Wednesday we took a jeep tour around the Golden Circle. We started by stopping by one of the geothermal plants. The hot water and electricity for Reykjavik and surrounding areas comes from these plants. Our next stop on the tour was Pingvellir National Park; to get there we drove around this gorgeous blue lake. Iceland’s parliament was founded at this national park in 930 AD. Gullfoss waterfall was the next stop on this journey. This waterfall was so big that it felt like you were getting a shower from the spray when you walked close to it. The picture on the right is the waterfall. We had lunch here which was a traditional Icelandic meal of lamb stew. We then went to Iceland’s second largest glacier and took the jeeps right up into it and then we got to get out and play in the snow. We then went to see a geyser which is n
amed Geysir. It goes off every 6 to 8 minutes so we were able to see it a couple of times. The picture to the left is the geyser. The last stop was a tour of Iceland’s newest geothermal plants. We were able to learn how it all works and then actually see some of the machines. This adventure was tons of fun because we went off-roading and through the river for parts of it and the four girls in our jeep were screaming and laughing most of the time. The day ended with us having a nice meal and then relaxing after a very fun day.On Thursday we had our last school visit of this journey. The school was very interesting and they had many interesting philosophies for the school. This school along with many of them we saw in Denmark has immigrants. About 10% of their students are immigrants and some are learning Icelandic as their third language. One thing I found very interesting about the school is that the students remove their shoes at the door and then wear their socks through the school but the teachers all wear their shoes. We got to see many of the classrooms and there was much more home economics type classes such as foods, sewing, and wood shop. This was a very good school visit to end the trip on because it was very interesting. This afternoon we went whale watching. We got onto a boat and then went about 30 to 40
minutes out to the bay to watch for whales. We were able to see about 8 to 10 during the three hour trip. You were not able to see much of the whale and by the time you looked you usually saw their back and maybe their back fin if you were lucky. The last stop on the boat tour was at an island that is home to a puffin community. We were not able to get very close on the boat but you were able to see some of them sitting in the grass on the island. The boat ride was very wavy so it made it very interesting to walk around on the boat. The picture on the right is another boat, similar to the one we were on, our whale watching. Today is our last night of the trip so we had a group meal and were able to talk and laugh about many of the memories that have been made!
