Study Tour - Golden Circle & Biofuels

Today we went to a trip called "Golden Circle". It focuses on the beautiful area east of Reykjavik and includes Þingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall.
Map for last two days.












Þingvellir National Park- it's one of Iceland's most important historical sites. The parliament was founded here around 930 AD and assembled each summer until the end of the 13th century. After that time it's functioned as a court of law until 1798. Many important events took place here, such as adoption of Christianity in 1000 AD, and the foundation of modern Iceland republic in 1944. In 2004 it was added into a UNESCO World Heritage List. The natural environment of Þingvellir is unique in the world. It lies on the junction of two tectonic plates on the Mid Atlantic Ridge which is more clearly visible here than anywhere else in the world.


































































































Suicidal jump over the "river" :P













Geysir, the oldest known geyser in the world. Unfortunatley it's not active anymore, but in the years of the greatest activity it shot water on the hight of 60 meters. It now errupts only with earthquakes - last time during the big earthquake near Reykjavik - it shot water on 45 m.
On the picture, Stokkur, another geyser, just few meters from Geysir. It shoots water on the hight of 20 m, but does it really frequently - about every 5-10 mins.










































Geysir - now inactive.








Stokkur shooting water on 20 m.


























Gullfoss - one of the most popular and most beautiful waterfalls in the country.
























Way back to Reykjavik.













After the trip we went for a walk around Keilir - former USAF-NATO base. The base was huge and in the most "busy" moment there were 8000 soldiers there. Now there are plans to utilize facilities of the base for Research and Developement Industry.





























































































































In the evening we had a quick trip to Garðskagi which is a lighthouse at the nort-west end of Reykjanes Peninsula.












There was a broken window in the lighthouse so we just went inside and climbed to the top :P




















































Last day was really boring - we spent most of the time in some biofuel companies, the rest travelling back to Akureyri so there is not much to write here :)














I think it was a great expirience and now I can really say that I saw some part of Iceland.