, so it's really been shaped by their movement. The first area where we stopped was in a volcanic area just to see the scenery.

It wasn't freezing, but there was still snow in the area where we were standing and of course there is snow on almost all the mountain peaks.

The road we drove on through the volcanic area. Apparently J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired by Iceland before he wrote Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson considered using Iceland to shoot the films before ultimately choosing New Zealand (probably because it was warmer).

Looking out across the land to the largest freshwater lake in Iceland. It's extremely clean and is fed by underground lakes.

From this area we also saw some of Iceland's geothermal power plants. Almost all of Iceland's power comes from the boiling hot water under the earth; something like 85% of Iceland's energy is green. All of the homes in Reykjavik are heated by geothermal energy.

Since the water of the lake, and most of the streams and rivers, comes from underground, the water is extremely blue and extremely clear.

The lake (which has a totally unpronounceable name, just like almost everything in Iceland) was really beautiful. There were also tons of amazing summer homes on its banks.

Sheep grazing in a "field" in front of the lake. Apparently things get greener in the summer, though not really green. Stuff was mostly brown for us, but it was still amazing.

Our next stop was in the Rift Valley, which is the area between the two tectonic plates. There are about two kilometers between the two plates and they move apart a few centimeters every year. We stood right on the edge of the North American plate and then walked across the valley to the Eurasian plate. This area is also the sight of the first Icelandic Parliament, which started meeting in the 800s. They did all their governing in this area for centuries.

Looking over part of the Rift Valley and the freshwater lake.

The Valley. Straight across you can see a dark line - that's the edge of the Eurasian tectonic plate. I was standing on the edge of the North Atlantic plate when I took this photo.

The cliff that makes up the edge of the North Atlantic plate. 

More of the Rift Valley.

The edge of the North American plate again and a freshwater pool. Back when Parliament met in this area, this is the pool where they would drown women convicted of crimes. Men were beheaded and women were drowned because apparently drowning was a "gentler" way to die. I don't know, I think I'd take decapitation over being tied into a sack and thrown into ice cold water to drown.

 A different, non-killing stream.

Our next stop was actually at the edge of the freshwater lake so we could taste the water. The water is so clean that it does not need to be purified in any way - and it definitely tasted that clean. It was also extremely cold.

The lake. There are some circle patterns in the water kind of in the front center and a visible hole; that's one of the areas where the water comes bubbling up from the underground rivers.

Karen filling up her water bottle. Look how clear the water is!

As we were driving, there was also just lots of awesome scenery that we didn't stop to see:

And there were some horses that we did stop to see! Icelandic horses are important to the country and are quite different than American horses. They're smaller - they look more like ponies - and very solid. They also have goofy manes.

They all ran up to the fence when we walked over to it.

This might be my favorite photo of the day.

Our next stop was at an enormous two-tier waterfall. It was monstrous. That's really all there is to say about it. Also, in the distance behind the waterfall we could see one of the glaciers of Iceland, so that was pretty cool. Unfortunately the glacier was not on our tour list.

The second tier fell into a really deep gorge. We couldn't see exactly how deep because they keep you roped back pretty far.

The second tier of the waterfall and standing at one of the observation points.

Mountains with the glacier behind them. The glacier is the white, smooth, sloping thing behind the mountain peaks. It was hard to get a good picture.

After the waterfall - where we stopped to eat lamb soup in a tourist center and it was delicious - we started to head back toward Reykjavik. Our third-to-last stop was at a bunch of geysers. There are lots of small geysers all over Iceland because it's a volcanic island, but there's one area with lots of big geysers. The word "geyser" actually comes from a geyser in this area, an enormous one called Geysir. Geysir is dormant at the moment, but there is one big geyser that shoots off every 5-7 minutes and shoots almost as high as Old Faithful. You can also stand much closer to it than you can to Old Faithful. We watched it go off about four or five times. I'd never seen a geyser before, so I thought it was pretty cool.

Geysir, the inactive geyser. It used to shoot about 300 feet into the air. It's inactive now, but that doesn't meant that it will always be dormant.

The active geyser as it erupted. I got okay pictures, but I couldn't get my camera to take photos fast enough!

Still erupting and then the hole starting to re-fill with water as the steam cleared.

This whole area was steaming from the boiling water and bubbling. It seemed almost prehistoric.

