We arrived in Iceland at 9am in the dark and remained in the dark until dawn which was around 10:30am. Even though we couldn't check into our apartment until 3pm, I was all for finding our new home away from home and then heading out for new territory. Hubby, however, just wanted to head directly out from the airport on our first adventure. Where? Just go! After some false starts we were able to get on the same wave length and head in the direction of a pretty cool area of Iceland.
Pingvillar National Park is where the Vikings established the first democratic parliament in 900AD. Sessions were held at this location until 1798. Pingvellir (Parliament Fields) is where small individual chieftains would make decisions affecting all of Iceland. The breaking down of law and order led to Iceland being ruled by Norway in 1798 until Iceland regained it's power in 1843.
The park lies in a valley that marks the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.
South of the field lies Pingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland.
We continued on the "Golden Circle" to Geysir which means gusher. Geysir is the originally named geyser after which all other geysers are named. It has been active for 800 years, however, eruptions from it are now rare.
Alongside Geysir is Stokker which erupts ever five to ten minutes averaging fifteen to thirty meters high.
Gulifoss or Goldenfalls is a double cascade which drops one hundred feet kicking up tiered walls of spray before thundering down a narrow ravine.
Our first day of Iceland came to an end as it began to get dark around 3:30 and pitch dark by 5pm and we made our way back to Reykjavik and to our Danish modern studio apartment.
Our first day of Iceland came to an end as it began to get dark around 3:30 and pitch dark by 5pm and we made our way back to Reykjavik and to our Danish modern studio apartment.
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