It isn’t Old Faithful but the Strokkur Geysir in southwest Iceland was worth the drive. It’s eruptions are not as high as Old Faithful but, like clockwork, it erupts every 6-10 minutes (usually 15-20 meters/50-65 feet in height) . Located a little more than 60 miles from Rekjavik, it was a pleasant drive through the countryside. There is no admission charge; you can walk right up to it. There are, of course, the usual tourist souvenir shops near the site. On the walk up to Strokkur is a small pool that is bubbling like boiling water named Litli Geysir–more a bubbling pool than an actual geysir but pretty cool nonetheless.
Videos of both are below. Enjoy the eruption…
Litli Geysir (just 13 seconds)
Strokkur Geysir…(Click the lower right corner to make it full-screen–55 seconds–watch the water begin to pulsate in the hole as the eruption nears)
Because Iceland is, in fact, a volcanic island that has risen from the seabed, the water deep underground is hot from the energy of the Earth. Icelanders use that water to heat their homes and generate electricity, but a side benefit is that thermal swimming pools are just about everywhere. There were three in downtown Rekjavik, many that can be found out in the countryside along the roads (careful, they can be really hot) where you can jump in for a dip even though the ambient air temperature might be in the 30s (Fahrenheit). Of course, there is also the well advertised and touristy Blue Lagoon that for an astronomical fee (about €40 or the equivalent of about $43 USD per person), they will bus you there and allow you to experience the heat of the Earth all while lightening your wallet. The water comes from about 6500 feet underground and, of course, is loaded with minerals.
Laugardalslaug Thermal Pool
We chose to walk a few blocks from our hotel to the public Laugardalslaug Thermal Pool and for only about $9 USD soak up the geothermal heat. It was marvelous. The outdoor temperature was almost 40 degrees Fahrenheit (a little more than 4 degrees Celsius) but once you were in the water, it was wonderful. The sign posted by the pool indicated the water temperature was 38 degrees Celsius, about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
While we soaked in one of the smaller sections of the pool complex, we met two young ladies from Germany who were visiting Iceland, amazingly a young man from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where we lived for 30+ years, and a gentleman from Italy who has lived in Iceland for about 15 years. He told use what we suspected all along when he said, “The Northern Lights tour packages are a marketing ploy to get people to Iceland. Good luck seeing them!”
We were undaunted in our attempts to see the Northern Lights but, as you read earlier, unsuccessful. As unnatural as it seems to swim outside in the Icelandic cold, it felt wonderful. Chatting with folks in the pool from around only added to the enjoyment.
In looking at the landscape around Iceland–volcanic, barren, remote, sparsely populated–it is abundantly clear that if ever there was a place on earth where elves could exist, this would be the place. The landscape is like the setting for a fairy tale…other worldly. One can just imagine the little “hidden” people, as the Icelanders call them, hanging out in such places and creating their mythical mischief. From mysteriously halting construction projects (true) to breaking the fall of a little boy from a cliff that surely would have resulted in injuries, yet he had not a scratch. According to legend, the boy reported seeing “little hands” reach out to break his fall. The belief in the existence of elves seems to be more widely accepted than you might think.
No joke. There are actually road signs to warn you about elves. If the pie chart above can be believed, 37% of Icelanders think that elves are a possibility, 17% deem them likely, and 8% think there definitely are elves. That’s 62% that are somewhere in the vicinity of thinking that a trip to Rivendell, the home of the Elf King Elrond in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, is a possible excursion.
The girls in the picture look like the kind of elves you might find in the hills of Iceland. Of course, with those ears, they also look like they could be Vulcans, related to Spock, and have just come from a Star Trek Convention. You’ll have to be the judge or go visit Iceland in search of the little “hidden” people yourself.
A mere representation of the Northern Lights created by Icelandic Elves
Remember your first date as a teenager? When you finally got to go out in a car rather than be driven somewhere by your parents? The excitement? The anticipation? The possibilities…(maybe more a guy thing)? You picked up your date, probably went out for a bite to eat, maybe a movie. Then, trying to act as cool as possible, a little drive. You found a nice, secluded country road with a pull-off and sat, supposedly, to gaze at the stars but secretly hoping to get lucky. The windows would fog up from all the “talking” and occasionally you’d have to start the engine and run the heater…
That’s exactly what looking for the Northern Lights was like…kinda. Thwarted by unfavorable weather all week long, our Northern Lights tour was cancelled (no refunds by the way…what a racket). We had arrived on Monday, our tour was to have been Wednesday evening but by Thursday it was still overcast with occasional rain. Major bummer. We didn’t despair because Iceland has a charm of its own and we were enjoying exploring the island nation and it’s many attractions (the friendly people, hot springs, geysers, volcanoes, geologic marvels, the food, beautiful scenery, elves, etc.).
The Icelandic Meteorological Office produces an Aurora Forecast each day indicating when conditions might be best to see the Northern Lights. We followed their website like two children gazing at penny candy in the display case at the corner store. Finally, Friday night was predicted to be clear. We planned a nice dinner, complete with a few shots of Iceland’s “Black Death,” (Brennivin) to keep us warm, and then set off in the rental car to a deserted stretch of Icelandic highway.
We found a little pull-off area that would get us away from passing traffic and the glare from oncoming headlights, and like two teenagers, we sat gazing at the stars. We gazed… and gazed ….and gazed some more. We talked. We fogged up the windows, started the car and ran the heater. It’s cold in Iceland at night.
The stars were spectacular. Without any ambient light from the city to obscure them, the stars seemed like, as George H.W. Bush once famously said, “…a thousand points of light.” Being at such a high latitude (66 degrees north) and only about 160 miles from the Arctic Circle, the North Star (Polaris) was almost directly overhead–seemed a little weird. Ironically, to see the Northern Lights we actually had to face toward the south.
But alas, no Northern Lights appeared. As it turns out, not only must the sky be reasonably clear but the solar activity must also be just right. The quest to see the aurora borealis was a bust. On the plus side, I got to spend a few hours fogging up the windows with my sweetie gazing at the stars like two teenagers…
It isn’t Old Faithful but the Strokkur Geysir in southwest Iceland was worth the drive. It’s eruptions are not as high as Old Faithful but, like clockwork, it erupts every 6-10 minutes (usually 15-20 meters/50-65 feet in height) . Located a little more than 60 miles from Rekjavik, it was a pleasant drive through the countryside. There is no admission charge; you can walk right up to it. There are, of course, the usual tourist souvenir shops near the site. On the walk up to Strokkur is a small pool that is bubbling like boiling water named Litli Geysir–more a bubbling pool than an actual geysir but pretty cool nonetheless.
