On Tuesday we took the Circle Tour, so called because it circled much of the island. This was a nine hour tour which was worth the trip to Iceland.
Our first stop was at Garden of Eden Greenhouse. Because of Iceland's abundance of geothermal energy, greenhouses are so economical to operate that they are a net exporter of produce. There are supposedly puffins in Iceland, but we had to settle for this fake one.
Next stop was Kerio volcanic crater followed by a lava field. The island is a treasure trove of relatively dormant volcanoes, tons of lava, geysers, hot springs, and the Mid Altantic Continental Rift (stay tuned for this one). The Kerio crater was formed when the volcano exploded because of trapped steam.
The Gullfoss Falls were spectacular. Part of its beauty was because so much of it was frozen.
The Geyser Site reminded me a lot of Yellowstone. A couple of years later we took a trip to the North Island of New Zealand and again saw geothermal events like those in Iceland. Photo 1 shows the geysers in a distance. Photo 2 shows some boiling mud. Photo 3 identifies their most famous geyser: Strokkur which is seen erupting in the last photo.
The geysers were even more impressive than the falls! Stokkur Geyser goes off about every 5 minutes. Geysir Geyser (note - all geysers in the world are so called because of Geysir Geyser) goes off 3 times a day. Photo 1 is again of Strokkur. Photo 2 demonstrates that sometimes one eruption is followed shortly thereafter by a second. In this photo the second coming is just starting. And the last photo shows a rare event - Strokkur and Geysir going off at the same time. Coincidentally, that is our bus to the left of the picture.
Skalholt Church is an old and beautiful Icelandic church, Photo 2 shows a mosaic and photo 3 a stained glass window.
Iceland was formed by a "hot spot" under it. This hot
spot helps to form both Europe and North America since
the tectonic plates drift apart there. Believe it or
not, we actually saw the Mid Atlantic Rift formed by this action. In
one location we had one foot on either tectonic plates.
(Detail - they drift apart about 3 cm / yr). Photo 1 show the rift like ridge in the background. In photo 2, this portion of the rift is filled with water. Photo 3 is looking down the rift's ridge. Photo 4 shows the rift from the vantage point of a hill.
After the tour dropped us off at our hotel, we walked to the Pearl so we could have a festive last night in Iceland at the Pearl's Revolving Restaurant. As the photos show, we stayed there while the sunset and it finally became dark. The last photo shows me taking a picture of us by using the reflections in a window.
