Fire and Ice: Iceland's Golden Circle, Part Three

Saturday 5 August 2017. Our last stop on The Golden Circle was at Thingvellir National Park where two things vie for our attention. The order that you see them depends on at which coach park you are dropped off because, like at the geyser park, you walk from one to the other.

We set off at the souvenir shop and then walk along a raised wooden platform between two walls of rock.

This is the rift valley formed by the movement of two tectonic plates of the earth's crust which meet here. On one side is the plate for North America and on the other is the plate for Eurasia. The valley is also the top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Looking back at the path we have taken. We are starting to pass people who have walked from the far coach park.

Looking the other way the valley widens out and to the right out of shot is Iceland's largest lake. In the distance right at the end of the path in this photo is a flagpole that marks the spot of Iceland's first Parliament - "Thingvellir" comes from the same language root as the Isle of Man's "Tynwald".

Iceland's first parliament was convened by local chieftains who felt that the descendants of Iceland's first permanent settler, Ingólfur Arnarson had become too powerful. Whilst deciding where to hold the first general assembly, the owner of this piece of land was found guilty of murder and his lands were declared public and to be the site of the first parliament in the year 930.

Lake Thingvallavatn, seen above the overgrown remains of some of the huts and buildings of those early parliament assemblies in the foreground.

Another of the huts can be made out here. Stones marking the doorway and, inside, a hearthstone with a section of wall exposed in the corner.

A small, but very pleasant waterfall, seen only at this distance as, when you get closer, the large rock on the right hides it from the pathway.

After the waterfall the stream gurgles down towards another fall that takes it under the path and then down towards the lake.

I wasn't sure whether this was a collection of roots or a deliberate man-made path made ages ago of sticks and twigs. We reached the car park and took a seat at a picnic table until our coach opened its doors and then as soon as we were aboard the Heavens opened and we breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn't started raining 20 minutes earlier!

So ends our three days in Iceland, an experience that will forever be remembered and treasured. Tomorrow will be our fourth day at sea for this cruise as we make our way to the Faroe Islands for Monday morning.

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Fire and Ice: Iceland's Golden Circle, Part Two

Saturday 5 August 2017. After leaving the Gullfoss waterfall we re-traced our steps a bit - or perhaps the coach re-traced it's tyre tracks might be more accurate.

We stopped at the geothermal area at Haukadalur, which was described on the tour as a Geyser park. It contains several geysers and hot springs including Strokkur (shown here) which erupts roughly every seven minutes, sending boiling water shooting up to 20 metres (65 feet) in height. This eruption was just after we entered the park - you can enter at either end of a set path.

The paths that you can walk are marked out by rope and iron posts and there are warning signs not to touch any water whether standing or flowing in small small streams from the pools.

It may have flowed over the ground quite a way but that water is still 80° centigrade or higher! Just looking at flowing water your mind plays tricks, telling you that of course it will be safe to touch. I didn't test my theory and suspect that I would have regretted it if I had!

We reach the first of the pools. There's a spot towards the right where the water is boiling. This must be directly above the vent or tunnel through which the water rises to the surface.

In the second pool it is very obvious where the vent is! It is a strange feeling to know you must be standing over a large lake of magma. Though, on saying that, I've climbed up Vesuvius and didn't give it a second thought! But here the ever-present steam and whiff of sulfur act as strong reminders. Incidentally for anyone screaming at the screen that I spelt sulphur wrong, I refer you to the decision of the Nomenclature Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1992...

We reach the erupting Strokkur geyser just after its seven minutes start again! Phew! It does smell of sulfur and as we walk through the end of the mist of steam it gets very hot.

We walk round the ring of spectators until we are out of the path of the steam and I set the camera on video to capture the next eruption. Sadly, it is a smaller one than some we have seen, but still impressive.

As we move towards the far end of the path we presume that this area must have vents from closer to the reservoir of magma far below as there are several pools which are boiling away merrily.

