Thursday in Iceland. Still have not seen Northern Lights, due to overcast skies, and we woke up to an actual winter day - around freezing, the coldest it's been yet, and a few cm of snow on the ground. After another generous breakfast buffet with our slightly bored-seeming host (we seem to be the only guests, and she's up early to make sure breakfast is out), we headed out on a very typical tourist route suggested by our you-drive-it itinerary - in search of Gullfoss and Geysir, 2 of the 3 big sights of the Golden Circle tour.
Adam was taking care on the roads as there was uncleared snow and sections of it having been compacted to ice, but they still weren't too bad. We took our time, and stopped at the odd lay-by, one of which overlooked a large valley and had a signboard pointing to all sorts of sights including the (in)famous Eyafyallajokull, that I can't spell properly on an English keyboard. I couldn't really see it off in the distance, but that might have been due to the weather still obscuring the distant sights.
From there, we headed all the way up to the limits of the drivable road which apparently in the winder stops at the Gullfoss tourist centre. Gullfoss is a double-level waterfall through a deep, narrow gorge, and from some - most? - angles it's got the impressive appearance of the river just falling away into the earth, as the downstream channel can't really be seen until you are above the falls. Legends and stories about the place abound, but it has apparently been protected from hydro exploitation by an early settler and later his daughter, to whom a memorial is constructed on the site, crediting her as Iceland's first environmentalist. The Visitor Centre at the site looks very like a typical Canadian tourist trap, though in retrospect we should have stopped there for lunch instead of at the Geysir site where we ended up eating.
Heading back on the road from Gullfoss, we stopped at the aforementioned Geysir which we had passed on the way up. This is THE Geysir, the one whose name has made its way into English as the general noun "geyser" applied to any spouting hot spring. Geysir itself is apparently quiet nowadays, only active during earthquakes. It has a fairly impressive "little brother" however, named Strokkur, reputed to erupt every 8-10 minutes and which did not disappoint. Have a look at Adam's gallery for the shots he got of a few eruptions. Wandering the site further also revealed some interesting wonders, such as clear-as-glass steaming pools, in which one could see down the immensely deep thermal vents. Studded all over the place were boiling, bubbling pots as well, right up to the highwayside. Like nothing else I've ever seen. People here are so casual about living next to bits of the earth that just explode out at them - unbelievable.
From Geysir, we headed about halfway towards Thingvellir, which we will visit later in the week, to Laugarvatn and a facility for which we also got a voucher with our tour - the Fontana Steam Baths and thermal pools. This is (yet another!) natural geothermal site on the shores of a small lake, where local opportunism has led to the rise of a lovely spa facility with steam rooms built right over the live steam vents. This leads to a VERY hot and slightly unpredictable steam-sauna experience, but the site includes a series of sculpted outdoor pools, shallow but deep enough to sit in and soak up the warm water at various temperatures slightly lower than the steam baths. The water has a high sulphur content everywhere here, which has led to my silver ring turning first somewhat brassy, and by now, it's actually coppery with a purple-blue sheen. I kinda like it, but it probably won't stay.
We both decided this hot pool/steam bath habit is a great way to end a day out in a damp-ish cold, though the temperature had been rising and snow melting as our day went on. From Fontana we headed back to Hveragerdi, where we stopped at the Kort & Kunst "Earth Cooking" cafe, a restaurant that runs their kitchen entirely from the geothermal fields in the centre of Hveragerdi, right off the back of their property. This was a great meal of actual local cuisine. Adam had breaded lamb chops, and I thought I ordered a meatball plate but wound up with fish cakes - which were quite good, and I didn't mind the miscommunication at all, as I'd really been tossing a coin between the two dishes anyway.
After getting home from dinner, in much warmer temperatures than we started the day with (7-8 degrees, up from -2.5 or so) we were both pretty wiped out and just headed for bed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment