Iceland, Wednesday, September 20, 2023...

One must expect rain and wind when in Iceland. You are told to pack accordingly and remember to layer up in clothing each day. We were blessed with three days in a row of sunny weather. Sometimes it was windy, but for those three days we welcomed sunshine!

We started our Wednesday morning with breakfast at the hotel. I was so happy they had Skyr on the buffet. Skyr is very Icelandic and it something like a yogurt. When we travel, I love yogurt and a croissant for breakfast with cheese if available. Skyr would be my breakfast each morning while in Iceland. The Storm Hotel served a mixed berry topping if you choose. I chose and it was delicious.

Today's tour would be the Golden Circle. Easily accessible from Reykjavik, it is traveled by lots of tourists. Iceland has a travel deal where you can stop in Iceland for several days and then fly on to your destination at no additional cost for the change of planes. This brings in lots of tourist dollars. It also makes the Golden Circle a great quick trip when using this deal. The Golden Circle has lots of what Iceland is known for. We would make four of the numerous stops on this drive. McKenna, our host, loves Iceland. She would move there in a heartbeat. She personally set up this itinerary and filled it with things she loves the best. She once took two weeks and drove around the island with friends seeing all they could in those two weeks. It was a joy traveling with someone in a place they love.

This day we would have a tour guide on the coach with us who lives in Reykjavik. John was originally from Canada. He has lived in other places in the world like the Hague. He and his Thai wife have lived in Iceland for many years. He was very knowledgeable and seemed extremely well educated. Here are some facts he shared with us throughout the day:

• For 100 years Reykjavik has been using geothermal energy.
• Refugees are coming to Iceland. 60% of Icelanders feel they have enough refugees.
• Someone asked about cost of housing in Iceland. If you purchased home near Sky Lagoon where we were the evening before, it would cost $1-$2 million. If you purchased a Condo in the country it would be half that. If you purchased a Condo in the city $750,000. 

Peter, our bus driver, was from Poland, He was a fairly good bus driver and once clearly avoided a wreck when a car pulled out in front of him without looking. He was quiet but had a good smile. 

As the coach left Reykjavik, it passed this structure. You see them in various spots around the city. They are part of the geothermal energy system. 

Our first stop was Thingervellir National Park. Okay, this is one place I clearly learned that "th' in Iceland is pronounced like 't'. This was an amazing place. We would walk between tectonic plates!!

The entrance to the park has lava rock walls with grass growing on top. This spoke to me as we have rock walls all over Kentucky. It was an Icelandic version of those rock walls.

But first we walked across the top of them to view a beautiful valley below. 

From the top viewpoint, we could look at the tectonic plates.

We left the viewpoint and walked between the plates. The American Plate would be on our left and the Eurasian Plate would be one our right. We learned that the different in earthquakes in Iceland and California is that the plates in California are trying to shove over each other. This causes strong earthquakes that shakes everything apart. In Iceland, the plates are separating from each other at about a couple of centimeters per year. There are always earthquakes but your don't feel them as strongly because the plates are bumping against each other. In these pictures, Claude is on the American Plate side, then the Eurasian Plate side to read a plaque. Sandi is on the Eurasian Plate side, then her hand is on the American Plate side. The last two pictures are the American Plate. 

There are several paths you can take to walk down into the plates. We took one that took us across the Eurasian Plate.

From the view spot at the top of this Eurasia walkout, you had another view of the valley and stream in it.

Back to the main walk through the tectonic plates. It was fall/autumn in Iceland. They don't have lots of tall trees. Where you look for the color is on the plants that grow on the lava rocks or low to the ground. It was beautiful to see. The third picture is looking back at where we started our walk down between the tectonic plates. 

Many, many years ago all the areas of Iceland had their own councils. Eventually, Althingi (remember, 'th' is pronounced 't' was formed.  It would be their governing body for all of Iceland. Members from all the little local councils came. They brought their families. It was a time for the government to set laws for the entire country. Marriage arrangements were made. Families who lived in distant villages had a chance to see each other again. It was held in June at this sacred place. This second picture shows how they used the area we had walked. The third picture shows this piece of land today. Today, Iceland has a Parliament in Reykjavik. We were told by John that he had a tour come through. One of the people was a lawyer. He told John that the first thing they studied in law school was the laws created by Althingi. 

Now we would walk over one of the water fall rivers that flowed into the river in the valley. 

We finished our amazing walk through the tectonic plates and enjoyed the fall colors of Iceland.

What an amazing experience. Walking between tectonic plates. Not something one gets to do everyday!

Our next stop was Laugarvatn. There is a beautiful lake here name Laugarvatn. There are also geothermal spots around the edge of the lake. Our purpose in stopping here was the learn the process of baking rye bread in one of the geothermal spots and then eating the bread. Here is a view of the lake. The second picture is a geothermal mud pool with a rye bread oven below. 

The two domes of dirt with the rocks on top have pots of bread baking in them. A new pot of bread dough carefully wrapped many times in plastic wrap is brought out to replace the one we would take from one of these ovens. It takes about 24 hours in the ground to bake the bread.

Our guide explained the heat and those little volcano shaped ovens and invited one of the young kids in our group to help him carefully remove the dirt to get to the pot of baked rye bread. While she dug the dirt to remove the pot, we were each given a bit of the soil to feel the heat that is in that soil. 

