So on Monday we did the "Golden Circle" tour - of þingvellir (pronounced something like "Thingveddler") national park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall. This was a great tour, I particularly liked Geysir where we saw a geyser called Strökkur go off - it does it every 5 minutes, and can shoot really high (100 metres?) - except on Monday it was windy so it tended more to blow sideways. And it really smells because of the sulphur - Geysir reminded me a lot of stinky Rotorua. Anyway, back to that tour. So þingvellir is where the first parliament was set up in like 930 or something, apparently Iceland is the first place in the world to have a parliament like that. Its a very beautiful area, there´s a gorgeous lake there and a beautiful church. But the other thing that þingvellir is known for, is that it is the area where the continental drift can clearly be seen. Where the continents divide is a flat plain, you can clearly see the difference between North America and Europe. As they drift apart, volcanic action, earthquakes etc cause lava to fill the gap - so the island of Iceland is literally growing every year. It was pretty interesting to see. One thing that is very interesting about Iceland though is the fact that there are no real trees. They say if you ever get lost in an Icelandic forest - stand up!After this we went to the waterfall at Gullfoss. This was pretty 
impressive but very cold. The water comes straight off a glacier. We had lunch there and then went to a place called Hveragerdi, which is where there are some greenhouses. This place also has some natural hot springs and we were told the story of one family who were sitting down to Sunday lunch when the floor of their house caved in, because hot spring
had suddenly "sprung" there. We also went to a place called Kerið (Kerith), there's an explosion crater there which is 55m deep or something, and the water was frozen over (its a beautiful but eerie blue-green colour). Apparently they've taken to holding concerts there, building a stage that floats on the water in the crater - and the first musician to perform there? Björk, of course...
impressive but very cold. The water comes straight off a glacier. We had lunch there and then went to a place called Hveragerdi, which is where there are some greenhouses. This place also has some natural hot springs and we were told the story of one family who were sitting down to Sunday lunch when the floor of their house caved in, because hot spring
had suddenly "sprung" there. We also went to a place called Kerið (Kerith), there's an explosion crater there which is 55m deep or something, and the water was frozen over (its a beautiful but eerie blue-green colour). Apparently they've taken to holding concerts there, building a stage that floats on the water in the crater - and the first musician to perform there? Björk, of course... Anyway, it was a pretty full on day and if you are going to Iceland, I would totally recommend this tour. So on that note, I do promise that the rest of this blog will not be so full of statistics and facts and stuff, else you might be put off...
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