Gulfoss, Skálholt, Geysir

Three attractions today and the first is a biggie.  Gulfoss is the largest waterfall in Iceland and it is the crown jewel of the "golden triangle" attractions.  You have already seen Thingvellir.  And Geysir is up later today.

I hardly know where to begin.  Gulfoss is amazing.  When I arrived this morning I just stood there and said OMG over and over again.  I have seen Niagara.  Niagara is bigger.  But Niagara is surrounded by city.  There is nothing around Gulfoss.  Most people's complaints about Gulfoss is that it is over run by people.  Not today.  There was one family there when I arrived about 9:30 after a leisurely hotel breakfast.  Even by mid-day (yes, I did spend 3-4 hours hiking around Gulfoss today) there were only around ten cars in the parking lot.  I have included at least one photo with people in it so that you can get a grasp at the human scale.  

Gulfoss is a double waterfall with upper and lower falls set almost at ninety degrees with respect to each other.  Then the water disappears down a canyon 250 feet deep.  I present you with Gulfoss.  It is hard to select from the hundreds of photos that I took.  Here are nine.

Notice the people.  Yes, I was there.

Next up are the churches at Skalholt.  Skalholt was once the centre of christianity and ecclesiastical power in Iceland.  Both an early earthen church and a newer church are on site.  First, the newer church.

And the earthen church next door.

And finally I present you with Geysir.  I think that I have it figured out now.  Iceland coined the term "geyser" which the world adopted.  The geyser at Geysir is Icelandic for "great geyser".  Geysir stopped erupting some ago.  But a geyser next door called Strokkur still erupts every few minutes.  I stood there. I watched it.  Every time it looks pretty much the same.  Some higher, some shorter.  Pretty much the same.

Note:  Crowds are pretty much non-existent.  That is great in one respect and one reason why I chose to come to Iceland at this time.  But it is devastating to the Icelandic economy.  The family run hotel in which I am staying expressed extreme thankfulness that I am eating dinner in their restaurant both last night and tonight.  There have been maybe four cars in the parking lot and only one other couple in the restaurant.  (Last night I asked how their day was.  They are French.  So this morning I was ready with Bonjour.  They laughed.  At me.  They are French.)  This trip has pointed up to me what the pandemic has done to many people including people and businesses and countries dependent on tourism.  It is our duty to travel!

Travel note:  One of the fun things that I enjoy about travel is being perplexed about the most mundane things.  Today I needed to top off the gas tank of my rental car.  I found a self service pump, of which there are few in rural Iceland.  It was completely self service because the store was closed.  I put in my credit card, it asked for a PIN, my credit cards don't have PINS (note to self before next European trip) but I used my US Bank Visa, which it took, asked me how much, which pump and then spit my card back out.  I tried four times before asking for help from people passing by.  Their answer was: "then you pump!"  Oh.  I thought the card came out at the end, not the beginning.  Another reason that you don't want to travel with me.  My car is now full of gas.

Thanks for following along.  More waterfalls tomorrow.  But none will be as great as Gulfoss.