Our last day began with breakfast, as always
and then we were off to do the Golden Circle. We stopped at Sudurland
to record remarkable views (as the winds were growing)
and then were off to Kerid which was a collapsed volcano that the guide said might just be for volcano enthusiasts.
The views were suitably remarkable
that we greeted the local dog
and then made our way around
stopping to have our pictures taken by some Finnish folks
and then continued
pausing for a picture of Jane
as we looked down at the crater
and then at the surrounding countryside
and recorded some wildflowers
as Jane bid a final farewell
to the crater and we declared ourselves volcano enthusiasts
as we headed to the car
and made our way to Gullfoss
where we could see the mist rising from a distance
and so followed the trail
until we approached the waterfalls
|
and the rocks that helped define it.
|
There were many views to record
|
sometime with Jane in the picture
sometimes with others
but many pictures to be taken in any case since the falls presented themselves in fascinating fashion
|
as Jane took these pictures of me
and more falls photos
|
as I made it along the path for this picture
and after some mist
we took this self portrait
and then aimed to get the very best view
|
and then aimed downstream
|
and one more of the depth
before a friendly person took this picture of us
and we headed away from the falls with a few last pictures
before Jane recorded me with this hero
we took a last look back
and then were on our way to the gift shop where this friendly lady welcomed us
and we took pictures of ourselves in Viking garb
before heading down the road
to the Geysir hot springs area
where the map told the story
and this stone marked the original Geysir (in the world) which unfortunately no longer erupts on any regular schedule
but we did record Strokkur as it got ready
and then erupted as it does every 5-10 minutes
and then we made our way around the geyser basin
capturing the beautiful colors
of Konungshver
and a wide view
and our location
before taking a long view
and capturing this bird
as we made our way down to the cafeteria where Jane
got into the frame
as did I
so that we could capture the menu
and take one last photo to end the roll
before we gassed up
and made our way down roads right and wrong that took us to this lovely
which commemorated Thomas Gudmundsson Skald who I can now identify as an Icelandic poet and here is the text of his poem Fljotid Helga (The Holy River)
but somehow, I don't think this was the picture he was describing in his poetry, rather this was left over from an alien landing.
Next we were on to pINGVELLIR
where we walked up past this cliff (which turned out to be Europe
so that we could walk on a trail between the European (to the left) and North American (to the right) plates
|
and we reached a waterfall along the way
before marching on
to a rocky outcropping
where the advice was to go back the way we came
which we did
and we found information about the significance of Pingvellir in Icelandic (and world) history as the home of the first parliament
|
and as we marched on and obeyed the guidance to not throw coins
we looked down to the river formed from the waterfall to see many coins
but we pressed on to hear about more things that happened on the site for the last 1100 years
|
before we got back to the trail and were able to walk between two continents in an astonishing fashion
|
until we reached the sign for the visitor's center
and went in to see the continental drift over the past 1000 years identified by sign
and by distance.
After a few admiring pictures into the distance
and some photos of further divides as we sought to absorb the majesty of what we were seeing
we recorded one last compass
a few more pictures looking back at the divide
and then were on our way back towards Keflavik where we saw smoke in the distance
and knew that we were approaching the Blue Lagoon where words (and even photos) cannot describe the experience.
After a relaxing soak, we went on to Keflavik where Jane
was happy to see rolls
and I was happy to see beer
as we had one last meal
and then captured the Reykjanesbaer sign in the 11 PM light.
|