Today we drove the short distance to Reykjavik with a very circuitous route, sometimes driving to and from on the same road. Many things to see in a small space.
One thing I haven't mentioned is the shoe thing. Many people request or hope that visitors remove their shoes when they enter their home. I'm not sure about other places in the country, but it is very common in Minnesota. I'm not sure if it is because of our Scandinavian heritage, or the sand and grit that get carried in on winter shoes and boots, or what reason. When I visited Sweden a few years ago, it is expected that you remove your shoes when entering a person's home. In fact, the children do it when entering the school building at many schools. (It was adorable to see a pile of small children's shoes just inside the building!). The leaders of our group warned us before we left, but we have that same rule at our house, remove your shoes. When we have an open house or party, we don't, but if someone asks, we very politely say yes, we would prefer if they did. At every hostel here, there has been some sort of rack at the door and signs requesting that you remove your shoes. It keeps the floors clean and dry, protects the hard wood floors, etc. At our newest hostel in Reykjavik, we did not need to, but it is a very large, multi-floor urban hostel. (of course, we did once we entered our room!).
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| At our last hostel |
But before the hostel, first Þingvellir. There was a parliamentary meeting in Iceland held here once per year for purposes of governing the land, beginning in 930 CE and ending shortly after they fell under Danish rule. The chieftains made the laws. There was a law speaker who would recite one-third of the laws each year as well as any new laws at the Law Rock (Lögberg). Until the 12th century, Iceland did not have a written language, so all of the laws were memorized and shared orally. Yikes, I can't imagine trying to remember all of them! In the 12th century, written language came to the people of Iceland. There were stone foundations left in the earth and each year, when they gathered, the people would stretch out fabric on wood supports above these foundations for their houses while at the assembly. The legislative body (Lögrétta) was also the highest court of law and they ruled on some legal disputes at the assembly as well. During world war 2, most Icelanders wanted independence from Danish Rule. Some felt that they should wait until after the war, others thought that they should do it right away. The immediate people made it happen and on 17 June 1944, the modern Iceland Republic was founded at the ancient Law Rock at Þingvellir. The area lies along the juncture of the American and Eurasian tectonic plates so is subject to volcanic activity and earthquakes. Also, the river in the area had flooded several times causing problems.
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| The main area |
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| The church that was added when they adopted Christianity. |
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| Inside the church (I love the colors!) |
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| Old graves in the cemetery. Many are from the 17 and 1800s. |
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| (for a little girl) |
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Flowers I found that look like salvia, but aren't salvia that I've seen before
and have different leaves. |
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| One of the stone foundations |
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| The water where they drowned people for some crimes. |
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| More interesting flowers |
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| Wonder why the area flooded? |
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| Finally convinced them to pose and smile! |
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| Shelby wouldn't join into the game! |
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| Super clear water |
I have begun a collection of funny signs in Iceland. Here are today's:
After Þingvellir. we went to the Gullfoss waterfall. It is the most well-known waterfall in Iceland (probably because it is so close to Reykjavik).
After that, we visited the town of Geysir with, you guessed it, a geyser! It shoots higher than Old Faithful (but not as high as the geyser at Steamboat Springs). It also shoots more often, but not regularly. It was probably about 10-15 minutes tops between each eruption.
After this, we went into Reykjavik and found our hostel, then got groceries. We all have memories of being at this hostel, even Joshua who was only 5 at the time. After dinner (there were 5 people at two adjacent rangetops, all trying to cook at the same time), we went to the thermal pool next door. It is heated by underground thermal springs. The entire pool is only about thigh-deep (depending on how tall you are!), but very warm and outdoors. Icelanders have no problems with modesty. You undress in the large locker room, carry your suit to the showers, shower in gang showers, then put your suit on there. After swimming, you must remove your suit, shower, and dry off before being allowed back in the locker area (there are people watching to ensure each of these steps is taken). There were a few individual showers for those more modest, but few people used them. At the first pool we went to, they had the same routines, but no one watching to ensure that you follow them (except showering before entering the pool). There was one older woman, a tourist, who was very uncomfortable about using the large locker rooms at that pool. The Reykjavik pool was very busy with a lot of people there. We all remembered parts of it from the last time we were here. It has a large water slide that even Randy and I tried, with areas of colored lights and areas of complete blackness in it. It has red and green lights at the top to indicate when the next person can go instead of the usual practice of waiting until the previous person has reached the bottom before your turn. There are tons of foam floaties and balls to play with. Adjacent to the pool are hot tubs, super hot tubs (ages 16 and older) and a cold tub--5 Celcius (about 40 degrees Farenheit). Double brrrr. It was already cold getting out of the pool into the cold outside air to go to the locker rooms. At least the showers were nice and warm! I wasn't allowed to take my camera inside there (she sent me back to the locker room), so I don't have any photos. Randy snuck his phone in, so he has a few shots he took quickly so that they didn't notice. You'll have to check out his blog to see those.
We have tomorrow in Reykjavik, then go home the following day. I think most of us are looking forward to having some of our summer. Leaving so early this year didn't give us a chance to have a break between school and vacation. We've had fun, but we're ready to go home (except for part about the heat and humidity of a house without air conditioning).
Oh, a note on Icelandic pronunciation. Like many languages, they code their vowels so that they know how to pronounce them. In English, you have to learn a bunch of silly phonetic rules (or use the old stand-by rule of trying both sounds and going with the one that sounds right!). ∂ makes the short, or unvoiced, "th" sound (like in "think") and Þ makes the long, or voiced, "th" sound (like in "that").
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