Reykjavík

Time to start unwinding this one. We have to keep this trip relatively short as compared to others in order to meet Sydney when she returns on Friday. We have spent the last spent the last few days near Höfn, a fishing town in southeast Iceland. Our departure point is some 5 hours east, in Reykjavik which translates roughly as Smoke Cove. Apparently the first explorers of Iceland saw the steam from the geothermal vents and thought it was smoke and incorporated that fact when they named Reykjavik.

Not without a few stops along the way. The clouds have parted and we took advantage of that and revisited Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoons and the visit was a polar opposite of yesterday. Foggy yesterday, cloudy but bright today. The tide was coming in yesterday, going out with a vengeance today like someone pulled a plug causing the water to rush out. This caused the ice in the lagoon to flip and move like they were motorized. The plug at the outlet reformed in front of us with iceberg collisions and constantly changing water levels. Quite the site!

Alas the nice weather did not last. Driving the coast meant we dipped further south and after we passed through Vík, the southernmost village in Iceland the rain picked up a bit. We made the best of it during our visit to the Black Sand Beach a bit more wet than we would like. Quite the dramatic place, tall cliffs surrounded by a black sand beach make it quite a beautiful place to visit. On top of that the next landmass directly south of the beach is Antarctica meaning the full fury of the Atlantic Ocean is able to attack the land. This makes the shore here quite dangerous, many visitors have drowned here being swept out to sea by a sneaker wave so if you visit, which I encourage, do not turn your back on the Atlantic!

The weather got a bit better as we visited our last two stops, the waterfalls Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss. However the pace of the the trip is starting to catch-up with us and we are looking forward to getting back to “Smoke Cove” and relaxing a bit before going out to dinner.

A clearer day at Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon.

Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon

A clearer day at Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon.

Magnús Thoroddsen, our expert driver and guide and patient traveling companion on this journey.

One of the many glaciers we saw.

Walking on a moss covered lava flow. Very soft and bouncy which suprised us. Also very dangerous if you are not careful.

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, the souce of many travel delays in 2010.

Basalt rock formations at Black Sand Beach in Vik.

Rock formations at the Black Sand Beach at Vík.

Helping Atlas.

Skógafoss waterfall.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall.

Behind Seljalandsfoss waterfall.

Yesterday was all urban, today was all rural and natural. We toured the Golden Circle, a route in southern Iceland with no roots in the island’s history but includes many great natural sites especially:

Þingvellir (or Thingvellir) – Where the parliament of Iceland was founded, the first of its type in the world. Also the edge of the North American tectonic plate with the European plate is clearly visible as a wall. I liked visiting here because we drove by the edge of the North American plate with the Pacific plate on the way to the SFO to get here.
Geysir (or The Great Geysir) – A very active geyser in southwestern Iceland. It was a the first geyser described in a print and is the source of the word geyser. Geysir is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa which means “to gush.”
Gullfoss (or Golden Falls) – A waterfall of offering a view of a spectacular amount of water movement. That is the closest I can describe it.

More nature to come over the next two days.

Art across from our hotel.

The harbor near our hotel.

The view back towards Reykjavík. The pipe is bringing hot water (86c or 187f) to the city.

A clear day.

Local source of thermal-dynamic power. Smells like what??

The domes represent spots where hot water is extracted.

Þingvallavatn or Thingvallavatn.

Saw lots of this today.

Þingvellir or Thingvellir in english. The parliament of Iceland (first parliament in the world) was established at the here in 930 AD. It is also the edge of the North American plate.

The path down at Thingvellir. The wall on the right is the end of the North American plate. The path descends through a piece of North America that fell off recently.