Hot and Cold Running Water

We’ve left the “big” city to explore smaller villages and points of interest. First up was a visit to the fishing village of Akranes and its picturesque lighthouses (the old and new). The older one was built in 1918. The larger, more recent lighthouse, built in 1947, is open to the public and offers panoramic views, which we enjoyed despite the bracing wind.

Iceland in June is still a gray and chilly place. The locals talk about “chasing the sun” — check the weather for the weekend and drive wherever it will be sunniest.

To get to Akranes, we drove through a 3.5-mile long tunnel under Iceland’s largest fjord. The tunnel was completed in 1998; before that people had to drive around an extra 2 hours or so.

After the lighthouse we checked out Deildartunguhver hot spring, the most powerful hot spring in Europe with a flow rate of 50 gallons of water per second at a piping hot 200°F. It just keeps flowing out of the ground—no waiting around for eruptions. The hot water then travels by carbon steel pipe to supply hot water to the surrounding towns, and it doesn’t lose much heat over its 40 miles of travel. Another tomato-growing greenhouse is located nearby, taking advantage of the heated water.

Lastly, we got to spend an hour walking around the pathways along the amazing Hraunfossar Waterfalls. The name comes from the Icelandic word for lava (hraun) and the word for waterfalls (fossar). Surface water and meltwater from surrounding glaciers combine to flow underground through the layers of a huge lava field until it reaches an impermeable layer. It then emerges mid cliff to form the falls, which are about 1 kilometer wide. The glacial blue waters were so striking against the dark lava rock.Read more