[Reminder: Words that appear in color (e.g. "Golden Circle" and "Pingvellir") indicate a hyperlink to more information on the subject. Clicking on one of them will take you to a website containing that information; clicking BACK arrow on your browser will return you to this blog.]
After a long, long night's sleep, we had a leisurely breakfast, then left the hotel to board our bus for our trip around the Golden Circle.
- - - - -
After a long, long night's sleep, we had a leisurely breakfast, then left the hotel to board our bus for our trip around the Golden Circle.
In the park where we boarded the bus were some meeting stones that dated back to the 9th century.
Our first stop was the seat of the original Icelandic parliament - Pingvellir.
Over the course of 30 minutes, as we walked along the path, we went from drizzle to partly sunny and back to drizzle again.
A highlight of this stop was our first significant waterfall, albeit modest by Iceland standards.
Our next stop was the Fridheimar tomato farm. Whoopee-do I hear you think. Actually, this one was impressive. First, remember that we are in Iceland where the climate is not conducive to growing something as relatively fragile as a tomato. To overcome this required solving how to cost-effectively provide sufficient light and heat to grow them indoors. Hydro-electric and geothermal power generation capacity in Iceland exceeds demand, making electricity cheap. A geyser on the farm's property solved the heating problem.
The operation was very sophisticated, including precise climate control that can be monitored and adjusted with a smart phone. And the farm is not a hobby. The farm grows twenty percent of the tomatoes consumed in Iceland.
After a brief and interesting dog & point show about how the operation worked, including importing female bees from Denmark to pollinate the plants, we sat down to a lunch of what else but tomato soap. It was good soup, but thankfully came with lots of delicious bread.
While we were having lunch, who walked in but Bob and Charlyn Heidenreich with their granddaughter Heather and her family. Having seen Bob & Charlyn yesterday in Reykjavik, we knew they were in Iceland, but neither they nor us knew when and where we were having lunch. With six of us on the trip, Bob and Charlyn's presence made eight of us from Beverly Yacht Club, a club that only has 500 members. Small world.
After lunch, we went to Gullfoss. It was rainy, but we were not deterred.
A marker commemorated Sigridur Tomasdottir. She and her sisters blazed a trail to Gullfoss and led tourists to it beginning in the late 1800's. According to legend, she is credited with saving the falls from being destroyed by a dam.
I thought the artist had been a bit harsh in his portrayal of her until I read the accompanying mini-bio about her. It included, "Sigridur was often rather strict" (according to her siblings) and "of average height and strong build". I decided the artist had likely captured his subject rather well.
While at Gullfoss, I had drone-envy watching these guys putting this very sophisticated one through its paces, including descending towards the base of the falls. I did not envy the amount of time and effort it was going to take them to clean up the equipment after exposure to so much mist.
Once we left Reykjavik this morning, we spent the entire day in rural settings. Statistically about two-thirds of the country's population lives in Reykjavik. Only about one quarter of the country is habitable. The two statistics combine to spread about 100,000 people over 10,000 square miles with no one on the remaining 30,000 square miles.
The sparse population, even with the overlaid tourist population, results in a limited choice of accommodations. Hotel Hella, where we spent our second night in Iceland, passed my two top priorities for lodging - clean and safe - but was a bit basic in other categories.
If I am ever back in this part of Iceland, Hotel Rangà would be my preferred lodging. (It is my understanding that they were unable to accommodate our group due to lack of available rooms.) One reason, beyond amenities, is that unlike our hotel, if the northern lights are visible, Hotel Ranga is in the middle of nowhere, so the is no light pollution.
When we arrived back at our hotel, before de-bussing ("bus" as a verb?) our guide told us that if the Northern Lights became visible in the middle of the night, it was customary to wake up group members to see them. We all agreed. At 11:00 PM, after checking the cloud cover and forecast, I went to bed reasonably certain that there would be no knock on the door. There wasn't.
