Iceland Day 1: Geysir, Þingvellir, and Borgarnes

Stefan, Elias, and I arrived in Iceland late Monday and caught a short night's sleep in a hostel near the airport. Early Tuesday morning, we headed back to the airport to pick up my mom and a rental car, then drove to Geysir--the hydrothermal spout from which geysers get their name.

Our itinerary for the day: KEF to Geysir to Þingvellir to Borgarnes

We had read that Iceland weather changes from one minute to the next, and indeed, we went from sunshine into clouds into rain and back to sunshine several times over the day. August highs in Reykjavik average 55^oF. When the sun shines, that can feel hot; when the clouds move in and the winds blow, that can feel quite chilly. Speaking of blowing winds: the rental car agent warned us to hold onto the car doors when we opened them in windy weather; wind-damaged car door hinges are among the most common uninsured expenses for their customers.

A view from the car as we zipped down the road. There's something written on the side of the mountain, but I can't read it.

Columns of steam dotted the route most of the way to Geysir, in some places harnessed into geothermal energy plants, and in other places simply venting out of the ground. When we arrived at Geysir, a big hill beckoned (and promised fewer tourists) before the geysers did, so we hiked up for a view. Geysir erupts unpredictably, and we didn't see it go off, but right next to it is another geyser, Strokkur, that erupted several times while we were there.

E and J at the top of the ridge

We thought maybe if J and E traded places, the growing boy wouldn't look quite so tall.

The view to the south: Strokkur spouting. Geysir is steaming to the far left.

Looking over the ridge to the north, a meandering creek.

Much of Iceland is volcanic, and basalt doesn't make a great base for trees or crops. Nonetheless, the landscape is radiantly green in places due to abundant mosses.

Bilberries. We didn't know they were edible, so we didn't taste any.

We also hiked through swaths of lupines, mostly past bloom and covered with seed pods. We didn't know until later that lupines are invasive in Iceland and are threatening the mosses.

Tail end of lupine season

Proof Stefan was there

Proof I was there

From Geysir, we drove through the sunshine and rain and sunshine and rain to Þingvellir National Park. Þingvellir is in a rift valley where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates meet. In addition to being geologically significant, Þingvellir was where the Icelandic parliament met for about 800 years (mid 900s to mid 1700s). We stopped on the Eurasian-plate side to gawk through the pouring rain at the rift wall rising above us, then drove around to the visitor center on the American plate, where it wasn't raining, to see the rift from above.

Looking toward the Eurasian plate

American plate to the left, Eurasian to the right 

From Þingvellir, we headed to Borgarnes. With almost 2,000 residents, it is the largest town in the municipality of Borgarbyggð. "Borgarbyggð" is reminding me that while we've figured out how ð and þ are pronounced (th as in this and th as in thing, respectively), we haven't figured out y, gg, and assorted other letter combos yet, let alone which syllables receive stress. (Our guide book says the first syllable always receives stress, but that's not how words always sound to us. Maybe it has something to do with compound nouns.) In Borgarnes, we stayed in a room above a coffee shop and were surprised by the glorious views.

Lichen on a wall behind the back door

The view from our window, looking east

The view from behind the house, looking west