Tuesday 9/6/16

We left the hotel at 7:45 to drive to the local airport.  We boarded the plane with our carry-ons and it seemed quite strange to not have to go through security - we just had to show our passports.  Apparently, this is how all domestic flights are in this country.  Our guide pointed out the Minister of Finance - he was taking the same flight.  Our bus driver picked us up when we arrived after our 45 minute flight (it took him 5 hours to drive the bus back last night) and we headed off to visit some of the highlights of the Golden Circle.  Our first stop was Pingvellir National Park where we got to see the Rift Valley between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasioan one.  They are moving apart at the rate of 2 cm. per year.  We saw some brave souls who were suited up in wet suits and scuba gear - they were going to see the separation of the plates underwater.  This is also the site of the settlement era parliament meetings: 36 chieftans would meet here to decide the laws.  You can see why they picked this spot.  There were towering rock walls and sloping fields in front of them down to the river.  The walls were used in the TV series, Game of Thrones.  This meant little to us as we don't watch the show.  We walked a little further and found the execution pool - here women were put in bags and drowned if they had committed adultery.  The men were beheaded for the same crime.  As we were walking toward the bus, we passed a lava field all covered in a thick bed of moss.  Our guide lay down on the moss to show how soft it was.  I felt it with my hand and it was quite thick and soft.  We then drove to Gullfoss waterfall - a wonderful two-tiered waterfall.  It was a wonderful sight and again we were lucky enough to see a rainbow in the spray.  We went back to the Geyser area (apparently the word geyser comes from the name of this area.  There were several small water and steam vents, but the main geyser shot up 100 feet about every 4 minutes - quite impressive.  We stopped at another waterfall on the way to Selfoss, which is were we will stay for two nights.  We took a little walk around the downtown area after being reunited with our luggage.  We found a wonderful handcraft shop just across the street from the hotel and we enjoyed looking into the local supermarket.  Much of their salad produce is grown in greenhouses taking advantage of all the geothermal energy in the area.  We had dinner in the hotel and I have just come back in from taking some pictures of a church beside the hotel in the beautiful sunset.