Picture it. Iceland, late August. The day starts out dreary and slightly rainy. Fortunately, being a Murray/Hart, I'm used to this on vacation. After a quick visit to the bakery across the corner for some delicious pasteries, our Super Jeep arrives for our tour of southern Iceland. When I say super, I mean the tires came up to around my waist. Yes, I have pictures. Unfortunately, its a difficult process getting them online through Maggie's Netbook, so they may have to wait until Facebook.
Alas, back to our tour! We booked this particluar tour because, at most, there would be five of us (plus the driver). As it turns out, it was just us three. Yay private tour! We head back out onto Route 1, which hugs the coast, taking us by the Christianity Lava field, so named because the eruption occurred in 1000AD at the time the Icelandic people were adopting Christianity (without bloodshed, might I add). The lava is now covered in moss, which apparently in time will digest the lava rock to form soil, but this takes a long time.
Our first stop is a waterfall which, while not tall, carries the largest volume of water of any in Iceland. It was certainly impressive. Its also not going to be around much longer, as Iceland is preparing to build a hydroelectric dam over the falls. Next, we travel to Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that created such havoc around Europe last year. This is where the Super Jeep came in handy, as we raced across streams created by the melting glacier. We finally came to the edge of the glacier which, let me say, was amazing. HUGE. You can absolutely see the hole in the size of the glacier, which could probably fit an airplace, where the water was gushing out during the eruption.
Next, we visited another waterfall, which was 180 meters (around 550 feet) tall, falling over a cliff, allowing you to walk behind. Following lunch, which consisted of Minestrone soup with french bread, we took the Super Jeep to the black sand beach (stopping to play around in a downed U.S. Navy plane). But, perhaps the best part of the day was going to actually walk up to a glacier, and climb around the edge of it. Again, pictures will come.
After getting back to Reykjavik, dinner was had at Hambourgerafabrikkan, where I had a delicious Lamb burger. We then packed up, went to bed, and woke up early early early the next morning for Amsterdam. That, my friends, will be another story for another day.
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