May 29 – End of Cruise, Starting the Golden Circle Tour

We are back in Reykjavik and off boarding around 8:00 am.  

Most of the cruise, tour guides and all, worked to unload all of the luggage.  

Our guide, Magnus, was waiting for us at the terminal.  We made a mad dash to the hotel to pick up our left luggage and then headed off cross country...

for our 10:30 scheduled tour to an ice cave on Langjӧkull Glacier.  We had a long “bus/snow vehicle” ride up the side of the glacier to the ice cave location.  

At the cave location someone had parked a small SUV near the side of the plateau there…looked like a great location for filming a car commercial.

The ice cave was totally man made and the tunnels into the cave had mats to help with footing.  In the first chamber we ran out of mats and put on “chains” to give us traction during our walk. 

It was a pretty cool experience (figuratively and literally).  They had lights behind some of the ice walls so we got some interesting lighting.  

And there were a few chambers, some flooded.

We had lunch in the café at the Ice Cave reception area and then headed off for a long drive to our next stop.  

First stop was Hraunfossar (Lava Waterfall) waterfall…a really magical and very unusual waterfall.  The waterfall isn't on the river' normal flow but flows into the side of the river.  The water seeps (in large volumes and very rapidly) out of the lava along the side of the river. This area of water falling from the sides of the river went on for about a kilometer…really beautiful.

 

Just upstream of Hraunfossar was a legitimate waterfall, Barnafoss (Children’s Waterfall – named for a rather gruesome tale about some children dying in the falls.  This one was also pretty magical…

and there was a rock arch over the river.

We had a brief stop at Deildartunguhver Thermal Springs were there was a lot of steam (not too sulfury) and lots of bubbling water.  Very hot.

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Video 1 of Thermal springs 
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Video 2 of thermal springs
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Next stop was Þhingvellir (Thingvellir), the site of the Icelandic Parliament from the 10^th through the 18^th centuries.  It is in a rift valley so there are some pretty dramatic cliffs and walkways. 

And there are gorgeous views of the valley and the river from the cliffs.

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More photos of Þhingvellir
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There was a cluster of buildings across the river.  Sort of recall that they are the "summer home" of some government officials. 

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We got a couple of interesting shot of some geese that were hanging around on the cliffs.

We also drove along Lake Þhingvellir which is the location of many summer homes.  

It was also the site of a British and an American military location.  There are still a number of Quonset huts that are still in use. 

And of course we saw sheep throughout the day.

We spent the night in nearby Hella.  We (Paul, Mary and Jessica) decided to eat at the hotel while Tara walked around a bit to find something to eat.  Our triple room seems pretty big but by the time we got all of our luggage in the room it was pretty cozy.