....Post-race day, the final full day before we head back, consisted of an all-day tour commonly referred to over here as the "Golden Circle Tour." While the previous tour had gone west then south and back to Reykjavik, this tour headed north along the western coastline then went into the interior and featured some just absolutely amazing views of waterfalls, canyons, glaciers and geysers--plus it ended with a two-hour session in the famous Iceland Blue Lagoon geothermal health spa!!!
As a group, we reviewed our race day results and we did pretty well. There were 117 of us staying in three hotels and, during the race, nobody got injured or hurt which is always a primary concern. Only one person dropped out and didn't finish and that was due to a serious sinus infection which obviously limits a runner's ability to breathe.
Record attendance was set in almost all events: 684 marathoners; 1852 half-marathoners; and over 10,000 participated in several running events of shorter distances. Over 1400 international runners participated--another record. One of the women in our group ran the marathon in 3 hours 21 minutes and placed ninth overall in the women's group. One of the male runners with us finished 21st. Devin set a goal of under 4 hours and finished it in 3:57. I set an unofficial goal of under 3 hours and finished it in 3:03 but had the time of my life.
The Golden Circle tour started at our hotel--we used a bus for each hotel--so everybody knew everybody by now. Must have been funny watching all these people groaning and limping onto the bus with sore legs! The tour started with a two hour drive up through the countryside into an area where historical earthquaked have created a continental rift--a valley about 6 miles wide with a very deep lake.
It was here at Thingvellir National Park that the Vikings created the world's first democratic parliament in the year 930. Although the parliament is long gone--a newer one is located in Reykjavik today--it is considered the oldest parliament in the world. The tectonic plates are unusual here in that they don't shift against each other as in North America, but separate away from each other. In this valley the North American Plate is today separated about six miles from the Eurasian plate mean that Iceland is slowly spreading out at the rate of 2 cm/year.
After hiking around in the valley (and up and down wooden stairs on sore legs), we visited some canyons and lake sides before heading back to the bus feeling like our legs had really loosened up well on the hike.
Leaving Thingvellir, we drove more eastward to Gullfus--one of the most amazing spots we had visited all week. Gullfus is a giant waterfall that has been purchased by the government to protect it from speculators who wanted to use it to create an electrical generation facility.
Getting off the bus, we realized our legs had tightened up again (something that just kept happening throughout the tour), but the sights were well worth the stretching and hiking up and down stairs and out to the overcrop of the waterfall.
We had a beautiful day which meant the sun was creating rainbows and the water was literally sparkling.
After spending some time on the outcrop, we hiked up to a restaurant and ate lunch. While eating, the clouds darkened but quickly the sun came out again. From the restaurant, it was possible to look north and see the second largest glacier in Iceland. In this photo, the ice and snow look like clouds but if you look directly below the dark clouds in the center of the picture and between the low mountains, you can see the ice.
After lunch we drove over to the famous geothermal park that features Iceland's most famous tourist attraction--Geysir.
Until the 1950s, Geysir used to erupt nearly a football field length into the air but sometime shortly after World War II, tourists threw large rocks into the pit to try and get it to erupt and blocked it. It still erupts but at irregular intervals and nowhere as spectacularly as before. In 2000, an earthquake shifted some of the blockage but the Geysir of old is no more.... Geothermal geysers seem to be centered in Iceland, North America and New Zealand but all geysers in the world (different spelling) are namesakes of this once-mighty spectacle of nature.
The area, however, is a park full of these geysers and several do erupt on a regular basis.
The water is heated underground to steam-like temperatures and when the conditions are just right, a huge blast occurs. As the boiling water is erupted into the cooler air, the temperature of the water drops as it falls back to the earth. Each geyser has a pool that has been formed around the hole and the returning cooler water settles into the pool and drains back into the hole where is is heated up again. When the temperature and conditions are right once more, another eruption occurs.
While I was looking forward to this, I wasn't really excited about it but it turned out to be a real highlight of the tour.
The area south of Reykjavik is relatively new and consists of lava fields. This area is thought to be about 23,000 years old which is "young" by geological standards. Lava rock is extremely sharp and will tear your feet to shreds very quickly. Years ago, the government came in an hollowed out a "lakebed" in the lava rock and began pumping in a mixture of geothermally heated freshwater with some saltwater from the ocean. The result was an artificial "lake" of water very heavy in minerals and silica. While lava rock is very porous, the silica in the water clogged it and created a surface very similar to a ceramic coating--allowing people to bathe and walk around in the shallow lake.
Today, it is a world famous spa with the mineral/salt water being around 100 to 103 degrees. We spent two hours in it just floating around and relaxing. Those Icelanders are pretty clever--they give you a bracelet with a microchip and then built a bar over the side where you can order a drink, pay for it with your bracelet, then relax in hot, soothing water. Very civilized.....
After two hours, we got out--nobody was limping around or groaning at this point--and headed back to Reykjavik and the hotel. That night, we kind of split up into smaller groups and eight of us walked downtown and ate one last meal together.
The weather was perfect all four days--plenty of sunshine and temperatures up to 54-55 degrees during the day. The only two brief rains we experienced occurred when we were riding in the bus.
The last morning, however, was dark, colder, gloomy and very overcast and windy with occasional rain. The "rain gods" truly blessed this trip for us. Devin went swimming with a group in the last morning--another geothermal pool but not a spa--and the two of us later walked downtown in the rain and did one last walking tour of the city.
We walked down to the harbor and took some pictures of the Viking long ship sculpture then returned to the hotel, met the group, and headed to the airport. The flight back was long but uneventful and we got hit with 93 degree temperatures back in Houston--at 10:00 pm!!!
Excellent adventure........
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