Iceland -- Last Day

Given the late night Wednesday (struggling with the blog), I slept late and lazed around writing post cards and reading in the morning. Since I was scheduled to be picked up at the hotel for my bus tour between 12 and 12:25, I couldn't have done much anyway.

The day of touring began inauspiciously when the tour company failed to pick me up. After waiting, as directed, from 12 to 12:25 on the street outside the hotel, I asked hotel reception to call and check. Apparently the reservation was lost between the tourist office and the tour company. They came through, however, sending a mini-bus to shuttle me out to the highway where the tour bus waited for my arrival. From then on all was well, but, as with most bus tours, there wasn't really enough time to view all the sights and the explanatory/educational material made available. I was never late back to the bus but was usually one of the last two or three.

On the way to Gullfoss Waterfall the bus stopped at a horse farm so we could get up close with some Icelandic horses. They're small but very sturdy. A nation with a population of 320,000 has 90,000 horses. I'm not sure what they do. How much trekking can there be?

I happened to be carrying carrots from Minnesota as food for me. The Icelandic horses weren't much interested. And in the process I did discover that the top wire is electrified!

The Gullfoss Waterfall is made up of two separate falls, the second at a sort of right angle to the first. There was a tremendous quantity of water pouring over them. Because the water is glacial melt, it has a milky rather than clear appearance. As a bonus, there was a rainbow visible the whole time we were there. I could see one end of it -- no pot of gold.











There are geothermal fields all over Iceland. 80% of Iceland's houses (100% in the Reykjavik area) are heated with this natural hot water. The term geyser comes from the name given to the first geyser in Iceland -- geysir (pronounced GAYseer). Geysir occasionally still spouts but not with regularity. Fame has passed to Strokkur, which erupts every 8 to 10 minutes (has done since 1963) going 25 to 35 meters into the air. By comparison, Old Faithful (which I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen) erupts every 30 to 100 minutes going up 25 to 55 meters. Because the boiling occurs at the top of Strokkur, one can see a big bubble appearing just before the eruption. Waiting for that bubble: Yes, it's coming; no, that isn't it; here it comes; nope, still gathering itself together; there it is! -- is part of the fun.

This turned out not to be the bubble, just preliminary gathering energy.

Strokkur usually erupts two or three times then rests for 10 minutes or so. One has the opportunity to see many eruptions, even in the limited time allowed by a bus tour.

Our last stop was at Thingvellir which has recreational, historical, and geological significance. It is one of Iceland's three national parks and contains its largest lake; there are hiking trails and other recreational elements. (I saw someone out in the lake in waders fishing.)

This area is very significant historically since it is the location of the first and many subsequent national assemblies (althingi), dating from 930 A.D. until 1264. The Law Speaker was elected for three years and had tremendous authority. In 1000 A.D. there was dissension between pagan and Christian Chieftains. The Law Speaker, himself a pagan, decreed that from henceforth the country would be Christian although pagans could practice their religion in private; this avoided what would have been an ongoing conflict and enabled Iceland to have greater commerce with the rest of the world. Gee, a peaceful settlement to religious contention. . . .

The Icelandic flag flies at the site of the Law Rock, where the Law Speaker recited the laws aloud in the period before laws were recorded in writing. Everyone had the right to address the assembly from the rock. When, in 1944, Iceland achieved its final independence from Denmark (had previously been ruled by Norway), the declaration was made at this site, where the 50th anniversary of independence was also celebrated in 1994.

This area is also geologically significant as the junction of the American and Eurasian tectonic plates happens here. Over the past 10,000 years the earth's crust has been subsiding and diverging in the middle of Iceland. West of Almannagja (Everyman's Gorge), pictured below, the land is moving westwards at the rate of 1 cm a year. On the other side the movement east is also about 1 cm a year. In between is forming a rift valley.
From here we drove back to Reykjavik, arriving a little before 7 p.m. Dropped off near my hotel I went to a restaurant I'd walked by several times a day during my stay and had a delicious, if expensive, meal of lamb. Decided I might as well spend the Icelandic Kroner I had rather than losing money on the conversion. Picked up a latte at a nearby coffee shop and returned to the hotel to write this.

I was planning on writing some concluding thoughts on Iceland, but I have to pack and get to bed so those ideas will have to wait until another time. Off to England tomorrow.