Iceland's countryside

ICELAND'S COUNTRYSIDE

To experience the countryside firsthand and tour the southern parts of the island, Beth and Rob rented a car. This required a re-education of European roads and traffics rules from over five years ago. It also included remembering how to drive the stick shift on the French-made Citreon hatchback.  With helpful navigational assistance from Beth using exclamations such as, “The speed changed to 50!” (there are no warnings for speed changes) or, “Here comes another traffic circle…slow down!”  Rob, with trepidation, was successful in keeping the car in one piece and the passengers on speaking terms. The clock, however, is still running on word from the car rental agency as to whether video radar happened to catch any unintentional violations of Icelandic traffic laws.

 

            Highway 1, commonly referred to as the ring road, circumnavigates Iceland. This highway allows people to get to the four corners of the island on well maintained roads. Given the time we had, we chose to travel “The Golden Circle” which is the popular southern route near Reykjavik.  Beth wanted to visit any active volcanoes in the area, which are in abundance in the southern part of the island. In fact, Iceland’s fault line position makes it the most volcanically active area in the world. One may recall the eruption of Mount  Eyjafjallajokull which interrupted air travel to Europe in 2010. Truth be told, Beth was a little disappointed that no volcano erupted while we were touring.

      The Golden Circle includes some on the most geologically active areas in Iceland. Despite this, the majority of the 350 thousand people in Iceland live in this unstable terrain as they always have. Reykjavik translates into ‘Place of Smoke’, and appropriately describes the hot springs and places that billow steam from the Earth around the Golden Circle. Cheap electricity and hot water are a couple of the benefits Icelanders gain from living in the south.  However, these benefits come with a heavy price as, sadly volcanic eruptions on Iceland have throughout history ended in catastrophe. 

Noteworthy activities we experienced included bathing in Blue Lagoon hot springs, witnessing Strokker an active geyser erupt, climbing between the fault lines in the earth preserved at Þingvellir (Thingvellir) national park, hiking up of an active mountain to see boiling mud that reach temperatures of 200°C on the very unstable abandoned farmland Krysuvik, and walking to several beautiful waterfalls that carry fresh melt water away from Iceland’s glaciers. 

 


One of the more curious observations noted by Beth was that although Icelandic horses, sheep and cats were shorter and stockier than what they are familiar with (which is likely an adaptation to the climate), Icelandic people, with their Nordic heritage, are generally tall, making Beth and Rob fit right in.  However, despite the Icelanders present day height, the historical homes scattered throughout the countryside suggested very short people.