July 31 2000
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While Sunday started out looking grey and ended in lots of sunshine, Monday starts out with clear blue icelandic skies. Wow, two good days in a row! Or is the weather in Iceland less fickle than they write in the books? Hm, lets see how it goes.
Art at Ljosafoss Hydro Station
Today Þingvellir, the "parliament fields", is on the agenda. The road slowly climbs, starting at Selfoss along the river Sog. A couple of hydroelectric power stations have been built here, giving Icelanders clean, renewable energy. Lucky them I have to say, coming from the land of coal, gas, and nuclear powered power plants.
This year, Reykjavik is one of the 8 cultural capitals of Europe. Having had eight years to prepare themselves, not only the capital offers lots of special programs, but many other places are taking part in the occasion.
At least three power stations of Landsvirkjun, the national power company, have art exhibitions. The Ljosafoss Station on Sog is one of them, but unfortunately it opens at 1pm and closes at 5pm. So we just have a peak of what can be seen outside, and continue on.
Hrafnarbjörg, the Castle of the Raven
What I like in Iceland is that many places have mythical sounding names, evocing pictures of the time of the sagas. Hrafnarbjörg (which by the way is pronounced "hhrahpnahrbjörg" - yes, with a "p"), the "Raven Castle" is one of them. Consisting of dark lava, the remnants of an eroded volcano form a ring of walls and towers.
The landscape looks quite barren now. This gras is short and stunted, and the lava is covered in thick moss and lichens. Shortage of rain certainly is not the reason for this deserted looks. The lava is so porous it drains away any water that might fall from the skies.
Hrafnagjá, the Raven's Gap
The whole area is very interessting for the geological aspects alone. This valley is where Iceland is ripped into two parts and grows at the same time. Every couple of years earthquakes move the west side of Iceland further to the west, and the east part travels east. This, too, means, the west part of Iceland belongs to the American plate while the east is part of the European continent.
To accommodate this spreading, the land rips along a couple of parallel rifts and sinks down a bit. This is how Iceland gets wider. Every now and then an eruption fills in the valley floor, and new real estate is created.
This process is known as sea floor spreading. But as you might want to say the area here is fairly dry for the bed of an ocean. This is caused by the fact that Iceland is the only part of the mid Atlantic Ridge that rises above the water line.
Þingvellir and Skjaldbreiður
Þingvellir lies in the central rift valley.
Lake Þingvallavatn
In ??? a large earthquake occured and the land sank by up to 67cm. This caused Þingvallavatn to become a bit larger, swallowing a part of the southern river valley.
Öxaráfoss
The Öxará, the axe river, enter the Almannagjá as a waterfall. It follows the rift for a couple of 100 meters and leaves it through a second waterfall - very pictureque.
On the base of the waterfall you might notice the remnants of some construction. It's the symbol of health, one of the seven modern virtues of Iceland (but more about that in the next paragraph).
Justice
As said before Reykjavik is one of the eight cultural capitals of Europe in 2000. Additionally, the year 2000 marks the 1000th anniversary of the christianisation of Iceland. A big festival to place at Þingvellir, and a number of sculptures had been installed. To our surprise the sculptures were still there, and we enjoyed a number of very nice pieces of art.
The theme: the seven old and new virtues. The seven old ones exist since the mideaval. They are
The serene setting in the Allmannagjá of course added very much to the atmosphere.
Courage
The organisers wanted to know what people of today considered as virtues. A Gallup survey among Icelanders came up with the following ones:
Faith
Though I like the symbol for Faith very much I have to say the connection between church and state in Iceland strike me a bit odd. Since I think state and church are two totally different and entirely unrelated things, the concept of a state church doesn't sit right with me.
On the good side, being not a member of the protestant church to which 95% of all Icelanders belong doesn't seem to be a problem. Everybody's free to practise his or her believe, or just to not believe in anything at all.
Love
This one we both liked very much. Four glas bubbles with colored water (and a couple of clear ones in the background) are tucked into a gap in the black basalt lava. Light from behind make the sculpture glow. Great idea.
