The golden circle

The Golden Circle is composed mainly by:

- Thinvellir National Park,

- Geysir area (the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur) and

- Gulfoss waterfall.

We drove in this direction, so this is how I will explain the excurssion.

As I said on my previouse post, on the very first day I regreated not having knowledge about geology in order to better understand the nature of all the places we visited. Maybe this is the reason why, in this blog, I will try to explain both a bit of history and easy geology, not only for the reader but also for me, as an "excuse" to a bit better get to know and understand what I saw.

Thinvellir National Park

Thinvellir, which means "parlament plain" in Icelandic is considered historically as one of the most important places in Iceland. Here, in year 930 the Alping, the general assembly was established for the first time, and it continued until 1798. This place has seen the development and growth of the Icelandic Nation. There was a main person appointed as the Lawspeaker, he was responsible for applying the law and resolving conflicts.

For additional information about the national park and about Thinvellir, please do visit the following link to the park official web site: http://www.thingvellir.is/english

Thinvellir is located on the two tectonic plates, the american and the european. The landscape is eye-catching: Fissures, canyons, lava remains, basalt rock formations, the cold river, the extremely green nature.

Unfortunatelly, we visited this area too fast, so I guess that on our next trip we shall investigate deeper into this area.

Geysir

In the images you can see different types of explosions of the Strokkur Geysir. One going really up, and the other one a bit more humble... but still incredible. This explossions happen every 15 min. aproximately. The big explossion only happens after a small one... and when it is about to burst you feel under your feet the sensation like if something big is going to happen ... then, little by little, you see how the water seems to boil ... and the it happens. It is an incredible sensation. But it only lasts a few seconds, so be ready with the camera!

Geysir, an Icelandic word which means erupt was initially used to descirbe the first emerging water at the Haukadalur valley. Now a days, it is used to describe all the emerging hot springs.

Geysers erupt because the thermal water ascending throuh ther channels boils at some depth below the surface. As the water boils it flashes into steam, and as the steam occupies far greater volume than water the water above in the channel is thrown high up into the air. At about 23 m depth in the Geysir pipe the water is at 120°C temperature. It is in equilibrium with the pressuere of the water above in the pipe, i.e. the weight of the water above keeps the boiling down.

At a depth of around 16 m, the temperature of the water sometimes rises above boiling, seen as increased turbulence at the surface. This turbulence (boiling) can increase to the point where the water above in the pipe is lifted slightly, and a chain reaction starts - the pressure decreases making further boiling possible and the water flashes into steam, resulting in an eruption in Geysir. The boiling now extends down into the pipe, throwing more water into the air. When all the water in the pipe has been thrown away the water coming from depth changes immediately into steam and a steam eruption follows the water eruption, whith accompanying noise.
The water-phase lasts for few minutes and the steam-phase considerably longer, graduately dying out and the cycle starts again. As the steam-phase dies out the water has drained the channels deep into the earth and it will take 8-10 hours for Geysir to regain its water. Extract from http://geysircenter.com/index.php?lang=en&navi1=ga&navi2=ge

In the same area, there are as well fumaroles, one of them resembling a small house with a chimeney.

Please do visit the following link to find out more about the Geysir geology and history:
http://geysircenter.com/index.php?lang=en&navi1=ga&navi2=ge

Gulfoss

Gulfoss is Iceland's most famous waterfall. The word means Golden falls. It has a fall of 32m high in two stages, the first one of 11m and the second one of 21m. The water comes from the glacial river Hvitá. It is fairly easy, during the summer to see the rainbow crossing the waterfall. Be aware that you might get wet.

The itinerary

The trip
After 6 years dreaming about going to the mighty isle of Iceland, finally we did it. Every summer I was wishing more and more about it. People I knew had been to Iceland were always explaining me how impressive it was, and all had repeated the trip. Also, important for me was the fact about temperature. Summer in Barcelona is far to hot, so to start it was a good idea to leave to a colder place for the summer.

Unfortunately, we did not have much time to prepare for the trip due to work reasons, so we just decided on the plane which direction should we go. We had 4 hours to read and plan!.

Before leaving from Spain, we managed to rent a car. At first we thought about taking a 4WD, but the price was so expensive that we thought it was not really worth it (on the first day there we already regretted).

So, we arrived at Keflyavik airport. The first impression was that it looked pretty a small one to be the main international airport of the Isle... but mostly we were happy to breath fresh air... cold and wet, not humid like in Barcelona!. After picking up our luggage, we went to the counter to get the car, and the first thing we were surprised with was how calm the guy at the counter was. We had just landed, were full of questions, and he was completely not in a rush. He gave us a good map of Iceland, and little directions. We left the airport, at 10am. It was raining and cold.
Our budget was relatively low. A bit of a contradiction when are planning to go to one of the most expensive countries in Europe. It was our first trip based on camping overnight stay and camping prepared food!. But it was the only way to make it.