Our guide finished removing enough dirt so he could safely remove the pot full of baked rye bread. Then he dug out the hold again (it fills with hot water as he digs) to be sure it was deep enough. Then he placed the new pot of bread dough into the hole and forms a volcano shaped oven with a rock placed on the top. The next day another group will reap the benefits of the pot of baked rye bread. 

The lake was the perfect place to clean the dirt off the pot of rye bread he removed from the hole. After cleaning off the pot, he paused for a moment to thank the earth for her bounty. 

He went to a table located close by and unwrapped all those layers of plastic wrap. Then we got to see the results of the 24 hours of baking the rye bread in the geothermal soil and water. He assured us you never know what you will get. The loaf should have had a rounded surface. He figures too much dough was placed in the pot. That would not affect the taste of this delicious bread. Sometimes, even with their best efforts, the loaf just doesn't work out. Ours did. 

On to the visitor's center to finish this up and have a taste of the bread. Getting the bread out of the pot is a slow process. The pot was well buttered before the bread dough was put in it. Still, he had to shake and tap the sides of the pot repeatedly. Then he carefully turned the pot upside down and gently patted the bottom of the pot for a bit. Lastly, he very slowly and carefully lifted the sides of the pot as the round loaf of bread slowly slid away from the sides of the pot and onto the cutting board. We were assured the bread was still very warm on the inside and still cooking from that heat. He pressed the loaf as this sometimes helps it to go ahead an flatten a bit. He took a long bread knife and cut the loaf in half and then in half again. You could see the steam still coming from this bread. This gave him four quarters. Each quarter would be sliced many times so that we each received two slices of rye bread. Along with the bread, there were plates with homemade butter from a local farm. And, a family that lives along the lake fishes for the trout that live in the lake. Once caught, they smoke them for three days. The meat is sliced then. We were able to also put smoked trout on our rye bread if we so desired. I put butter on each slice and smoked trout on only one of the slices. That trout was excellent. It was a lot like smoked salmon. Yum!!  

Then we were given a recipe card in case we wanted to try this at home. McKenna assured us she has tried this several times, even going so far as to steam it to model the geothermal conditions. It has never been as good as it is when they make it in Iceland.

I will post some views from the coach as we drove to the Geysir. Enjoy the scenery of Iceland. Look for the fall colors on the ground. 

Our 3rd stop was Haukadalu Geysir. This is the first Geysir in Iceland and very important to the people of Iceland. We hiked up to  the Geysir. It erupts every 4-10 minutes. I had my real camera ready. When the water shot into the air, I pressed the wrong button and turned my camera off. I quickly turned my camera on again. I got a quick picture of the 2nd shot of water in the air. That was it. Two eruptions into the air and done. I did take a picture of the sign that compares the heights the geysers shoot into the air. I appreciate the importance of this geyser to the people of Iceland and their history. However, after watching sustained eruptions in New Zealand in March, two quick spurts was not very exciting. Shame on me. 

We had a little fun in the gift shop. They had a lovely statue of Thor defeating some creature. The sign says "Do Not Touch Thor". This is a picture of Claude touching Thor. When we go through a drive through and they ask for a name for the order, Claude always uses the name Thor. They never get Claude right. Thor they get right most of the time. We tried to get him a Thor t-shirt, but they didn't have one large enough for my Great Viking.

Our final stop for this day was at Gulfoss Waterfall. There are a lot of waterfalls in Iceland. McKenna picked some of her favorites for us to see. Gulfoss was the first of these. It is actually tiered. Claude and I stayed on top to view the falls. You can take stairs down and walk along the edge. However, on the bus ride there, we were on the wrong side of the coach to see the mountains with glaciers on top. So, we stayed on top to get a view of that as well as the falls. This was a very windy spot. Claude kept grabbing the back tail of my coat when I would stand to take a picture as the wind was blowing me over. 

And, here are two pictures of the mountains with glaciers on them. 

Back on the coach for the drive back to Reykjavik. We would take some different roads this time.

Many of these homes cover this area. During the World War II, the residents took to the countryside in case Reykjavik was bombed. They built small homes and tried to farm as best they could. They small homes became summer homes when the war was over. Now they have built lots of the spread across the landscape as summer homes. 

I wanted to be sure to mention the moss that grows on the rocks. It is a greyish green color. It takes it about 100 years to mature. If you step on it, it will die. Lots of "Do Not Walk Here" signs to protect this bit of nature. 

This is a geothermal power plant. 

Once in Reykjavik, we had the evening to ourselves. Claude and I chose to go to Bjor Gardurinn, a little pub across the street from our hotel. There I fulfilled my second wish for food on our trip. Hot dogs are a very big thing in Iceland. I ordered an Icelandic hot dog. It is large, plump and has a snap when you bite into it. They make a special mayonnaise/mustard spice sauce to go on it. And, they serve it with onions. Mine were fried and flaked. It was very good. Claude would have one later in the trip. He was wanting fish and chips this night. 

At 9pm, those who were interested, met McKenna in the lobby to go in search of the Northern Lights. We walked back to the shoreline where there was less light noise. This is where we learned that the Northern Lights might be there but your eyes can't pick them up. What you see is a wispy string of clouds that are moving across the sky. That is the Northern Lights. Now, put your cellphone on night mode and take a picture of that cloud. Your cellphone will detect the lights as you take a picture of them. My favorite picture was of Claude trying to get the light noise away so he could see the lights with his eyes. 

A good full day of soaking up Iceland. The food was good, the people are friendly. The place is very safe. One couldn't ask for a better first full-day of sightseeing.