Þingvellir & Surroundings

1st August 2003

After collecting the car we headed out of Reykjavik towards Žingvellir National Park. This drive gave us our first real taste of Icelandic countryside, although the landscape was nothing compared to that which we later came across.

Scenery on the road to Žingvellir

Scenery on the road to Þingvellir

We approached Žingvellir from the west, and along this road we had an excellent view of Žingvallavatn, one of the largest lakes in Iceland - and a brilliant blue colour. This slightly skewed panorama of the lake gives some impression of it's colour.

Žingvellir is sited on a visible part of the continental rift, where the end of the European continental plate is slowly drifting away from the North American continental plate, at a rate of around 15mm per year. As the plates are separating, new land is created in between them as lava is forced up, meaning there is a valley now in between the edges of the continental plates, ranging from 3 to 20 metres deep and around 10-20 metres wide.

This picture, taken from the European plate (where the carpark is) shows the North American plate rising up above the edge of the European plate.

The North American continental plate rising above the edge of the European continental plate

The North American continental plate rising above the edge of the European continental plate

For some of the length of the valley, the river Oxara runs in-between the plates, from where it falls into the valley in the pretty Oxarafoss waterfall, to where it runs out onto the plains someway down.

The River Oxara

The River Oxara

Oxarafoss

Oxarafoss

Close-up of Oxarafoss

Close-up of Oxarafoss

We had parked on the flats of Žingvallarauhn, and from here we could climb down into the gap between the plates, as the European plate end that we were on was not too high from the valley floor, as can be seen in this next photo.

The edge of the European plate from the valley floor

The edge of the European plate from the valley floor

After we had climbed down, and thanks to a handy rock and some foliage, we were able to take our own picture. Hoorah!

In front of Oxarafoss

In front of Oxarafoss

The ancient Parliament meetings held here consisted of speeches from the lawmakers. It is believed that when making these speeches to the masses, they would stand on the high rock point indicated by the flag in this next picture.

Site of the speech-making rock - the Lögberg

Site of the speech-making rock - the Lögberg

Pictured below is the Wishing Pool, a very clear, crisp, and very deep pool reputed to grant the wishes of those throwing money into it.

The Wishing Pool

The Wishing Pool

Next we visited the friendly-sounding Drowning Pool. Before capital punishment was abolished in the 19th century, this pool used to be used for the drowning of people convicted of witchcraft - although very few drownings ever actually took place. This pool was also exceptionally deep.

The Drowning Pool

The Drowning Pool

This pool is in the valley at the point where the Oxara finally leaves the valley and heads onto the plains.

From the drowning pool we walked down towards the lake, between the continents. Pictured below is Audrey sitting on the edge of the North American continental plate, and Mark sitting on the edge of the European continental plate.

Audrey sat on the edge of North America

Audrey sat on the edge of North America

Mark sat on the edge of Europe

Mark sat on the edge of Europe

We continued our walk along the valley, eventually moving onto the North American plate, and climbing up for an excellent view across Žingvellir. In this photo you can clearly see the edges of the two plates, and the path we had just walked up winding it's way in between them.

View across Žingvellir, including the continental ridge

View across Þingvellir, including the continental ridge

Also from this point we had an excellent view over Žingvallavatn - the largest lake in Iceland.

Žingvallavatn

Þingvallavatn

Having fully explored Žingvellir, we headed to our hostel for the night - Hveragerši. Hveragerši was a lovely small "town", in the Icelandic sense of the word - a settlement consisting of around 2,000 people. It was our first experience of a major settlement outside Reykjavik, and the small size of the place took us somewhat by surprise (although with hindsight, it was relatively large compared to a lot of the other places we would stay).

The town was situated on an intensely geothermally active area, and this heat was used to heat greenhouses, which in turn were used to grow all manner of foodstuffs and plants... and, as this next picture shows, a huge Albert Einstein head.

Albert Einstein, geothermally grown at the Eden centre

Albert Einstein, geothermally grown at the Eden centre

The hostel was also a guesthouse, and as far as we could tell also ran the taxi service for the town. It was a nice, clean place (which, in keeping with Reykjavik, requested all guests to remove their shoes before entering - something that came as something of a surprise to find, however it certainly lead to cleaner floors within the buildings).

The Hostel/Guesthouse

The Hostel/Guesthouse

After our car decided to lock us in again, we called the car rental company, who arranged for a new car to be brought out to us the next morning - a Daewoo Lanos.

Our new car

Our new car

With our new car ready, we headed away from Hveragerši to complete the Golden Circle - Geysir & Gulfoss.

page created: 16th August 2003 | updated: 7th November 2005