Whilst not erupting on the same scale as the one just seen, this one does spurt out every now and then as the water gets super-heated. It is called Litli Geysir - "Little Geyser"! There are several people watching it and Fran overhears someone from another of the ship's coaches complaining, "Well I've been standing here longer than seven minutes and it's not done anything other than boil!"
"That's because you're standing at the wrong one," said Fran, pointing over her shoulder just as Strokkur shoots high into the air again.

We are close to the far end of the path now and lunch awaits us in a hotel at the far end. This part of the park is wreathed in steam from numerous ponds or craters in the ground.

The lunch is included with the tour and is delicious. A cream vegetable soup is followed by poached salmon as a main course. It is faultless. Water and tea or coffee are provided though when we were offered a beer or soft drink we both thought "Why not?" and I had a lager beer - Gull lager - and Fran had a bottle of Pepsi. We worked out the exchange rate later and found we had paid around 14 pounds for this. Hey - it was worth it and you have to remember that prices in such a remote place are going to be higher than your local supermarket!

Alongside the car park was a large souvenir shop and we had a look round and bought important things like fridge magnets...

There's one more site to visit on the Golden Circle tour and that will feature in the next article. It consists of the rift valley between two tectonic plates and the site of Iceland's first parliament around 800 AD.

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Fire and Ice: Iceland's Golden Circle, Part One

Saturday 5 August 2017. Today we are booked on a tour called The Golden Circle. This is just the name of a tour - there is no place or region in Iceland called that, but it is a circular tour and takes in four main sights: A power station harnessing the warmth of volcanically heated water and steam from below; the large and impressive Gullfoss waterfall; a geyser park - a collection of craters with boiling water, one of which spouts to an impressive height every seven minutes or so; and finally the rift valley between the tectonic plates of Europe and Northern America, which is also close to the site of the first Icelandic parliament set up by the Vikings (Norsemen really, Vikings didn't stay long enough and to them viking was a verb describing their sudden raids).

We'll just cover half of the trip this time, namely the power station and Gullfoss.

It is our last day in Iceland. We were due to dock in Reykjavik, but were told last night that there was no room due to other ships coming in so we docked at Kollafjord, a short distance away.

We were to dock at 8:00am and were up very early as we were on a full day tour which meant we had to meet at 8:15am anyway. We were woken by our alarm at 6:00am - sheesh kebabs! I'm supposed to be on holiday!!! So we were able to get out on the Promenade Deck to watch our approach to the port.

The tour started with the power station. Whilst interesting that by the means of naturally hot water this power station delivers hot water at 40 degrees to every house without need for them to warm it up and that it also powers a huge percentage of their electricity, a collection of basically cubic massive machines is not going to hold my interest for very long...

I did my best to be excited by the collection of rocks, but the best bit to me (and certainly the most satisfying) was the chance to visit the loo... I'm just a philistine I know... But in fairness, I am a philistine on tablets for water retention...

The power station was in a rather remote setting to say the least. Though a large party were riding horses in a circle in the next field until their team leader decided they were all capable of staying in the saddle and they set off away from us. God only knows where they had come from or how they got there... There were lots of places where steam just gushed from the ground. It was this geothermal activity that was being used and captured at the power station.

Our next stop after an hour's run in the coach is at Gullfoss waterfall - a spectacular large waterfall.

You thought that was it, didn't you? Wrong!

It's a long and steep climb down to the falls themselves. We check the time available. Ah well... it has to be done!

First there's a lot of steps. I was starting to wonder how I'd get on climbing back... But then there's a steep slope without the aid of steps. I carried on here on my own. Fran opted to stay at the bottom of the steps.

After this point I have to climb upwards again to the rock platform. To the right people standing on top of the cliff indicate the path down which I have come so far. The steps lead up a slope just out of shot to the extreme right. You can just make out the path of the river leading away from the camera and another smaller fall further on is visible from the tourist complex and car park.

Halfway up the slope to the top waterfall and noting that everyone on the top seems to be no older than 40...

At this point, reached by simply climbing by walking, I realise that there are no handy steps to get to the top, just the natural rock. The lowest step I've found is only the size of my foot and it is knee high...

