gullfoss

we were up and out early today, picked up at 8am and off out of reykjavik into the countryside to see a bit more of iceland. we went to some tourist spots, like here at gullfoss - a fantastic huge waterfall that was rescued from being dammed and used for power by a local lady who campaigned to preserve it years ago.

then we went off to see the geysers and geysir himself...the one that all geysers are named after. he's not that active now, but the one next to him is - stokkur, I think it was called - which erupted every few minutes. it's amazing to watch wee puddles all over the place, with bubbling hot water in them and of course all smelling like sulphur .

after that we headed off to þingvellir to see where the first icelandic parliament was formed, now a national park, a place of high historical value to iceland and where they now get together to celebrate their historical events and to make major decisions about their country. it's bloody cool - right on the edge of the american tectonic plate which you can see jutting up from the ground and also on the edge of the smallest tectonic plate in the world. no wonder it's volcanic and they have loads of earthquakes. it's a pretty stunning sight - this is the photo in the centre, you can see the american plate on the right and the small one on the left.

from there we drove over a dormant volcano back to reykjavik in the heavy snow and when we got there the sun was out, so we went down to the sea front to admire the mountains across the water - akrafjall and esja, which are huge and stunning in the sun...you can see them in the background of me and bee jumping.

there are so many photos I could blip today...so I cheated and did 5.

today really made us want to do what we suspected we might want to do, which was leave reykjavik behind next time we come here and hire a car to drive right round the island. it's the wild countryside we're interested in, much as we love reykjavik, it's the glaciers, mountains, volcanos, geysers etc we want to see.

next time!