Craters and Upgrades
Today we finished up in Reykjavik, heading out to see the rest of the country. The day started with another great breakfast, and we packed back up into the car to leave the great apartment. Leaving, we started seeing something very unusual...the sun. The weather was gorgeous. Clear blue skies, with small patches of soft clouds. Since we were heading out into the country, it was a perfect day. The bright light made the colors of the landscape really pop.Our first destination was Þingvellir National Park. This was the home of Iceland's first parliament, back in 930 AD. We stopped at the visitor's center to park and see the site. Since we had been driving a while, we availed ourselves of the WC facilities. If you haven't caught on that Iceland is expensive...it was 200kr (about $2) to use the restroom...for each person.The Alþing, or the parliament took place in this area, and was centered around Lögberg or Law Rock. There is a great view of the valley below, a Rift Valley caused by plate movements of the North American and Eurasian plates. We also made a discovery. I need to set this up with something Carrie seemed to observe last night. She said that it didn't seem like Iceland had any bugs. I'm guessing that Natural Iceland took offense and decided to show us that it wasn't lacking anything. So, we fought off loads of bugs all day today. I guess it is appropriate that they showed up where there were politicians. You know what flies are attracted to, right?We hiked through the fissure at the site, then got in the car to continue our tour. We hiked from another direction through another fissure to a beautiful small waterfall. After getting some great pictures, we were back in the car. Next stop was an Information Station and cafe. We stopped there to get some suggestions, and found absolutely free restrooms. Score!The guy at the station was super helpful and pointed us to our next stop, Geysir. This is actually where we get our English word geyser. It did not disappoint, and erupted high in the air, filling the area with stinky, stinky steam. There were several smaller geothermal features in the area, and we saw (and smelled) them all.Next, we headed to an awesome waterfall. The road on the way, was, very generously, noted as being under construction. It actually was enough that I worried that we weren't in a land cruiser. That section ended soon enough, and we were back on tarmac. We pulled into the parking lot for the waterfall, and headed to see it. Mist filled the valley, making some of the pictures impossible to truly capture the scope. There were several rainbows, thanks to the sun. It was truly impressive. Carrie and I walked down then up to a viewing rock, right in the midst of the waterfall. Les and Pat enjoyed the view from the parking level.Onward we go to our next stop - a volcanic explosion crater. On the way, we saw some more exceptional scenery, mountains and valleys filled with sheep and Icelandic horses, as well as being filled with empty spaces. It can be so unusual, these vast empty spaces that seem to be so uncommon. The crater was cool, but we were ready to head on to our lodging for tonight.We pulled into Selfas, where we are staying tonight, and found our lodging. Places to stay in the general area of the Golden Circle are hard to come by, and very expensive, so Carrie had found a rustic cabin that was going to be ok for one night, but I don't know if any of us were super excited. We found it, and went to the reception lodge to check in. They told us there had been a problem with our reservation, and that they were going to have to offer us 2 rooms at a 4 star hotel in town (breakfast included). BONUS!We backtracked a bit to the hotel, and checked in. Where we were going to be roughing it, possibly even with bunk beds and outdoor facilities, we are now on the top floor of a pretty expensive hotel, with our own rooms and bathrooms! Carrie has been fighting a cold, so after we loaded in we took a bit of a nap. I walked down and picked up some takeaway food for us, and Les and Pat took a walk through town to find dinner. We are right by a river, with a view of the mountains. I think we have done well tonight!We ate while watching BBC news. It is scary to see what people are doing to each other. I'm glad we're in a pretty safe place where it is a big deal when citizens see police carrying guns (the cause of a lot of arguments in Reykjavik as of late). I don't know what's on the schedule for tomorrow, but I know we will start off with a nice breakfast that Les doesn't even have to cook!It is so nice that we have more time in Iceland, because most people never get out of the are that we have seen so far - they only allow a few days when they do a stopover in Reykjavik. The city was awesome, but I am glad to be seeing more Icelanders than Americans (and miscellaneous other nationalities). They are super nice. I think we might have an early night (should we even use that word here?). Today was nother awesome day.
