Day 4 Iceland: Arrive Reykjavek, Temp 9C (48 F)
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs/cuts southwest to northeast through Iceland. Diverging tectonic plates, the North American and Eurasian touch at the ridge, moving apart at the rate of 2 cm per year, new materials moving up from inside the earth as they move apart.
First settlers arrived in this location here according to legend. Settling occurred in the 8-9th century. There is an official “Books of Settlements” that describes everything about the settling of Iceland. 930 AD was the end of chieftains era. Speaker of the house became head. To run for a place in government one had to own land. Iceland was a Commonwealth until 1918; it gained full self governance in 1940.
We headed to Thingvellir National Park, in which much of the visible rift is located. At our first stop, we were dropped off and we walked a fissure on the west side of the rift. Part of the walk was a wooden bridge in the lower part of the photo, covering an area that had dropped into the fissure below leaving a large hole. We walked across the rift.
After we were picked up on the east side, we drove across the rift valley over to the east three separate fissures there. Hekla Volcano has erupted many many times in the 1900s to now. Another eruption is expected at any time. We could see it in the distance, not all that far away. See Volcanism of Iceland here.
Adalinngur is a hot geothermal area with many geysers. We could see it from the opposite side of the ridge valley, and finally arrived there in person. See video of “Strokkur” which erupted several times while we were there. It is slightly shorter than “Old Faithful”, but “Geysir” is the tallest one at this location, but only erupts after earthquakes, the last time being in 2000.
We went to Gullfoss Falls, very nice, huge glacial melt falls. Gray water comes downward in massive volumes.
After viewing the falls, we headed to the building and lunch. So many Busloads of tourists, all were trying to eat lunch at once. We ate in a huge cafeteria in bus groups at long tables, windows looking out over the landscape.
Lunch was sheep stew, meat, cabbage, carrots, some other root vegetable… perhaps in vegetable broth. I ate two bowls full!
On to the Icelandic horse show and farm. Owners of Fridheimar Farm are Knútur Rafn Ármann and his wife Helena Hermundardóttir. The Islandic horses have been bred in Iceland for centuries. No other horses are allowed in. They can be sold out of country but may never return. There were problems with diseases in the past, same for sheep in iceland. Islandic horses can perform 5 different steps. We watched demonstrations of each type of step in a fun show. Afterwards, we got to pet the horses; they are very friendly. More on Fridheimar Farm here.
Fridheimar Farm also grows hot house tomatoes hydroponically. Vines are at least 10 feet tall, towering over us visitors, tallest tomatoes ever seen (by me anyway). Inside the hothouse was a restaurant and bar, specializing in tomato products. One had to have a reservation to eat there, and all tables were full. Of course I could not resist having a tomato beer IPA. Was good, very mild tomato overtones. I would like another, but we’re back on the bus again soon, heading back to the ship.
Along the trip I took various plant photos, see them below, click any photo to enlarge.
End of day, driving through the capital, a great number of tourists. Big city compared to all the other small ones we stopped at on the cruise. Bye Bye Reykjavík, Iceland.
