Iceland
February 14th to 19th 2019
It's a long way from home, but a beautiful part of the planet. Gotta be careful walking on those sidewalks.
This is about the nicest compliment our daughter could post on Instagram.
The highlight of the trip was scuba diving in the Silfra Fissure and touching the tectonic plates. What a spectacular place to dive...over 100 meters of visibility.
More about Silfra from SmarterEveryDay.
A view from atop the North American plate looking at where we would be diving. This is some of the gear we would be using.
Done with dive number one and still having a blast! This upside-down picture is not on of us, but was taken by someone at dive.is.
One of our main goals was to see the Northern Lights. We went out the first night we were there, but they could hardly be seen with the naked eye. Cameras with extended shutter times could pick up some color though. The picture at left looks much better than what we could see. It was disappointing, but the company let us book another night if we wanted.
So, we went out on Sunday night. It was a few hours wait and the tour guide was nearly about to leave when we were treated to a twenty minute show. It was awesome!
Next up was a tour of the "Golden Circle": geothermal power plant, volcanic crater, waterfalls, a very old church, geysers, and farm animals. Oh, and don't forget a wicked cold wind almost everywhere.
Iceland happens to be located at a tectonic plate boundary right on top of a geothermal "hot spot". This is a cross-section of the pipe that takes hot water to Reykjavik.
Some people have to be told everything.
Our last full day was Monday the 18th. We spent the day walking around Reykjavik. Lots of cool architecture, including the Höfði house where Reagan and Gorbachev signed the treaty that effectively ended the Cold War.
Funny name....great burgers.
Bus Stop #7 was a on our list a lot! Including the morning we left.