Day 80-Þingvellir

   March 24-We travelled to Reykjavík today to spend the night so we could pick up Shan's family from the airport the following morning.  We slowly got around in the morning and then headed to Borgarnes.  Signý had invited us down to her and Magnús's house for coffee on the way through, so we got some Vienna bread at the bakery and then dropped in on them.
Our visit the weekend before had been brief, so it was nice to spend an hour relaxing in the house, talking to them, and enjoying the views from the house of the bay and of the Hafnarfjall mountain.  Unfortunately, their daughter Erla, who is Joslyn's friend, was at her grandparents in Reykjavík, but the kids had fun exploring the house and its yard. 
   After we left their house, we took a back route into Reykjavík.  The recent spate of warm weather has melted the snow on the less-travelled secondary roads and we took advantage of this to drive over some passes that otherwise can be troublesome.  We drove up the Skorradalur valley to the east of Borgarfjörður and over to Svinadalur on road 520.  The wind was blowing terribly as we made our way up the north side of this pass, but it was calm in the valleys on the south side, so we drove a short distance up Grafardalur before stopping and having a second lunch.  The kids ran around, releasing pent-up energy, while we adults enjoyed the views of the waterfalls.  Then we all skipped stones on a short stretch of calm water in the river.  It was quite relaxing.

Waterfalls of Grafardalur.



The wind was blowing so strongly that occasionally the water from this waterfall in the Laxá valley was completely swept back up and over the cliff from whence it came!

    Once we had our fill, we got back in the car and drove on down to and then around the top of Hvalfjörður.  Halfway down the southern side, we headed back inland up the Laxá valley on road 480, emerging in an upland moor called Mosfellsheiði.  We continued on east until we
came to Þingvellir, which was our primary reason for taking this circuitous route to Reykjavík.  Þingvellir is geologically interesting and historically important.  It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is a divergent tectonic plate boundary.  The land to the west of Þingvellir is on the North American continental plate, which is moving west.  The land to the east of Þingvellir is essentially on the Eurasian plate, which is moving east.  These diverging plates allow magma to occasionally well up from the mantle and erupt as lava on the surface, making the region geologically active.  Due to these actions and subsequent land subsidence, large, straight fissures have developed in Þingvellir that run parallel to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  Þingvellir is also important historically for Iceland, because its parliamentary body, called the Alþingi, met here from 930 until 1798 AD.

The Öxará river was diverted early in the history of the Alþingi to fall into the fissure, Almannagjá , here.

The Öxará flows a short distance through Almannagjá to the Alþingi assembly location,
where it provided fresh water to the participants and their horses.

The Öxará empties into the Þingvallarvatn lake a few hundred yards beyond the Alþingi location.
Þingvallarvatn, the largest lake in Iceland, was formed by glaciers during the last Ice Age.
Its shape and character has been modified substantially by subsequent lava flows.
The most recent eruption occurred in the middle of the lake, resulting in the cinder cone island of Sandey.

   While we were walking around Þingvellir, it started to rain lightly, so we called it a day and drove the short distance to Reykjavík, where we checked into our regular digs there at the Rey Apartments.  We went out to eat and beat the 7pm supper rush just barely.  Then, we went shopping at the 24 hour Hagkaup.  We returned to the hotel and hit the sack in anticipation of rising early in the morning to go meet the family at the airport.