0
0
Reykjavik, Iceland
Weather: Surprisingly warm!
Sea: Calm
We headed up to the buffet for breakfast today. We needed to grab some snacks to take with us on our all day trip. We were going on a tour today to see The Golden Circle. Lunch not included and weren’t sure whether there would be places en route … or how busy they would be.
From the ship, it was a good 15 mins walk to get to the pick up point for the Greyline Tour Bus. We had booked independently from P&O and it was a third of the price. Our guide for the day was Kristi and driver was Matteus.
First stop was at a UNESCO World Heritage site, Thingvellar National Park, arguably the most important site in Iceland in terms of history, culture, and geology.
It is here where the North American and Eurasian techtonic plates met, then split and drifted apart. It’s also home to Iceland‘s largest natural lake. Thingvellir is also the birth-place of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth and the Alþingi assembly, where Iceland’s most powerful leaders met to decide on legislation and carry out brutal Viking-age justice.
Some fantastic views over the basalt rock to the lake. The Eurasian plates were 7km away and the plates are moving away from each other at a speed of 2cm a year (same speed your fingernails grow). Kristi said to make sure you visit the facilities as it offered the best view from a loo you can get! She was right – you had a fab vista of the fields over to the mountains whilst you were washing your hands.
We were surprised how very few trees there were … and those that were there don’t grow very tall. The native trees are birch trees. The land is often described as moonscape with most of Iceland made from Basalt (cold lava field). After a few 100 years, moss starts to grow followed by the other plants.
We were taught a couple of Icelandic phrases:
Hey Hey = Hello
Bless Bless = Good Bye
Tak Tak = Thank you
Fet ah rey das = everything’s going to be fine
Hot springs stop off for 10 mins as some passengers were being dropped off here. Lovely lake that is lukewarm thanks to all the hot springs bubbling up in the lake and in the sand around the edges. Really pleased that were weren’t staying long as the midges were everywhere and very annoying (no wonder they were selling fly hats in the shop!). We did wonder if these were the famed geyshers they were advertising.
Back on the road and we were heading towards the Geysher Hot Springs. It’s home to the “The Great Geysir” hot spring, which all geysers are named after although this hasn’t blown for a number of years. It was a really busy site and car park full of coaches and cars.
We walked across the road to the park – a collage of bubbling mud pools and hissing steam vents. A 5 minute walk into the park and you reach the Strokkur hot spring. Every 4 to 8 minutes, it blasts out a column of super-heated water up to 20 metres into the air. There was a super large blast that happened as we were walking to the area. Whilst we waited we saw two smaller blasts. Fascinating to watch as we’d never seen anything like that before.
We then opted to grab a bite to eat. The queues were long in the “fast food” area but we spotted another food area the other side of the shop. Here we grabbed a sandwich each (Salmon, Lamb and Spicy Tuna) and two bottles of pop (and closed our eyes when it came to paying the bill!)
From here, it was a 10 minute drive to the Gullfoss Waterfall. It was a 10 minute walk (down some metal steps) to the view point. For those that could stay longer, you could walk along the path to get close up to the falls and feel the mist of glacial water on your face as it cascades down into the narrow Hvítárgljúfur Canyon.
From here it was a 90 minute drive back to the ship and we passed through some amazing countryside. The island is victim to earthquakes and on the hillside there are huge boulders that have broken away from the hills and remain where they stopped rolling.
We got back to the ship about 5pm, then the walk back to the ship from the drop-off area. I think we broke Mum today – a little more walking that she wanted to do.
Dinner tonight was in the Main Dining Room and we had just enough energy to make it to the Syndicate Quiz, but not quite enough to get many questions correct! Just 8 points on the Syndicate Quiz tonight … a welcome mug of Hot Chocolate from the midnight buffet to take back to the cabin. We were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
