Thursday, Sept. 8. Finishing up with the Golden Circle.

 Thingvellir National Park was the highlight of this, our last day of vacation in Iceland. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of two reasons: it is important for Iceland's history as the island essentially became its own nation here, and also because of the geology. Most visitors come here for the second reason, and tourists were pouring in today on a beautiful warm Thursday. 

Folks come to see how Thingvellir lies on the junction of two tectonic plates, the North American one and the Euroasian one. You can walk right down between what geologists say is where the land cracked apart something like a billion years ago.    

Signs in the park say these edges are more clearly visible here than anywhere else in the world. So it is a unique place.

This white accordion type house was the prime ministers summer home for many years, right here in Thingvellir where the tectonic plates were shifting and moving. The image of those houses is popular here. Tonight I was in a souvenir store and saw a miniature replica of the houses done up as a key chain.  

If the Vikings had picked a grandaddy of all  waterfalls they would have probably picked Gullifoss which is the golden waterfall and lends the name to the Golden Circle.

In Iceland history, people have built structures up against a hillside or practically dug into the ground. We saw barns and sheds with grass roofs but this was unusual—-a home built into the hillside with a melted lava roof.