Day 22 19 August Reykjavik (Iceland)

Today we awoke to be in the capital of Iceland, northernmost capital in the world. About 230,000 people (64% of Iceland's population) live in the area but the population is 120,000 like Toowoomba.

As we passed through the landscape, we saw a geologically young plateau at 16-18 million years old. Occasionally we would see sheep but looked like a difficult landscape for any type of agriculture or grazing as it is covered by volcanic rock.

We visited the location of the world’s first parliament. Here you can be astride two continental plates (Eurasian and North American). They are separating so Iceland is growing at about 2cm per year. 

 It is the oldest parliament in the world having been created in around 900 AD.

Here was also their seat of judgement. For wrongdoers they would either behead the men or drown the women in a stream pool. No chance for reoffending or appeals.

We were off to see a geyser (geysir in Icelandic). It’s the oldest known one in the world, the famous Strokkur, which erupts every 8–10 minutes. Not the most exciting natural event we have seen, but at the Geysir restaurant, it was the best lamb I have eaten ever! It was so tender. So not a complete waste.

One of the natural highlights of the trip must be the Gullfoss. This is part of the Golden Circle tour (nothing to do with pineapples). Spectacular, noisy and windy but quite incredible.

A lot of water vapour on the lens!

We are wearing masks because it is so cold!

Usually with Icelandic ponies we would only see a handful together, but these seem to be quite large horse farms.

We stopped at Hellisheiði geothermal power station. Around 85% of the nation's total energy need is met through renewable energy. It was interesting enough and the technology was innovative.

What we have been told is that Icelanders are avid readers, with the highest number of bookstores per capita in the world, and around 10% of the population will publish a book in their lifetimes! That’s a lot of reading to do.