First thing we thought about doing after landing, was to pop in a supermarket and fill the boot with food for the next couple of days. So, we stopped at the first one … and we thought we were really lucky, there was plenty of space to park, and looked like no queues! But … it was closed. Shops in Iceland do not open until 11am!. We decided to stop at the next gas station. Here we got our first nice surprise: almost 10€ for a sandwich, and 2 soft-drinks!.

At around 11am we managed with the supermarket … I was really surprised with the refrigerator area, where all the fresh products like meat, cheese… are stored. In Spain and in all the places where I have been to, there are special “cupboards” refrigerators. In Iceland, they have rooms, where you actually walk inside, and pick up all the needed stuff; as you may imagine, they are really cold!. So I really recommend thinking well before going in. We bought plenty of dry sups, eggs, baked beans, some vegetables and fruits, and lamb (the best lamb we have ever tried so far). We only had one thing left to buy: Gas! That took us quite more time. We find out that you have to really look at the type of camping gas brand, since there are several ones and the burner we brought from Spain was exactly the least common!. When we found the place we bought several just in case we would not find more later on (this was a wise decision).

The golden circle
Our first stop was Þingvellir National Park, The Park is worth is visit. It is really amazing to see how the two tectonic plates collide in this area. The site of the ancient parliament.

From here we headed to the Geysir area. This was or first contact with hot springs and fumaroles. In a quite small area, you can see, all kinds of pools with hot water, ones are blue, others so transparent it seems they go directly to the centre of the earth. Some waters are still others popping up every 15- 30 min. Some are only steamy wholes. This was probably the first day when I realized I would have liked to have more knowledge about geology, to better understand what is really going on there!.

Please look at the next publication to see some images showing the different stages of the Geyser explosion.

Next stop was Gullfoss. The golden water falls. Impressive!

From Gullfoss we drove through Central land from where we headed to the following places during our 14 days: Akureyri, Husavik, the Myvatn lake area, Deittfoss waterfalls, Eastfiords, Eglisstadir, Skaftafell National Park, Vatnajokull, Jokulsarlon Lagoon, Vik, Skogar and back to Reykjavik.

Facts & figures

Introducción
Islandia es grande. No por su tamaño sino por sus características inimaginables. En la isla se pueden llegar a ver, en un mismo día, geysrs lanzando al aire columnas de agua y vapor, espectaculares cascadas y cataratas, muchas de éstas aún más bellas cuando el sol brilla y se pone el arco iris, volcanes, coladas de lava, semi-volcanes, glaciares e icebergs. Contrasta ver, sin embargo, pocos bosques.

Los corderos son diferentes, con una lana tupida y una carne exquisita, se les puede ver paseándose libremente por los laterales de las carreteras y lo que es más inusual es verlos refugiarse entre los huecos naturales del suelo, refugiándose del viento y calentándose con el calor que emana del suelo. No se pude hablar de Islandia sin mencionar sus caballos.


Datos generales
Islandia tiene una superficie de 103.000km2 (equivalente a Cataluña y Aragón) y en ella viven aproximadamente 299.900 habitantes (población similar a la de la ciudad de Mataró). Con estos datos es fácil entrever que es unos de los países menos poblados del mundo. La mitad de la población se concentra en la capital, Reykiavik, seguido por la ciudad de Akureyri, situada al norte de la isla. La población de Islandia es de origen europeo ya que fue poblada por las expediciones vikingas en su mayoría procedentes de Noruega.

La esperanza de vida es alta, 83 años para las mujeres y 80 para los hombres.

El nivel de vida es alto. Cerca del 80% de las exportaciones dependen del la pesca o de la industria vinculada la pesca.

La lengua oficial es el islandés, lengua similar a la que hablaron los primeros colonos hace más de mil años. Los islandeses se enorgullecen de poder leer sus sagas medievales en el idioma original. Las sagas islandesas son un patrimonio histórico cultural equivalente a las antiguas catedrales e iglesias de otros países. La mayoría de los islandeses comprenden y hablan el inglés. Reykiavik significa Cala de los humos.

Islandia se divide en 7 grandes zonas, a saber: sur oeste, donde se encuentra la capital, Reykiavik, sur este cuyo centro neurálgico es Vik, los fiordos del este donde se encuentra la tercera ciudad más importante, Eglistadir, el norte con Akureyri al frente, los fiordos del oeste y la península Snaefellness.