In which water gets exciting (Iceland part III).

For the next day, we'd decided to tackle part of the Golden Circle. I wasn't keen on being around a lot of tourists, but it would be a shame to be so close and not experience some of Iceland's most famous landmarks. 

The first stop was probably the most famous, the Strokkur geyser. Now, I have never been to Yosemite. I had never seen a proper geyser before. The Strokkur geyser is very tourist-friendly in that it erupts reliably every 5-10 minutes, and ranges from 60-130+ feet when she blows. The first couple times we saw her go we were pretty far away, and honestly, I was pretty impressed.

The third time we saw her blow we were standing right next to it, and HOLY MOLY!!!!!! First there's the waiting, the waiting, the antici... pation. She blubbers a couple times and simmers back down. Then without any warning, a half-globe rises and explodes with this almighty blast of a megawhale's blowhole, and you're riding the whale and want to hang on for dear life except that then you remember that you're actually standing on the flat ground and not on a whale at all. 

(This video is pretty good.)

Just a ten-minute drive from where the water goes up, there is another magical place where the water goes down. Touristy as it may be, we had to go see Gullfoss, or the Golden Falls. So big, so mighty, so wild, so, so wet! The pictures really do not do it justice. So much water, and it was goin' places.

The last attraction of the day was Þingvellir National Park, not only a gorgeous landscape but also a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the Alþing -- Iceland's parliamentary site where people from all over the country gathered for two weeks each year from 930 AD to 1798 to discuss laws, trade, and settle disagreements (seriously cool history! Read more about it at the link above).

The park also happens to be the meeting point of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, where the two continents meet -- or rather drift apart by about 2 cm per year.  

The journey there went from soft, green fields to barren lava fields covered in ancient moss, always with jagged mountaintops poking at the sky in the distance.

There are several smooth hiking trails through the park, including one cute little waterfall and some internationally renowned scuba diving in the Silfra rift. We walked all around quietly in the afternoon sun. Amir took a nap on a bench. I was awed thinking back on the thousand+ years of significant history that had happened here, from forming democracies to drowning witches. 

On the way home we took a detour to Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. It looked like Maine and I felt right at home by its clear, cold water.

The trip back to our cabin took a little over an hour, thankfully free of tourist traffic and full of flat sun and dramatic shadows so late in the day. There was a lot to process -- water erupting up, up, up and crashing down, down, down and gently lapping on the mossy stones at the edge of the continent. 

One more water feature to close out the post, and one more Sandwich of Champions.

We were sad to say goodbye to our little cabin, but excited to travel west and see what new adventures were in store. The one main ring road on the island is easy to follow and generally kind to little rental cars like ours, though we were often overtaken by massive Megajeeps headed to the much rougher highland roads in the middle of the country or to the rugged northeast. Someday I would love to see those areas too, but for now I was more than happy just to go straight and marvel at the ever-changing, ever-stunning landscape around us.

The first stop of the morning was the Seljalandsfoss, a 200-ft waterfall dropping over a cliff that originates in the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic glacier (volcano buffs or anyone who intended to fly around Europe in the spring of 2010 will recognize this name).

This waterfall was particularly fun because there was a trail in the cliff that let you walk around behind it, and get soaked if the wind was blowing your way. Very mossy and mysterious back there.

We couldn't stay long because we still had a long way to go before our main destination... Stay tuned.