Iceland highlights

We spent 2 - 3 days in and around Iceland. One day washing the boat, a day rallying around in a rented Toyota, a couple of nights out about in Reykjavik + a stop in Vestmannaeyar.

In Iceland - the weather was on our side - no clouds - sunny, warm and beautiful.

Gullfoss and Geysir was two huge highs. We hiked around both places for a couple of hours - breathing in the completeness of the experience. Difficult to describe the contrasts. It was a perfect smooth and calm day - visiting two of Icelands most powerful displays: the largest waterfall Gullfoss and the sudden huge geysirs that shoot up in the air.

Btw: The sounds of a Geysir is actually very much like a huge whale breathing close to the boat - whale geysir. :-)

The third equally impressive highlight was visiting Thingvoll - the icelandic thing - legal court - established in 930.

Thingvoll is situated right on top of the mid-Atlantic ridge - the vast gorge that runs for thousands of km from north to south in the middle of the Atlantic. At Thingvoll the tectonic plates drift apart by a couple of cm each year creating hundreds of large and small cracks in the surface. One of these cracks has created a natural arena for large gatherings - where then the Icelanders decided to resolve their differences already in 930.

Thingvoll lost its status as a legal court in the 1700's but is still used to mark important national events.