So I spend a minute or two here, pondering...

But what the hell... The jump down jarred my knees, hips and teeth - I'm not as nimble as I used to be! Then it was the expected breath taking climb back up, Fran forcing rests on me going back up the steps. I didn't argue...!

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Fire and Ice: An Easy Day in Isafjord

Friday 4 August 2017. During the night that was stubbornly light, we arrived at the jutting out north west corner of Iceland and slipped down a fjord to Isafjord ("Ísafjörður" in Icelandic).

This was drawn from the Celebration's coffee shop on Deck 5. We waited for things to warm up a bit as first thing in the morning there was a - shall we say - a slight nip to the air... By the time we covered up with hoodies and jackets though we ended up carrying them round as the temperature shot up to 23 degrees centigrade!

A whale skull and vertebra displayed on the ground near a souvenir shop and cafe. Isafjord was founded by Norsemen in the 800s and 800 years later apparently there were lots of witch trials around here, with anyone found guilty banished to an exposed peninsula nearby, now a national nature reserve.

The cafe/souvenir shop was a large wooden building. A couple of cats were sitting or wandering around outside, looking hopeful... It was perhaps their home or a source of the odd tit-bit!

Behind us is the ship and then a high cliff at the far side of the fjord so we were in the shadow of the cliff whilst the entrance to the inner harbour and the hillside behind the hut is lit by the sun.

We had decided not to do any excursion today as tomorrow's excursion will be a long full day trip. So we set off to walk around Isafjord itself.

This boat had seen better days, but it looked as though any useful parts had been stripped off to extend their useful life on other vessels.

The fjord approaches and passes Isafjord and then does two right-angle bends to the right finally ending in a sheltered inner harbour. We are approaching that here, walking by the edge of the water.

A few trawlers were in the harbour, perhaps having unloaded their catch and waiting for their next trip. A large green forklift truck was kept busy taking stacks of crates from the harbour into town.

Isafjord's only roundabout. It covers approaches from the small town centre, from the dock and from the houses that strung along the side of the fjord on the far side of the town.

The houses were quite colourful! A large house, standing on its own, turned out to be a former hospital and is now a cultural centre with a library and museum.

Like most fishing towns, there was a memorial to local fishermen that had set out but had not returned. This one was flanked by two flag poles and had a colourful flower bed set in front of it.

From the roundabout we turned to our right which led via a short street to the edge of the wider fjord at the end of the town. By now we were carrying coats and hoodies and were just in t-shirts. This in a place where the average mean temperature for an August day in just 9 degrees, with the average high being a mere 12 degrees. It's hard to deny global warming here...

There were quite a few of our fellow passengers enjoying the views from here. There is snow on some of the slopes despite today's high temperatures. We were told that we had been incredibly lucky with the weather as it had been raining hard and cold the previous day. In fact we heard that in most of the ports we visited - I want to travel with this captain again...!

Another cruise ship is approaching Isafjord in the distance. This is the Astoria, belonging to a Portuguese line. We'll have a closer look at her as we sail out.

We walked through the small town centre, coming back out to the fjord and our own ship waiting patiently against the dramatic backdrop of the side of the fjord. There's a few specks of snow up there too, proving that today's warmth was truly a bit of a freak luck!

We passed several large factories, mostly concerned with the fishing industry, cleaning, filleting, canning etc. Here, ice is being packed over the day's catch.

The day passes. At 5:00pm we cast off our cables. The gulls gather excitedly as the ship's thrusters move us out and away from the dock, stirring up tasty morsels no doubt from the below.

The Astoria. She's an old girl. Built as the Stockholm in 1948, Astoria is incredibly the eleventh name she has sailed under! Built originally as an ocean liner, she currently sails as a cruise ship carrying 556 passengers.

We are now on our way to our final port in Iceland, Reykjavik. Whilst not exactly "fire", the trip we take tomorrow will include some impressive volcanic and geothermal action! And a rather expensive (but very good) beer...

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