Bishops | North Atlantic Bananas | Sheep's Head Free And Loving It.
Woke up my first full day in Iceland. I wasn’t particularly happy because Dawn booked us on a tour the first day which meant having to wake up to an alarm clock so we could get going early enough… like I was going to work. Fortunately the tour was awesome enough that I forgave her shortly thereafter.
Waking up early for tours and flights is going to be a theme here in Iceland. This is unfortunate because it never gets dark here (practically) and I just want to stay up forever and forever. Today we did the “Golden Circle” tour. This tour takes you to a couple of famous Icelandic attractions around Reykjavik. The first stop was the site of the Icelandic bishops since long time ago. It was historic but not particularly interesting. Fortunately the best was yet to come.
The second stop was at the Gullfoss waterfall, which was a very beautiful two step waterfall. This started to set the tone of the day. The tone being, Iceland has breath–taking natural beauty.
While driving around the country side you can see these white masses that the uninitiated might mistake for cloud formations in the distance. They are not cloud formation. Those are icecaps, Iceland’s glaciers beckoning. They will tease us all day, but we’ll not get too close to one, yet…
What we do get to visit is Iceland’s hot geothermal field where geysers burst from the ground. Iceland is one of the few places on the earth where you can witness a live geyser (yes, Yellowstone also makes the short list of four or five places). What you might not know is the word “geyser” got its name from this particular geothermal field. All the geysers have names here. One of the oldest is named “Geysir.” A couple of British scientist got to witness it in the 1800’s and that where the word comes from.
That last photo is the actual Geysir... he's on sabbatical though. In addition to volcanoes, Iceland has a fair amount of seismic activity. Different geysers will either become dormant or active following large earthquakes. Geysir is currently dormant.
While driving around the country side you can see these white masses that the uninitiated might mistake for cloud formations in the distance. They are not cloud formation. Those are icecaps, Iceland’s glaciers beckoning. They will tease us all day, but we’ll not get too close to one, yet…
What we do get to visit is Iceland’s hot geothermal field where geysers burst from the ground. Iceland is one of the few places on the earth where you can witness a live geyser (yes, Yellowstone also makes the short list of four or five places). What you might not know is the word “geyser” got its name from this particular geothermal field. All the geysers have names here. One of the oldest is named “Geysir.” A couple of British scientist got to witness it in the 1800’s and that where the word comes from.
That last photo is the actual Geysir... he's on sabbatical though. In addition to volcanoes, Iceland has a fair amount of seismic activity. Different geysers will either become dormant or active following large earthquakes. Geysir is currently dormant.
Other fun geothermal facts. Iceland makes its electricity with a combination of geothermal and hydroelectric power. There are no coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plants here. They are also able to heat most of Reykjavik (and Iceland for that matter) with geothermal heated water. The tour guide said heating is about the only thing that is cheap in Iceland. More surprising is they’re able to use geothermal heat to warm greenhouses year round. The tour guide claimed that they’re able to grow most of their produce domestically (I'm still skeptical about most). [Update: we did notice a lot of domestic produce in restaurants over the duration of our stay.] Talk about being green and self-sufficient. Stranger still, Iceland is able to grow bananas in their geothermal heated greenhouses, making them the number one banana producer in the north Atlantic. Also, the only banana producer in the north Atlantic.
Rounding out the random tour guide Iceland trivia was that the winter temperature on the south coast rarely gets below freezing in the winter due to the gulf stream (I was surprised). The warmest day on record was a heat wave where they rocketed up to 78 degrees F. He didn’t elaborate on what the rest of the island experiences, but I’d bet it gets a lot colder.
The final stop of the day was to visit Thingvellir (my keyboard doesn’t have the right key on it for the first letter) national park. I was initially skeptical about stopping at the natural park. It sounded like another historic stop because it’s the birthplace of the world’s oldest existing parliament. Iceland decided parliament was a good form of government in 930 ad. It’s also the place where the Atlantic tectonic plates meet, resulting in fissures all over the place. It has to be one of the prettiest landscapes I’ve ever scene and it's historic. That's an epic win for the tour guide bringing me some place that I never would have chosen on my own, but instantly loved.
After the tour we set about Reykjavik to do a bit of window shopping and find dinner. For dinner we settled on the Fiskfelagid Fish Company. They offered international fair with an Icelandic twist. They also had a tasting menu which we ordered. With no itinerary posted it was a bold choice. Who knew what strange traditional dishes the chef might try to champion? I've almost never had a tasting menu that didn't include sweetbreads. It seems every chef wants to prove that they can make sweetbreads something I'd want to actually eat. (To be fair, a few have succeed.) In Iceland they have rotten shark or a split sheep head to choose from. Fortunately the menu didn't feature shark, or sheep head, or even sweetbreads. Iceland is an island nation with a long and rich history of fishing. The tasting menu was a tour de force of some of the best seafood I've ever had.
(I included the main courses and starter menu pages so you could try to piece together what some of the dishes are.)
After the tour we set about Reykjavik to do a bit of window shopping and find dinner. For dinner we settled on the Fiskfelagid Fish Company. They offered international fair with an Icelandic twist. They also had a tasting menu which we ordered. With no itinerary posted it was a bold choice. Who knew what strange traditional dishes the chef might try to champion? I've almost never had a tasting menu that didn't include sweetbreads. It seems every chef wants to prove that they can make sweetbreads something I'd want to actually eat. (To be fair, a few have succeed.) In Iceland they have rotten shark or a split sheep head to choose from. Fortunately the menu didn't feature shark, or sheep head, or even sweetbreads. Iceland is an island nation with a long and rich history of fishing. The tasting menu was a tour de force of some of the best seafood I've ever had.
(I included the main courses and starter menu pages so you could try to piece together what some of the dishes are.)
We walked back to the room after 10:00 pm and it looks like early evening in the sky. My internal clock will not adjust to this sun filled summer playground.
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