After an overcast day at sea, we arrived in Reykjavik. The day started out chilly but sunny. By the middle of the afternoon it was 63. We took a bus tour called 'The Golden Circle." First we went to a World Heritage Site called Thingvellir, where the first political assembly in Iceland met in 930 A.D. Iceland is on the Mid-Atlantic Rift, with part on the North American plate and the other part on the Eurasian plate. The two plates are moving in opposite directions, making for a very unstable island with frequent earthquakes and volcanic action. We walked along several small rifts and could see how the surface is constantly changing. All along the rift is a string of about 30 volcanoes.
Next we went to see the world's oldest geyser. It spouts every few minutes about 20 feet in the air.
Our next stop was a beautiful waterfall, the Gullfoss.
On our way back we stopped to tour a geothermal power plant that serves the city of Reykjavik. Iceland is powered almost entirely by geothermal energy.
The road back took us through beautiful countryside, with lots of Icelandic horses and sheep.
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