Island in Þingvallavatn
About noon the sun comes out, and we begin to sweat in our fleece and rain jackets. It's really something how fast and drastically the weather can change over the day.
As we're leaving the area we drop in at a tourist kiosk disguised as a visitor center. The Penguin books with english translations of the sagas interest us very much, but not at a price of DM60,- a piece.
We round the lake on the west shore where there is very little (actually: no) traffic. The road pretty much follows the shoreline and we get a view of the lake and islands here and there.
Church at Lake Ulfljotsvatn
As so often in Iceland you drive around the next corner and see something unexpected and beautifull, like this little church at Lake Ulfljotsvatn.
Pipeline to Reykjavik
Leaving Þingvellir we drive around the west shore of Þingvallavatn. From far away white steam announces the presence of a geothermal are, Nesjavellir.
A steep but well maintained and sealed road winds up through the mountains. According to the map, this could be an interesting way to drive to Reykjavik. Hm, something to try the next time...
A thick pipeline runs along the road. Actually the pipeline probably is the reason for the road - it supplies Reykjavik with hot water from Nesjavellir. And it's importance warrants a good service road.
Nesjavellir Power Station
We follow that road for 2 or 2 kilometers and stop at a small parking lot. A walk of 5 minutes gets us to a wooden lookout platform which offers sweeping panoramas of the whole valley.
Holy, it's windy here! We head back to the car and drive a bit further. A bigger parking lot provides more then enough space for our little car.
Upper Valley
Pipelines, steam and a drilling rig indicate somebody is using geothermal energy for commercial purposes. Nesjavellir is a high temperature field, meaning it is suitable for generating energy and heating houses as a kind of byproduct.
In order to tap lots of high pressure steam wells are drilled to a depth of over a 1000 meters (that is about 3000 feet for you metrically impaired ;-)). Development of the field is still in progress. Tucked into a small valley to the right you might spot a drilling rig.
Bore Hole
It's geothermal, it steams, and it is loud. At the bore holes steam and water are separated, and this process is as noisy as a starting Boeing 747 - well, almost.
Though I'm all for renewable and clean energy, geothermal energy is not renewable and clean as it may seems.
First off, thousands of tons of water are extracted from the ground each year. This means output is decreasing over time if no cold water is injected. The removal of water can cause undesired effects such as natural geothermal features disappearing or even steam explosions (that happened in New Zealand at the "Craters of the Moon" at Taupo).
Secondly the water is not just pure water but contains lots of dissolved minerals and gases. These are not necessarily environmentally friendly and would better stay "in the basement".
Geothermal Pools
The good thing is there's still very nice natural geothermal features at Nesjavellir to look at. Let's hope they are still there when you get a chance to go for a hike in the area - we would definitely recommend it.
At the top of the valley a couple of geothermal springs create some bubbling pools and warm brooks. The color of the water and the nearby rocks gives evidence the water contains more than just H2O.
More Geothermal Pools
Water in geothermal springs often is quite acidic. It dissolves minerals on the long way up to the surface that precipitate when the water cools down.
Depending on the temperature of the water different algae grow. In the hot spots orange species prevail while in colder places the green varieties supply the majority of underwater growth.
Running Hot and Cold Water
Where hot and cold water mixes interesting effects occur. The hot stream contains dissolved minerals which colour the water and cover the stream bed. The cold water stems from "conventional" rain water springs and is colourless.
Up here close to the springs the water is too hot to bathe in. But at the confluence of hot and cold you can adjust the temperature just by changing your position.
In Nesjavellir hot and cold might be a bit too close together to actually try that out, but at Landmannalaugar the streams are way larger, and the theory get applied practically.
At the Hot Stream
The stream enters a narrow valley which we follow downhill. The sulphur dissolved in the water gives the valley the typically geothermal smell which some (I, at least to some degree) enjoy and others (Anita) don't.
There's no real path along the stream, but we (I admit: through my intervention) leave the poled out path and continue along the brook.
Waterfall
Warm Bath
Vista
End the end of the valley we get a great view across Þingvallavatn to Langjökull.