Day 3 continued
No matter what your views on separation of church and state, you would have to consider Iceland's approach as an interesting option. According to various polls, 97% of Icelanders believe in God (yes, capital G not small g as in the Norse type). A very small percentage of Icelanders actually attend church services. Religion does not influence governdment even though the national religion is Lutheran. Most Icelanders believe in trolls and elves. A small but growing percentage practice the old pagan religion of the Vikings. In the larger cities one will find larger Lutheran churches, but throughout rural Iceland (which is most of the country), the countryside is dotted with small and in most cases, solitary churches.
This Vic church is very representative of the solitary rural church; remember, Vik's population is 290 (not counting sheep and horses, of course).
Here is a view of the interior.
Gullfoss is Iceland's most famous and revered waterfall. There are thoousands of waterfalls in the country, but this is the granddaddy of them all. The name means Golden Falls. The only part of the Icelandic language that is easy is that certain things cause a speciffic ending on a word. Foss is for a waterfall; kull is for a glacier, and so on. Gullfoss (pictured here) falls twice for a total of 32 meters (105 feet). It's spectacular. If I can figure out how to post a quick time movie, I will.
Geysir was dicovered in the 12th century. Outside of Iceland the word geysir describes the natural phenomenon; in Iceland it is one partof this writing, icular geysir. In the past, it often sent a spray of hot water 60 meters into the air. As Geysir, has stopped spouting on a regular basis. One story says that some tourists from New Zealand (this is supported by an Australian contingent) threw stones down the throat of Geysir to encourage a spouting. No spouting, just clogging. Geysir is surrounded by a number of other geysirs (called by other names as Geysir is already taken). The "spout" pictured above and below is Strokker. Strokker erupts about every 5 minutes. The height varies but is often about 20 meters (66 feet). Strokker translates to The Churn in English.
Another erruption, you can actually see the activity in the surface water a few seconds before it erupts.
I suspect you have heard the expression "Don't spit into the wind". The consequences are easy to conjure up. The same general rules apply to standing down wind from a geyser when it spouts. One may get pretty close to any of the geysers in Iceland. The water is literally boiling hot. When we arrived an onlooker was giddy at finding a large gap in those waiting for the eruption. You guessed it; it was downwind. There are 7 tourists scalded by Strokker each summer. Fortunately, this tourist had a warm but drenching shower while fully clothed. When I last saw him, he had his shirt off and was wringing it out.
More later!
Interesting religious views the have!
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