A Thing about a Gey and Gull

We awoke to a blustery morning and, overwhelmed by the powerful gusts of wind, decided to visit a few other nearby sites before hiking around Thingvellir, in the hopes that the weather would improve.  We packed up our things, righted the seats, stuffed the sleeping bags into their sacks, and we were off!  It was the day of the Golden Circle, which encompasses the three main out-of-Reykjavik sites that most tourists venture out to see.  The furthest, Gullfoss, is only about an hour and a half from the city, so all three places can easily be seen in a day.

Gullfoss is a large waterfall - or, rather, double waterfall - that the locals believe puts Niagara Falls to shame in wildness and fury.  Gullfoss, or Golden Falls, is thought to derive its name from the golden hue of the water at sunset.  Another theory is that a misery farmer accumulated a large quantity of gold and, not able to bear the thought of someone else possessing his treasure, he placed the gold in a coffer and threw it into the waterfall's rapids.

Given the power of the falls, eager investors have attempted many times to harness the water for the production of electricity.  Locals living near the falls invariably feel possessive of the waterfall, saying they "will not sell their friend", and manage to kill such plans before the falls can be altered.  And therefore, preserved before us in its pristine natural rage, was Gullfoss.  There is a road that goes out to a rocky promontory in the middle of the falls, but sadly it was closed due to icy conditions.  Definitely check it out if you're there during the summer.

After Gullfoss, we retraced our steps somewhat and arrived at Haukadalur, better known for its most powerful hot spring, Geysir.  Haukadalur is about a small area Packed with multiple hot springs, though these are too hot for bathing.  The temperature of these springs is between 80 and 100 degrees Celsius, so the furiously bubbling water was not particularly tempting.  

Unlike most of the other sites that we have visited, where entrance to the site is free but use of the bathroom costs several dollars, Geysir/Haukadalur had an entrance fee of $6 per person.  Much of this clearly went to paying the salaries of the seven employees waiting at the entrance gate to sell us a ticket... And we were the only tourists in the area.  Still, we were given a good informational booklet with the prominent warning not to touch the boiling water, because the closest hospital was over 70 km away (probably in Reykjavik).  Warning heeded.  We wandered the park, admiring tiny hot springs that looked like tiny recreations of lakes in paradise, laughing at the childish ferocity of "Little Geysir", and waiting expectantly for the explosive might of the active geysers.  

Apparently, I wasn't quite prepared enough, because when Strokkur erupted, I saw it out of the corner of my eye and screamed - loudly.  Josh and I collapsed laughing, glad that we were the only ones in the park, and wandered on to the next pool.  We kept an eye on the time, thought, because Strokkur dependably errupts every 5-8 minutes.  And so we continued on to Haetta, which is considered by many to be the most beautiful, and finally to confront the famous giant, Geysir.  Approaching Geysir required shuffling through a pervasive blanket of sulfur-laden steam, making the endeavor a smelly one.  While Geysir is large and its deep pool is quite intriguing, it is a hot spring has-been.  Geysir still erupts higher than any other in the park, and at 70-80 meters on average, its eruptions of water and steam are considerably higher than those of Old Faithful.  But Geysir erupts less and less frequently, perhaps three times a day, and then usually when provoked by the park rangers who dump 40 liters of soap on its surface (which somehow triggers the water to shoot up in protest.  I wouldn't like to have 40 L of soap dumped on me, either).

It was fun to wander the park, sulfur smell aside, and we stuck around to see a few more eruptions of Strokkur.  Sadly, we discovered that Strokkur, too, is a poser.  Its eruptions were growing less frequent, so they drilled down another 40 meters and it has been a dependable performer ever since.

Finally, we ventured to the third and final attraction of the Golden Circle, Thingvellir.  This relatively small stretch of land is a place of historic importance: the Icelandic assembly (the longest continuously-running democratic assembly in the world) met here for centuries, the first national church was built here, and this was the site of the administration of law and executions.  The beautiful waterfall here was the site of drownings of women who broke the law, which tainted the site for us a bit.  Thingvellir is also located at the meeting of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, which move about 2 cm a year and cause an earthquake every 10 years or so.  Perhaps the Icelandic assembly took this as the gods' suggestion to shake things up a bit.  If so, let's install a meeting of tectonic plates in D.C.

Thingvellir is also on the northern edge of the largest lake in Iceland, which stretches into the distance like blue glass.

Sightseeing concluded, we turned the car toward Reykjavik, which seemed shockingly full of cars after our jaunt out east.  We checked into our new room in a beautiful 120-year old house in the heart of downtown, took a well-deserved shower, and took a well-deserved vacation from our vacation.

Spotted: Viking sayings.  At the Geysir stop, there was a large store filled with souvenirs for the eager tourist, including a book of Viking wisdom.  In contrast to the Viking-filled saga wisdom that ten horns of beer is better than one horn of bear, the book offered this wisdom:

Alertness

Better weight

than wisdom

a traveller cannot carry.

A clear head

is good company.

Drink is a dangerous friend.

Spotted #2: Horsies!  Icelandic horses are a little bit squat and very shaggy, which makes them irresistibly cute.  We took a short stop...