the golden circle

yesterday i did the touristy thing and took a tour bus around the "golden circle" a full day trip to see a number of famous sites outside of reykjavik. it was another beautiful day—sunny and the warmest day yet. the first stop was the Nesjavellir geothermal power plant. it’s a 90MW power plant that suplies power and hot water to reykjavik. they send the hotwater in a big pipe 30 km to reykjavik at 85C and that’s what heats the houses. the tour guide said that they have 7000 earthquakes a day but i didn’t feel any.
this is a picture of the road and gigantic pipe that carries the hot waterone of the turbines inside the power plantnext stop was Þingvellir, a national park that is the site of the oldest parliament in the world. the mid-atlantic ridge runs through this valley--on the left side is the north american plate and on the right is the eurasian plate—they spread apart about 2.5 cm a year. the picturesque waterfall gullfoss

the view of the glaciers from the waterfall (all the white on the horizon is ice--not clouds)

the geysir area is like a mini yellowstone this geyser is called Strokkur and spouts about every 5 mintues

another waterfall, this one's called faxi (notice the fish ladder on the left side)the church Skálholt where the first icelandic bishops lived

mt. hekla in the distance (it's supposed to look like an upsidedown ship)

the crater Keriđ where Björk preformed a concert (she was on a boat in the lake and everyone sat on the edge of the crater)