I swear we crossed again last night as we were awakened by a series of rumblings that passed quickly. 🤷🏻♀️
Did you know planes are not allowed to fly over the Arctic Circle? The magnetic fields interfere with their navigation system😱
We arrive in Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. The first thing we notice is the red lights are heart shaped ❤️. During the financial crash of 2008 the residents became so depressed that the townspeople decided to do something to lift their spirits and to remind them what really mattered and to make them smile.
It has its own international airport so residents don’t have to travel to Reykjavík to travel abroad. There is no crime and as in the other cities we visited, the residents love it here. They take the weather in stride. There was a snow storm in June that caused the roads to close for 4 days!
This was our longest tour day in Iceland - 7 hours. It took 1 1/2 hours to drive along Iceland’s longest fjord to one of the pseudocraters that are formed which resembles a volcanic crater but it hasn’t erupted yet. Thankfully, we were spared an eruption.
The Icelandic people are big believers in Trolls who they say live in caves and hills. They don’t ever want to annoy these Hidden Folks as they believe them to be vindictive and could steal their babies only to replace them with ugly old men. We visited a lava park where the rock formations resemble Trolls.
No Trolls here; just a cool formation:
There is a gorge in the ground in their park that we were told is the Continental Divide so we had to take a photo. Not sure who is on the Europe side and who is on the North America side.
Next stop was the hot sulfuric mud springs and gurgling sulphur cauldrons at Namaskard. This is such a cool place, not only for the colors but the bubbling spots all throughout the park. Visitors are warned not to get too upfront and personal with these bubbles as they are boiling and if you are downwind, so stinky! A bit of trivia: NASA astronauts were brought here to practice for their moon landing. Lots of foreign films have filmed here as well as several Game of Thrones episodes.
Our final stop was so beautiful! The Godafoss waterfall is spectacular. The waterfall’s name has its origin in religion. When Iceland was settled pagan gods were worshipped. By 1000AD Norway brought Christianity to Iceland. Legend says the pagan statues were thrown into the waterfall, hence the name Godafoss.
The day went from mountains to rock formations and caves to smelly sulfur bubbles to a rushing gorgeous waterfall. It was exhausting but exhilarating!
Oh, by the way, I have 5 layers on. Just another summer day in Iceland. Tomorrow, snow predicted 🤭
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