The last two stops were quick. The first was a small waterfall that has a salmon ladder built next to it so the salmon can go upstream.

Waterfall (whose name means "horse's mane" because it looks a bit like a horse's mane) and the salmon ladder on the left.

Close-up of the salmon ladder.

And, finally, out last stop was at a volcanic crater. About 6500 years ago a volcano erupted and after it emptied it's magma chamber, it collapsed in on itself and formed a crater where it once stood. That was really cool to see as well, though unfortunately the light wasn't good so my pictures aren't that great.

The crater with a lake down in the middle. It was pretty big, but, like I said, I couldn't get great pictures because the shadows were bad.

Standing at the edge of the crater.

And that's that! That was the end of the tour. Afterward we came back to Reykjavik and ate ice cream and watched TV. Today has been a lazy morning. We're going to go eat something and then probably just wander around Reykjavik today. This evening we'll have to pack and get ready to go to the airport tomorrow. I can't believe I'll be back in the United States tomorrow! After eight months! Really crazy.

Maybe one more post tonight - and I'll need to do something to wrap up this blog. After eight months of writing it...seems weird to stop! But my life will be a whole lot less picture-worthy back in the United States, so there will probably be a lot less to share!

Coolest day ever...

...to be posted about tomorrow.

We took an eight hour tour of Iceland today and saw some really amazing things. It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. But I am exhausted now, and I don't think I'd do the tour justice in a blog post tonight. I'll write one tomorrow!

Preview of tomorrow's post!

Creatures from the Blue Lagoon

This is what Iceland looks like at midnight:

It's actually a bit brighter than this in person. Hard to take a decent picture through the window.

It's hard to see with the houses, but I'd like to walk down to the sound either tomorrow or Friday to actually see the sun "set" and get some good pictures of the light like this. It's crazy how light it is! We can't get over it. Katie says she woke up around 2am last night and was sure it was still light out. I don't think it ever really gets totally dark at this time of the year.

Today was another cool day. We went to the Blue Lagoon, a thermal hot spring about 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik and one of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions. It's a huge spring (something like 5000 square meters) with water constantly circling through it. The water, a mix of salt and fresh water, is light blue and very milky due to the extreme amount of minerals in it; silica and sulfur are the two main ones.

Some of the water supplied by the springs. This area is outside of the actual Blue Lagoon spa area. Also, all that dark rock is lava rock.

The water is also just over 100 degrees, so it's really nice and comfortable, particularly when the air is only in the 40s or so.

At the Lagoon, you just wander around the pool. The deepest point is only four feet or so, so it's shallow and you just stand or sit around. There's a bar where you can get drinks and areas where you can put on mud masks (of the silica mud that's in the lake). It's funny to see people wandering around with the masks on their faces - men and women. We were lucky that there weren't too many people when we were there, so it wasn't overly crowded. It also made the experience feel less touristy, though even had there been more people there, it still would have been really cool! It was probably just more relaxing today than it would be in, say, July or August.

Looking out over the Lagoon from the main entry.

Some of the other areas to wade around.

You can see that the black lava rocks are covered with the minerals of the water. They become white and glossy and as smooth as marble. Same goes for the wood in the water; it almost seems like petrified wood. Those minerals are the same things that are in the mud masks. 

A better view of the main spring with lots of steam. If you stand by the spring the steam engulfs you and you can't see anything around you until the wind blows the steam away.

We waded around in the water for a few hours. Twice we put on the mud masks and another time got to try a free sample of an algae mask offered by one of the girls who worked there. Katie and I also tried the sauna and steam rooms but not for very long.

Creatures from the Blue Lagoon.

And more.

It was a nice, lazy day - but a lazy day in a place that's very cool and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! So the good kind of lazy.

We had to shower for a long time after being in the lagoon because of all the minerals. I shampooed and conditioned my hair about four times and it still feels kind of icky. But my skin is nice and smooth! And I'm (wishfully) thinking that all the heat and steam helped with the cold I'm fighting right now. We'll see...

Outside the Blue Lagoon near some of the other water.

Tomorrow is a big nature-y tour. We're going to see all kinds of stuff - and it's supposed to be a clear day. Should have lots of cool pictures tomorrow!

