Reykjavik – National Museum of Iceland – Thingvellir National Park – Gulfoss – Haukadalu – Icelandic Settlement Centre – Reykholt – Hraunfossar and Barnafossar waterfalls – Deildartunguhver hot spring – Stockholm
Day One
We commence our tour of Iceland in the afternoon with a visit to the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. At the Museum you can focus on the Viking Settlement period, 870-930AD and the Commonwealth period, 1180-1264AD. You will see rare and intimate objects displaying Norse and Celtic cultural influences such as stunning amber necklaces, trefoil broaches, coins and armbands. Also see examples of the tools and riding gear used by the pioneer farmers and of course their weapons, sometimes beautifully ornate but huge and heavy.
In the evening we will have our welcome dinner preceded by orientation.
Day
Two
We will spend the morning on a tour of the
city of Reykjavik. This fascinating
excursion will give an excellent overview of the Reykjavik area with our guide
sharing interesting facts about Europe’s northernmost capital city. We will see many of the city’s major
attractions including its main landmark, Hallgrímskirkja Church, and the viewing platform of the Perlan glass dome providing a 360° view over the
city. The afternoon and evening will be
free.
Day
Three
We leave Reykjavik and firstly visit Thingvellir National
Park, a World Heritage site. Famed for
its rugged, stunningly lovely wilderness and beautiful rift valley, it was the
meeting place of Iceland’s first general assembly or Althing, the national parliament
of Iceland, in 903 with sessions being held on the site until 1798. The valley was formed when two tectonic
plates gradually drifted apart between the North American tectonic plate and
the Eurasian.
We then continue on to the spectacularly beautiful Gulfoss or “Golden
Falls”, where the wide, rushing waters of the Hvítá River plunge abruptly into a crevasse. When first approaching the falls, the edge is
obscured from view so that it appears that the river has simply vanished into
the earth. It is one of the many
locations where Game of Thrones was filmed.
After lunch, we will visit the spectacular geothermal area of Haukadalu,
a geological wonder of mud pools, hot springs and geysers. It is home to the Geysir where the word
“geyser” originates. Nearby, you will be
able to see the regular eruptions of Strokkur as the hot springs burst
skyward. Hissing steam vents are ringed
with colourful algae and minerals.
We will then return to our hotel where we will have a free evening.
Day Four
We will first visit the interactive Icelandic Settlement Centre in the
town of Borgarnes and learn how the Norwegian Vikings made their perilous
longship journeys to Iceland. Built
around an excavated 10th century longhouse once inhabited by the
Vikings and their slaves, we will see interactive media displays about Viking
architecture and how the Vikings lived.
Also on display are rare ancient manuscripts relating to Iceland’s
history.
We will then journey to Reykholt, once one of the intellectual centres of
Iceland. The poet, historian, saga
writer and chieftain Snorri Sturluson lived here during the Middle Ages. The quality of his writing made him the
foremost historical writer of his time in the whole of Europe. We are eternally grateful to him for his
records of the Old Norse language and mythology that are invaluable to modern
scholars. He was the author of such important and
famous works as Heimskringla, one of the most important sources of Scandinavian
history, Snorra Edda, a handbook on poetry and mythology and probably one of
the very best sagas of Icelanders, Egilʼs Saga, the story of the Viking poet
Egill Skallagrímsson. The Snorrastofa Cultural and Medieval Centre
is built on the site of Snorri’s home.
We then journey to view the very beautiful Hraunfossar and Barnafossar
waterfalls. The Hraufossar is a series
of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of nearly a
kilometre from a lava field and pour into the Hivita River. Close by is the lovely waterfall of Barnafoss
also formed in the same way as Hraunfossar.
Our last stop of the day is Deildartunguhver, a hot spring characterised
by its very high flow rate of 180 litres per second. A fern called the “deer fern” grows near here
and is not found anywhere else in Iceland.
We then return to our hotel where we will have the evening free.
Day Five
We will have an early start to fly to Stockholm and then check into our
hotel. The afternoon will be free and we
will have our welcome dinner to Sweden in the evening.
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