A thingy or two

We had a lot to see today, so “burning daylight” took on a whole new meaning. The “Golden Circle” is about four hours of driving before you include the time to dilly dally at any of the stops. The three major sites are Thingvellir national park, Geysir, and Gullfoss. With five hours between sunrise and sunset, we made sure to get on the road by dawn (a little after 9am).

It was cold, when we arrived at Thingvellir. The sun was just below the horizon, and it was 25 degrees. We bundled up and started our walk. The historical park marks the location where local chieftains met annually, beginning in the early- to mid-900’s. The Althingi, or assembly, was a time of legislation, the settling of disputes, and needed punishment, including the death penalty by drowning, hanging, or beheading. Central to the site is the Law Rock, where the grand chieftain would make his remarks in front of the hundreds of participants. These annual gatherings took place through the mid-1200’s, then morphed into an appeals court, until 1798. The Law Rock is still significant; in 1944 Iceland used the location to proclaim its independence.

Aside from the Althingi, the park also happens to sit on the intercontinental rift between North American and Europe. As you walk into the park, we traversed a fissure, where North America is on the right side and Europe is to the left. Even more dramatic was the roadside fissure we encountered a few minutes after leaving the parking lot. We all hopped out of the car and ran down into the split in the earth. The crack narrows and you can touch both sides of the crevice and both continents at the same time. (Technically that may or may not be true, as you can’t tell exactly where the rift is and what is a crack off of the rift, but its still fun to imagine.)

Geysir is home to a geothermal park. Think Yellowstone on a mini scale, with bubbling pots and a shooting geyser. Wait! Did i just use the word geyser? Yes, and the origin of the word comes from here. After we watched the Stokkur geyser erupt 100 feet into the air, we walked up and around the park to the Geysir geyser. This is the original geyser, and the only one that would have been known to medieval Europeans. It was dormant through most of the 20th century, but an earthquake in 2000 woke it from its slumber, and it has began erupting again. Unfortunately, these eruptions are rare and unpredictable, so we took a few pictures and clambered over the frozen steam to parking lot.

After backtracking toward Thingvellir a few kilometers, we turned south toward Gullfoss. Fed by the Hvitá river, the water drops from the sides of the river, instead of directly off a straight cliff. It is dramatic sight, with the river tumbling off the first set falls, (35 feet) before traveling to a longer (70 feet) set of falls. A long trail snakes out the side of the valley, where you can walk out to view the falls from the top. We also took in the view from a second vantage point that was set lower. There is a path that allows you to walk near the falls, but it was closed for the winter. The falls generate so much spray that the whole canyon is iced over. I’m sure its beautiful in the summer but the view now included icicles hanging from the cliffs and white, frozen spray blanketing the canyon walls. The spray carried to our viewpoint, and we stiffened from the cold, so we didn’t stay too long.

The sun was still just above the horizon, when we left the falls, so we sped to our last stop. Kerid crater was created by a volcanic eruption about 6,000 years ago. The bottom, sitting about 150 feet below the rim, is filled with water; solid ice right now. The water is perfectly clear, and we would occasionally hear a pinging noise. It sounded other-worldly, and it took us a while to figure out that someone was throwing rocks on the ice. The noise it created is right out of the Jetsons. I posted a short video on FB and Instagram, if you wand to hear it.

Following dinner, we were playing cards, when an aurora borealis alert came up on my phone. We briefly thought about staying in for the night but decided to chase the lights one more time. Tonight was the last predicted clear night of our visit, so we grabbed our coats and ran out the door. And we were glad we did. Before we even got to the magic spot, the lights were arcing all across the northern sky, in multiple bands of green. We spent almost three hours watching the lights come and go and being grateful that we decided to give it one more try. We didn’t want to leave, but it was nearing 1am, and my camera-shooting hand was numb from the cold. I captured probably hundreds of images on my camera, but I’ve posted an accessible one caught on Kim’s iPhone.Read more