The northernmost capital city

I'm in Iceland, and I could not possibly be more mixed up in terms of time right now. I'm starting this blog around 9:15pm and the sun won't set until 10:30pm or so - which means it's going to be light until almost midnight. The sun rises around 4:00am, though of course it will be lighter earlier. Crazy, right? As of now, it looks like it's about 6:30pm. I'm additionally all mixed up because we took a three hour nap in the middle of the afternoon to recover from sleeping in an airport last night and flying this morning. Maybe by the time we leave we'll have it figured out.

Even with all that napping and confusion, we went out and saw the city of Reykjavik today! It's a bit other-worldly. I've never been somewhere like this before!

A preview photo.

We drove in from the airport over old lava fields all the while able to see the mountains with snow, the glaciers, and a great sound of water. The town of Reykjavik itself isn't too big. It's only about 120,000 (of the 300,000 people who live in Iceland), and there aren't a whole lot of areas to explore. We managed to see most of the city this afternoon.

The city really has the feel of a fishing town. The buildings are small and simple and the city is fairly quiet. You'd never guess it's also the seat of government. There are tourists here, but not too many at the moment, so it doesn't have the same touristy feel as many other European capitals. It's basically just an enormous fishing town. It's also not that old. While it was settled by the Vikings several thousand years ago, the urban area didn't start growing and expanding until the early 18th century - another difference from most European capitals.

It was a nice place to walk around though, and we ate lunch in a cool cafe on one of the main streets.

The old harbor with new whale watching boats, small boats, and old whaling ships. The mountains were really an incredible sight in the background. We also got really, really lucky with weather today! The pictures look great because the sky was so blue!

The old jailhouse building, now the main seat of government. Yes, that tiny little building is one of the main buildings used by the federal government of Iceland. Small country.

Some of the parks and the streets. The buildings aren't super brightly colored, but many of them are nicely painted and help make the city cheerful. They're all very simple though, with small and tasteful embellishments. The city is also extremely, extremely clean.

A pretty white church that we walked by in the central part of town. 

Katie and me next to the "pond" a body of water int eh center of town. The main sound would be to the left of this picture - and then everywhere you look there are mountains! It's a very amazing setting for a city. Also, look how cold it is! I got sunburned two weeks ago - and now we're bundling up in scarves! It wasn't too cold (upper 40s) but the wind was brutal.

The coolest sights of Reykjavik are the mountains and the water, which you can see from almost any street. Every corner we turned when we were up on the slightly hilly part of the city had a view of the sound and the mountains.

Looking down one of the streets at the view in the distance. Most streets have views like this.

Said view - but closer up.

This is just a really pretty church we saw down by the pond. I loved the colors and the style and it looked so beautiful against the blue of the sky this afternoon.

The last thing we did today was visit the big church that is at the top of the hill in Reykjavik, Hallgrimskirkja. (The Icelandic language is crazy - luckily everyone speaks English very well.) The church is a crazy modern structure that dominates the top of the hill and on the inside almost gives the impression that you're in a building made of ice and snow (it's white and simple and clean). You can also take an elevator to the top to see views of Iceland - and those views are amazing. I'm so glad we went up today when the weather was so nice. The views were really incredible, both of the city and of the nature that surrounds the city.

Hallgrimskirkja. Very funky building.

Some different shots of the exterior. Definitely the most unique church I've seen in Europe!

The interior. Out the back windows (behind the altar) you can see the mountains, which are beautiful.

And of course, the views from the top were spectacular:

A good view of the buildings and their colorful rooftops.

In the distance, though it's difficult to tell, you can see just dark plains. Those are the lava fields. We're going on a tour later this week and I hope to learn more about those then.

It was a successful day, and we saw pretty much all of Reykjavik! We have a private room in a guesthouse (which is always nice after a hostel) so we've just been hanging out here for the evening. We booked tickets for other excursions this week as well: tomorrow we're going to the famous Blue Lagoon, a massive hot spring, for the afternoon and on Thursday we're doing a big tour that takes us to some major sights (waterfalls, craters, glaciers, etc.) We're going to get to see a lot of Iceland, so that's exciting! And we're looking forward to just kind of hanging out in the Blue Lagoon tomorrow. I think all three of us are pretty tired from traveling. Karen's been traveling a week longer than I have and Katie's been traveling as I - we're all pretty beat and ready to come home in a few days! But for now, we're going to enjoy Iceland!