Starting off in Iceland

Minneapolis has a direct flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, and here is where we've started our journey. We chose to visit the southern coastal area between Reykjavik and Vik and then see the area known as the Golden Circle, which is the most intensely toured area in Iceland. Iceland is known for its waterfalls (foss in Icelandic), volcanoes, glaciers (jokull) and geysers and we have seen all of these in the past few days! We rented a car outside the airport and began our tour. Beyond Reykjavik the island is sparsely populated, and there are vast regions of pasturelands with sheep, horses, and the occasional cows. No Starbucks in sight.

On the southern coast we saw two waterfalls (Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss), the Black Sand beach (Reynisfjara), and the plane crash site from a US Navy DC plane in 1973 (we didn't actually know that's what was at the end of our 2.5 mile hike, but it turns out this is one of the most-visited sites in Iceland. Everyone survived the crash, the hull of the white airplane is just slowly decaying on the black sand beach. Five miles to see the plane round trip. Jury is still out on this one). We walked on the accessible 1% of a glacier (Solheimajokull) on a guided tour (complete with crampons and pickax. Harley was very excited he got to carry a pickax, apparently it is a thing in Minecraft) and got to eat a piece of ice in Iceland. The glacier is located near an active volcano, so the ice was covered in a layer of rocky ash.
We spent the first two nights in Hella, about an hour from Reykjavik, in a bunkhouse designed for backpackers (lots of backpackers and cyclists on the southern coast and a few hitchhikers). Nothing

fancy...did I mention how expensive Iceland is? Scott is still dreaming of feeding his family for under $50 and the options outside the city are...wicked limited. Sandwiches in the gas station have been a staple for us for the past three days and that's $40 for the four of us.
We then left Hella and went inland to see the Golden Circle, a driving tour of about three hours round trip from Reykjavik. On the way we stopped at the Secret Lagoon in Fludir and went swimming in a hot springs, naturally in the range of 38-40 C (100 - 104 F). Fiona, naturally a shiver bunny, loved the water of the hot springs. We traveled on to Gulfoss, a wild and powerful waterfall, and Geysir, named as the original geyser. The geysers reminded me of Yellowstone, although these were smaller but more accessible than Old Faithful. By the way, Iceland is powered by its geothermal activity: conversion of all the steam from these geysers into electricity.

We spent the night in a lovely bed and breakfast in Geysir and saw just a hint of the northern lights (bucket list for me) but I think the nearly full moon prohibited us from getting the full effect. We ate in a farmhouse restaurant where you got to watch the milk cows eating hay while you were eating burgers. Slightly odd.
Today we went to Thingvellir National Park, which actually has a 1,000 year history as the governmental seat for Iceland. The whole area had a rather Lord of the Rings feel. Beautiful, clear lake, camping spots everywhere, and foundations of some of the oldest buildings on the island. We hiked around before heading out to the airport in Reykjavik area.