So today is my last full day in Iceland, and I used it to do the main tourist trip in the capital region. The tour companies have branded it 'The Golden Circle' and it's a series of natural wonders northeast of Reykjavik. This was a funny experience for me; I cannot stand guided tours, and have resisted doing anything like this for my entire time abroad. But if there's anything to cave on, it's probably this.

It was a pretty silly exercise at first though, Iceland has only four true hours of daylight right now, and they were covered up by clouds for all but one. The windchill in the interior was absolutely brutal, we stopped by a dormant volcano crater and everyone ran out of the bus, ran to the edge, snapped a few careless photos, and then ran back. As the day went on it got better, but I definitely wished I had been able to hang around and watch Geysir (the original, after which all subsequent geysirs have been named) bubble and froth, and watch the mighty Gullfoss waterfall plummet into the epic gorge it's carved for itself. (Look this up on wikipedia, it's fantastic.)

The highlight for me, however, was the last spot on the trip, and the top place I had wanted to visit in Iceland. It's a place called Þingvellir (Þ is a letter called 'thorn', it makes the "th" sound in that word) where the world's first parliament was convened by the viking settlers. It's also a place of stunning geologic significance; this is the rift between the Eurasian and North American plates. Our tour drove down from Europe, crossed a temporary (geologically speaking) lava bridge, and then parked at the base of the North American plate, where the representatives to the Alþingi used to meet. It used to be a carnival like event (politics is slowly coming full circle...?) where people would party and talk and where one individual would read out a third of the land's laws every year. There would be debates and judicial decisions, and eventually everyone would go home happy. Eventually, the viking chieftans started fighting each other, and the Norwegian crown took over and took away the power of the Alþingi, until Icelanders dramatically restored it at the exact same spot in 1944. (They then voted to move the parliament to Reykjavik, and left.) It's a spot that combines a fascinating history with a jaw-dropping setting. I liked it a lot.

This photo was taken at the end of the trip, as the sun was setting. This building is a small shed next to the visitor's center, but without much front lighting and with a beautiful sunset behind, it almost looks like cutting edge modern architecture.