Friday, November 2, 2012

The Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon and Home

Today was our last full day in Iceland, so we scheduled a whale watching trip for the morning, and a "Golden Circle" tour (more on that later) for the afternoon.  After breakfast, we walked downtown to catch the boat for our whale-watching tour.

Reykjavik at 8:00AM after a night of hard partying (them, not us)

Harpa, the new concert hall in Central Reykjavik

Reykjavik Harbor

Pride of the Icelandic Navy

A view of the concert hall from the boat

The whale-watching cruise was not a success--we were out there for 2 and 1/2 hours in very rough seas, and the guide thought she might have seen a whale, but she wasn't sure.  The weather was overcast, so there wasn't much to see besides whales, and there were no whales.  Bummer.


Are we having fun yet?

View of part of Reykjavik from the boat

View across the bay from Reykjavik

Seems a little short to me, but I don't know much about boats

The weather cleared as soon as we got back from the boat trip.  We had lunch at the harbor and then started our trip to the "Golden Circle".   The Golden Circle encompasses 3 sites about 50 miles from Reykjavik:  the Þingvellir national park, the Gullfoss waterfall, and the Geysir and Strokkur geysers.

Cafe Haiti, which is actually owned by a woman from Haiti.

Still in Reykjavik--this is City Hall

Tjomin Lake, in the center of Reykjavik

Icelandic Horses

A 1955 Chrysler Imperial

First stop on the trip was Þingvellir National Park, which was the site of the first national parliament (from the year 930).  In addition, it's where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, so there are a lot of geologic gaps in the area.

Between the plates

Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir National Park


The next stop was Gulfoss (Golden Falls), which isn't all, but is plenty wide.






The next stop was the thermal area containing the Geysir and Strokkur geysers.  Geysir is where the word "geyser" came from.  It used to erupt regularly, but now it mostly sits there.  Strokkur, on the other hand, erupts every 5-6 minutes.

Geysir (sitting there not erupting)

Strokkur, finishing an eruption

Strokkur, beginning to erupt...

...and continuing....

...and continuing....

...and continuing....

Another satisfied customer
 
More steam near the geysers

Traffic jam near the geysers
 
Small waterfall and salmon ladder near the geysers

A crater lake near the geysers

From there we headed back to Reykjavik.  Our flight was not until 5:30PM the next day, so we spent the early afternoon at the Blue Lagoon, which is a thermal pool near the airport.

Reykjavik suburbs, on the way to the airport

Terrain near the airport--volcanic rock and moss

At the Blue Lagoon












More of the landscape near the Blue Lagoon

Our flight from Reykjavik to Boston passed over Greenland, which provided a few good shots.

Greenland

Greenland

Greenland

Downtown Boston as seen from Logan Airport

And that's it!  Thanks for viewing--you've been a wonderful audience.



Southern Iceland and a Glacier Walk

So, the brochure says:

We take an easy walk on crampons up on to the ice field where a wonderland of ice sculptures, ridges and deep crevasses awaits discovery.
 So, we signed up for the "easy walk", and headed to downtown Reykjavik to get on the bus for our tour.

Just outside of downtown Reykjavik.  These appear to be the tallest buildings in the city (and Iceland, for that matter)

Reykjavik City Hall


On our way to southern Iceland.  That is steam venting from the ground.


Scenery in southern Iceland

Near the glacier, we passed Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that erupted in 2010.  There is a sign near the volcano showing what it looked like during the eruption. 



The first letter in the third line on the left is an Icelandic letter called a "thorn", and is pronounced "th".

Scenery near the glacier

Approaching the glacier for our "easy walk"

Our "easy walk" on the glacier turned out to be a 3-hour hike on the Sólheimajökull glacier, but we survived.  They provided hiking boots and crampons (those things with teeth that you put on the bottom of your boots), and a combination ice axe and walking stick.  There was a lot of ash on the glacier from Eyjafjallajökull, so it wasn't as slippery as it could have been.


Here we go!

To give you an idea of the thickness of the glacier, note the person at left.


On the glacier.

A happy mountaineer









After we got off the glacier, we visited a couple of waterfalls in the area.  The first stop was Skógafoss ("foss" is Icelandic for waterfall).




Our next stop was at Seljalandsfoss.  You could actually walk behind the falls here (and get wet).  
 




From there, we headed back to Reykjavik.

Another waterfall along the way.  I don't remember the name.

Back in Reykjavik


Next, the Golden Circle, the Blue Lagoon, and home.