This morning we were away early (for us 7:00am) in order to have enough time to drop by the local RV dump and still make it to our 10:00am appointment at the Blue Lagoon. As it turned out we were at the BL by 8:30. Being excessively early for things is a common mistake when I am organizing the timetable.

We presented ourselves at the BL reception counter at 9:00am to discover that "being early" required approval from a "higher up" but soon we were given our towels, arm bracelets and some vague instructions and ushered on our way into the changing rooms. After some struggle with the high-tech lockers (the lock and unlock by holding that arm bracelet against a sensor), taking the required shower "without swimming costume" Nina and I met up on the pool side of our respective change rooms and proceeded to enter the pool.

The pool is an irregular shape being bordered on the outer by concrete re-enforced piles of lava (the change room, cafe complex borders the entrance side), maybe 100 meters in diameter. At that early hour the number of guests was small, maybe a few hundred so the pool was spacious. The water is from the ocean and hence salty. The temperature of the water was quite variable from one spot to the next and even if one found a nice warm spot it would quickly move on. At various points in the pool were hot water inlets, places where very hot water (boiling, literally) simply bubbled up out of a pile of lava rocks. These were either covered with a protective timber surround or cordoned off with a steel rail.

All in all a pleasant experience. In case you missed it - that was the Blue part of the title. The rest of the day was devoted to the Gold, or more accurately the Golden Circle, a series of three tourist features that are within easy reach of Reykjavik.

The first of these is Geyser, not just any geysey, but the original from which all others get their name. Unfortunately that particular Geyser no longer spouts water. But fortunately there is one right next to it that does. And it was interesting, a pool of water with a deep hole in the middle that looks like a well. The water in the pool would bubble and churn for a while and then the surface of the "well" would bulge upwards and immediately the column of water in the "well" would erupt into - well - a geyser. After the eruption the well would be empty and for about 1 minute water would flow into the well until it was full and the whole process would repeat on about a 5 minute cycle.

Second on the list of attractions was Gullfoss, or Golden Falls a very impressive waterfall that on a sunny day would produce rainbows in the water spray. But today was not sunny so no gold. The impressive thing about these falls is not the height but the power of the water and the narrowness of the downstream canyon.

The third and final attraction was the valley of Þingvellir (which I am writing a Pingvellir, even though it is pronounced as Thingvellir). This valley is interesting for two reasons. Firstly it is the junction of the America and European tectonic plates, and as these plates are pulling apart the valley is getting wider each year by as much as 3/4 of an inch. The second interesting feature of this valley is that it was the site of the worlds first(?) democratic parliament. Around 900 AD a bunch of Vikings got tired of being told what to do by Danish kings so came to Iceland to settle and instituted a democratic system. The parliament met once a year in this valley. One of the main attractions of this annual meeting was the telling of the law. At the time Icelanders did not have writing so the law had to be passed on as an oral tradition. Hence at each years parliament a law teller would recite the law. This was a government that would really suit the "small government" types, the law teller was the ONLY government employee.

The valley is really captivating, so we paid the 1000K each to camp at one of the National Park camping grounds