Fire and ice: Iceland road trip, day 5

Examples of local food in Iceland: lamb, salmon

Our final day in Iceland was typical with rain and wind and cold. We had all day so we decided to head out to the Golden Circle area that is most often visited as a day trip from Reykjavik. As was to be expected, the area was crowded with busloads of tourists. And because it was raining and cold, we didn't walk around much. Marko explored the Þingvellir area where Iceland established its first parliament in the year 930.

Þingvellir

We then went out to the geothermal area where it stopped raining just enough so that we could walk around outside. Compared to the many geothermal areas I visited in New Zealand earlier this year where I saw water and steam gushing from the ground, there wasn't much of the same in Iceland. It seems that in Iceland they don't make tourist attractions from their geothermal sources but rather build power plants and swimming pools in such areas.

Geothermal area

Finally we made a stop at the Geyser, the originally discovered geyser after which all subsequent geysers in the world are named. The original geyser actually erupts infrequently but there is a smaller geyser nearby where eruptions happen about every 10 minutes. It's not too difficult to catch an eruption on camera.

Geyser eruption

And just like that our Iceland trip was over. We saw evidence of fire from the volcanoes and we saw ice in the form of glaciers. That's why they call it fire and ice. The natural beauty of the country was even better than I imagined.

As is so often the case, Iceland remains on my list of places I would visit again. Because we planned our vacation around the Reykjavik marathon in August, we missed the midnight sun which happens during the last week of June and we didn't see the northern lights which are visible only in winter. All I can now say is: "Good bye Iceland, we may be back some day."