It was great that Mark could come over to Iceland from London for a quick rendezvous with his Mum. Wasn't I lucky! We packed a lot into the time, although we originally planned to be laidback and not push it!
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| The lovely warm waters of the Blue Lagoon, in a freezing wind! |
Mark reckoned we couldn't be in Reykjavik and not visit the Blue Lagoon, so the first afternoon we caught the bus out there, and spent a couple of hours escaping the cold icy wind, soaking in the hot water that's left over from the town's geothermal electrical plant. Deliciously warm, and beautifully blue, we had a great time! The sauna was a refuge from the wind, and made going back out to the cold much easier.
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| The 'rift' between the two tectonic plates |
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The next day we really packed it in, starting with a 'Golden Circle' tour, combined with snowmobiling. The Golden Circle consists of 1.) a visit to Pingvellir National Park, which was the site of Iceland's first Parliament, and also where you can see the rift between the Eurasian tectonic plate and the American plate – fascinating to see the gap, which apparently is increasing every year. (I did wonder why anyone from Christchurch would want to go and see tectonic plate movement, but I guess there are a few nutters in this world) 2.) was the Gullfoss waterfall, very beautiful and wild. And 3.) Geysir, 3 geysers in all, but only one active, approximately every 8 minutes – it made me jump when it went off!
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| It was tricky taking pics from the back of the snowmobile! |
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Snowmobiling was great fun, and Mark's aim was to go as fast as he could (it's been his goal ever since he first got on Brian's wee bike on the farm) but he had to cope with his mother yelling at one point! He got the snowmobile to 62kms at one point apparently. It's a wild place, this Iceland, and you could spent weeks enjoying the outdoors. Many back country roads are now closed for the winter, although the first big snow fall is yet to happen.
Back in Reykjavik we visited an innovative restaurant, the Fish Market. Not cheap, but a great experience. First time visitors are recommended to go for the Tasting Menu, where you get an entree sized plate of just about every dish on the menu - 8 dishes in all. The young woman owner/chef is combining Icelandic food with Asian cuisine, and it's all absolutely delicious, and expensive! To top off our busy day, we joined a Northern Lights bus trip out into the country, escaping the city's light pollution. We didn't have to go very far before the Auroras started playing in the sky, and both Mark and I thoroughly enjoyed taking photos – taking turns on my camera. For those techie minded amongst you – a Nikon D7000 DSLR with a Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 lens. I set it at f2.8 for about 15 seconds, on ISO 800.
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| From Mark's and my Aurora evening shoot |
The next morning, far too early, and far too soon, Mark shot off back to London, and work. I think he slept the whole way on the plane!
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