There were three stops on this tour, and this narrative got repeated three times in my notes.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll refrain from repeating those descriptions here. With few exceptions, the countryside we saw stretched far and flat, picture-perfect, snow-splattered mountains in the distance, their peaks often in clouds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Everywhere we went, there was a sense that we, puny humans, were inserting ourselves onto vast and dynamic land. Not an environment where you walk through soothing, verdant, green forests. Or someplace with unending fields of rich soil ready for farming. Human activity has managed to change this land, but not to the extent of controlling it in any meaningful way. People can, and did, for instance, decimate the native tree population. But the mountains, rocks and rock fields, ice fields, waterways and waterfalls, unpredictable earthquakes and volcanic \u00a0eruptions\u2026 All these environmental actors cannot be exploited. Humans are always looking for ways to use the environment around us to our own advantage. In the middle of a huge volcanic field, surrounded by ice and mountains, with only a bit of color from grass and moss\u2026 What can you use here? There\u2019s a sense of real power in this land. It is no wonder that there is so much Icelandic folklore about sprites and magical beings inhabiting the country around them, a manifestation of the forces one senses. These imaginary beings can be helpful, but are notoriously unreliable. Their allegiance is to their home, not the people squatting on it. Whatever psychological sense of control they offer is tenuous.<\/p>\n The first part of the trip was an hour long drive to our first stop, the \u00deingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. Our tour guide pointed out interesting things along the way. There were sheep foraging on grasses in the field. Our guide explained that unlike sheep in the US and Western Europe, Icelandic sheep are not farm-fed but are let out to graze for the season, then rounded up. As a result, he said, the lamb meat in Iceland is not like the meat produced from American sheep. As a vegetarian, I had to take his word for it.<\/p>\n We also passed the home of Halld\u00f3r Laxness, the Icelandic author. The tour guide was surprised I knew about Laxness\u2019s 1955 Nobel Prize for Literature. Tourists generally don\u2019t know this. I guess he\u2019d didn\u2019t have much experience with over-educated old ladies like myself.<\/p>\n \u00deingvellir National Park is the location of the first Icelandic parliament mentioned in a previous post<\/a>. It is also geologically interesting because it contains a gorge where the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia meet. The two continents are pulling apart by a couple of millimeters every year. In several billion years, they tell us, Iceland will be split in two. Cool. The fissure itself was not very exciting to look at. It is a nicely maintained path going down to where the parliament met, the “Logberg”, or\u00a0 <\/span>“Law Rock.” This was something Betsy wanted to see.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oldladytraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Path-to-Law-Rock-300x167.png\")
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