Tuesday, August 9th, Hella, Iceland

Greetings!

East of Reykjavik, the mid-Atlantic Ridge runs the length of Iceland.  It's where the North American plate splits from the European plate.  And each year, we get about two centimeters further apart.  Today, we walked down the middle of a ravine formed by this force.  We stood on a rock (Logberg) at Pingvellir where Iceland's first parliament in 930 AD declared the laws under which this newest of the world's land masses would be governed.

  Near a large flagpole under the ridge, one can imagine tens of thousands of people listening to their leaders reminding them of their duties and obligations.  For over 300 years, the Althing Assembly functioned until the country declared its allegiance to Norway in 1262.

Some of you have asked about our accommodations, so I thought I'd include a segment of Pat's journal today which described tonight's location.

Making a loop south following a river, and in sheep country, we reached the ocean - a fishing village Stokkseyrp (well, it once was.  Not a boat in sight, and a tiny harbor).  Driving along a lava rock seashore, we found a famous lobster restaurant our guide book recommended was closed (I think for good).  We found a roadhouse with typical steak, burgers, fish & chips.  We then tracked down our hotel in Laekur.  After five miles on a side road, and another 2-3 miles of dirt road, we were quite surprised to find a 20ish room brand new place in an expanse of green pasture with mountain ranges in the eastern vista.  This place also has a dinner menu, I'm sure a great deal better than our fish & chips!  I'm working on this in the window seat of their second story reading room.  It's about 8 o'clock, and the sun is still pretty high in the sky.  I'm going down to find a cup of hot H2O for tea, find Gregory, and research tomorrow's route.

To see all of the photos we took today, click on: Tuesday, August 9th, Hella.