Wed July 3, 2024
Hi Folks! We made it to Iceland! Specifically to the port of Akureyri, which is on the north of the island right in the center. I can see where it’s the land of fire and ice but we sure didn’t see any sun! Luckily though it didn’t rain but it was chilly, around 48 degrees all day. Far cry from North Carolina!
Today we did an all day excursion and covered a lot of the area. We started at the Godafoss Waterfalls, called the “waterfall of the Gods”. According to the myth, in the year 1,000 Law-speaker of the Althing, Chieftain Thorgeir Thorkelsson, returned from Thingvellir with the decision that the nation of Iceland would convert to Christianity. He ceremoniously disposed of all Norse pagan idols into the falls. Thus the name the waterfall of the Gods. It was really powerful and pretty but we hate to say we’ve become waterfall snobs. Once we saw Iguazu Falls, all others can’t compare!
We then went to the Lake Myvatn area where there were lots of volcanic ash and rock. We saw the Ludent ash crater which is the oldest crater on Iceland which erupted and was formed 9,000 years ago!
After that we went to this geothermal area where the water underground is over 400 degrees and the water everywhere is boiling! There’s also little mounds of rock where steam blows out constantly due to the hot water letting off the steam. It was actually really cool, except for the smell! It all smells like rotten eggs due to all the sulfer. Yuk!
We then went to what I thought was the coolest place and that was where two sets of tectonic plates meet. It’s the only place in the world where you can straddle two continents. It’s where the North American and Eurasia tectonic plates come together. Very cool! (I know my college roommate Paul, who is a Geologist, would love this spot!).
Then we stopped at an outdoor bath/pool that’s heated where people soak in the warm water and supposedly the healing powers from the volcanic water. A few on our excursion did this but we passed on it. It did look relaxing though!That’s all for now, I’ll post more after dinner!
The Wandering Italian 