On Thursday morning, we got up for our day tour of Reykjavik and Iceland. We started out at the Presidential residence at Bessastaoir (photo 1 is the whole "compound" if you will, photos 2 & 3 are of the presidential chapel). We then drove through the area known as Hafnarfjorour, the town where humans and "hidden people" live in harmony.
We next visited the Asmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum.
Next was the Perlan, Oskjuhlid Hill. It is a glass "dome" that sits atop 6 water tanks, some filled with 18 million liters of geothermally heated water. Inside the glass dome is a restaurant that rotates and has fantastic views of Reykjavik. One of the water tanks is the Saga Museum, which presents the history of Viking settlement in Iceland.
We then saw Hallgrimskirkja, a church which took 30 years to build and was finished in 1974. Inside is a huge organ, with 5,275 pipes. It was designed by Gudjon Samuelsson and named after the 17th century hymn writer and poet, the Reverend Hallgrimur Petursson. We were then left on our own for lunch.
After lunch, we headed out for other parts of Iceland. We stopped first at Thingvellir (photos 1 - 6), where Iceland founded the first parliamentary democracy in the world. The first Althing, or parliament, was held in AD 930 and they continued annually (with some breaks) until 1789, when the plain fell 1m in an earthquake and the power shifted to Reykjavik. This is also where the geological plates of Europe and America are slowly tearing apart. Photo 6 is where the Lawspeaker would recite 1/3 of the country's laws from memory, each time.
We then went to Gulfoss Waterfall. Gulfoss is the "golden waterfall" on the river Hvita. It is actually two falls, one immediately above the other and at right angles to it. In 1907, developers wanted to contain the falls for hydroelectric power. They were opposed by Sigridur Tomasdottir, a lady from the neighboring town of Brattholt. She was successful and is now known as the heroine of the falls.
After the waterfall, we went to Geysir (pronounced 'gayzeer'). The original geysir was here, its first appearance in the 13th century, and is where geysirs get their name. The original one has since been blocked, probably by eager sightseers who threw debris into the bubbling pool hoping it would blow. The one we saw was Strokkur. (photos 1 - 5) After the Geysir, we went to another waterfall, Faxi. (photos 6 & 7) And finally on the way home, we stopped at Kerid the volcanic crater lake. (photo 8)
On Friday morning we slept in, but eventually got up and just walked around the main street area for a little while shopping, and got something to eat. That afternoon, we went horseback riding. Now I haven't been horseback riding in probably 20 years, and I remember now why it has been 20 years since I went horseback riding.....I was in pain after 2 hours of riding!!! But it was still really cool. We were the only two with our tour guide, and we rode all along the lava fields, the ranch area, and even through rivers.....it was straight out of a western (ha ha!). After that, we had to go back and take a nap. Then that night, you won't believe this, but we went to play bingo! We had seen a bingo hall around the corner from our hotel so we thought we would give it a shot. We didn't win. I don't think?!?!? I mean they were speaking Icelandic. We had gotten a rental car that night so we could drive to the Blue Lagoon the next day and drive ourselves back to the airport.
On Saturday morning, I got up and went on a whale watching tour. It was cold and rainy, which they described as "perfect conditions." I saw lots of dolphins, and even some whales. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any pictures of the whales because it was just too hard to figure out where or when they were going to pop out of the water, and I decided I would rather watch and make sure I saw them then try to get a picture of it. They told us the whales we saw were Minke whales....and I'll just take their word for it. They probably surfaced about 6 - 7 times, of which I saw 3 - 4. The dolphins acted like they were there to entertain us because they popped up out of the water all the time. Photo 1 is just looking off the back of the boat toward land; photo 2 is a good spot for whales, all the birds on top of the water signal that there must be a lot of fish there, therefore whales will be there to eat; photos 3 and 4 are some of the dolphin photos. I got about 10 photos of dolphins, but these were the best; and photo 5 is the puffin breeding ground. The puffin is a penguin like animal native to Iceland....sorry no close up pics.
After I got back from whale watching, we went to the Blue Lagoon, or Blaa Lonid. The Blue Lagoon is a pool made up of geothermally-heated seawater, rich in natural minerals. It's the natural by-product of the nearby Svartsengi power station, which uses water from 2000m below the ground. The opacity comes from the natural white silica mud mixed with minerals and an algae, which gives it the trademark milky blue color, whatever the weather. Basically, the Blue Lagoon is a pool beside a power station in the middle of a windswept lava field.....but it's fabulous! These pictures are not actually of where you swim because I didn't bring my camera inside the pool area. These are the pools that are outside the entrance, but the one where you swim looks just like these.
After the Blue Lagoon, since we had a car, we figured we would take a little drive along the coast to the next big "city" on the map. (I will admit it now - it was my idea!) Well....we were driving for a while, enjoying the lovely scenery (photo 1) when all of a sudden the road turned into gravel (photo 2). We thought, okay no big deal, we'll take it for a little while and eventually it will be paved again. Well for the next hour we saw nothing but what is in photos 3 - 6. I mean talk about being in the middle of NOWHERE!!! We did finally end up back on a paved road and in the little town we were aiming toward, Porlakshofn. Of course at 7:30 pm on a Saturday, this place had absolutely nothing going on. Even the one restaurant we saw was closed.
Here are just some various pictures in and around Reykjavik. 1) a church that we passed walking to the mall; 2) Reykjavik's main street; 3 & 4) a statue of Leifur Eiriksson, the eldest son of banished Iceland Viking Erik the Red. 'Lief the Lucky' is widely credited with the earliest European discovery of North America. The statue is a gift from the United States. 5) I don't know if you can see it, but right in the middle of the picture between the mountains, the white part, is a glacier, the 2nd largest glacier in Iceland; 6) just another church we found in the center of Reykjavik; and 7) the view from our hotel.
I absolutely loved Iceland! I would go back in a minute and would really love to. There are actually lots more things to see. The weather was great (for the most part), the temperature was in the mid-50s the whole time. And...we never saw darkness. One night when we were up at 12:30 am - it was still light out!!! And the sun came up about 3am! And these aren't even the longest days for them. In July, it's virtually all daylight. Of course the bad part is the winters....when it's just the opposite. I just won't go back in the winter. The only other bad part is it is very, very expensive. But overall - fabulous!
