Category Archives: Information

Information we discovered during our travels.

The Golden Circle Tour: Thingvellir National Park in Iceland

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Friday, May 15 continued… The Golden Circle was the most popular tour in Iceland, and these two busses were a private tour group only for the partners/families of the conference attendees. Keith was hoping there would be other teens aboard that he could hang out with, but the person closest in age was 20. And we knew that because he’d shared his age while telling us that he was overjoyed that he could legally drink alcohol here in Iceland (he was American, and in the US, the legal drinking age was 21).

As we left the city, the bus driver said that Reykjavík was originally a small fishing village surrounded by potato farms until 1940. In the midst of World War II, then British established a military base. A year later, the US took control of the base and operated it until 2006. Reykjavík grew up around the base to service the military staff. He told us a lot more about the history of Iceland, as well, but we didn’t remember the other details. He made a lot of jokes and was hilariously funny, so it was a fun ride.

The scenery looked like this for the majority of the drive. It was probably really green later in the spring and in the summer, but now the grass was just beginning to come back to life from winter dormancy.

Our first stop was the Visitor’s Center in the Thingvellir National Park. The park was a UNESCO World Heritage site, but we were surprised to find out it attained this honor for its history, not for its unique geology. As we’d read in the Perlan, In 930 AD, early settlers formed a representative-style parliament that met here. While the parliament was eventually moved to Reykjavík, the same parliament government still continues to this day, making Þingvellir the original site of the world’s longest-running continuous parliament. 

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More Photos of Downtown Reykjavík, Iceland

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Friday, May 15 – Eric had gotten home late last night and Christi hadn’t slept well, so both of them had a hard time getting up this morning. After getting ready to go, the three of us walked downtown to the restaurant that Christi and Keith had tried to find yesterday.

This morning was warmer than it had been yesterday, and we were also feeling more acclimated to the weather. Yesterday, it was too cold for Christi to take her gloves off to snap photos as she walked, but today, she was able to do so. Yesterday, Christi had also been more focused on where we were going that on surroundings, and today she enjoyed the scenery more. Here were some photos of the walk from The Grandi Hotel to Baka Baka.

The Grandi was located on the edge between the residential part of downtown and Grandi Harbor. Here were the residential homes we passed. There was a mix of individual houses, row homes and a few multi-family units. The majority of the homes were the stereotypical traditional Icelandic style, made of brightly painted corrugated metal with steeply slanted metal roofs. Many had gingerbread trim and were adorable. Most looked historic, and most were well-maintained.

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Food Halls in Reykjavík and The Lava Tunnel in Raufarhólshellir, Iceland

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continued… After the show, we walked to a restaurant that the lady at the ticket counter had suggested. We hadn’t really understood the name she’d said, and when we’d asked for directions, she pointed to the next street over. Hoping the restaurant would be obvious, we took the closest cross street. The northwest side of the street was an endless row of these little storage units. Christi’s guess was they were primarily storage for small fishing boats and gear.

The other side of the street was a commercial harbor, called Grandi Harbor, with an array of buildings dotting the sea wall. Most of the boats in the harbor looked like fishing vessels. 

We followed the street southeast for a ways and saw nothing that looked like a restaurant — the one side was only storage units and the buildings on the other side looked like they were part of the commercial fishing industry. Then we saw a small sign in front of what we’d thought was another industrial building.

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The Lava Show in Reykjavík, Iceland

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Thursday, May 14 continued… We left the hotel at 1330. The Grandi was on the corner of Myrargata and Seljavegur. The map app directed us to turn northeast on Myrargata, which was a direction we hadn’t yet explored. The taller part of the building at the far left was definitely The Grandi. We weren’t sure if the grey and red buildings with the slanted roofs were a new wing of the Grandi or were different buildings altogether.

The next building over also looked relatively new.

Across the street was the Saga Museum. According to the brochure that Christi had picked up today, it was about early Icelandic history, particularly viking. It was on the to-do list.

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The Perlan Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland: Part 3 – Northern Lights, Views of the City, Volcanoes and Earthquakes, and More

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continued… We noticed it was nearly time for the IMAX movie about the northern lights to begin, so we headed back down to the first floor and lined up outside the IMAX theater. At the time the movie was supposed to start, we were still lined up. We’d expected them to open the doors to let us in, but instead they turned on a video that gave us some basic information that would help us to understand the main feature better. After that short video ended, they opened the door to the theater, and we quickly got seated. They told us no photography was allowed after Christi took this shot of the images that were being shown during seating.

It was a story told from the perspective of one of the deities from their traditional Norse mythology. She explained a little bit about astronomy and that other planets, as well as our moon, also had special activity at their north poles. She explained what the magnetosphere was and how it reacted to electromagnetic field (EMF) bursts that came from the sun, why the EMF bursts created auroral lights, etc. The video did an excellent job of explaining complicated science in an easy to understand manner, while also blending the science with some local folklore. Visually speaking, the film was stunning. The images of the auroral lights and the celestial bodies were gorgeous. There were also some folklore images weaved in there that were also beautiful.

When movie let out, we took the elevator up to the cafe on the 5th floor for a latte (Christi) and lemonade (Keith). It was the top floor of the building, and it was a dome with a 360-degree view of the city. The latte was just as good as the one she’d gotten yesterday. She was pretty sure they used the same magical milk.

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