We were collected from the hotel by a minibus and taken to the airport to join the main bus. This was a seventy seater and it was packed. I think this spoilt things a bit as wherever we went there was a huge gaggle. It took a while to get everyone together but finally the coach was loaded and we set off. The first stop was at a nursery heated by geothermal power.
This happy chap greets you at the entrance
Bananas growing in Iceland
We briefly stopped at (yet another) volcano crater before visiting the site of the first bishopric in Iceland. The church now on the site is much more modern but the cellar has a small museum with ancient religious artifacts from the area. There's also an escape tunnel.
We arrived at the Gullfoss waterfall at midday. This time I'd got my raincoat so I could get a lot closer.
We then moved on to Geysir.
By mid afternoon we arrived at a rift valley that is the symbolic junction between the European and American tectonic plates. Some of the cracks are really deep; I was about to jump over one until I glanced down and thought better of it.
From the rift valley we moved on to an area called þingvellir. This includes the site of the Althing, Iceland's first parliament. The parliament was an annual event first called in 930, fifty years after the initial settlement of Iceland. The site was chosen because of the ample local pasture and fresh water and the good roads linking it to all the populated areas.
Speakers stood in front of this small cliff which echoed their words to the crowd
The bus took us back to Reykjavík and dropped us a short walk away from the hotel.