📍 ///offshoot.biodiversity.commented
After several weeks in the fjords and most remote corners of Iceland, a radical change of atmosphere: here we are in Reykjavik, the northernmost capital in the world.
Founded in 874 by Ingólfur Arnarson, a Norwegian Viking leader, the city takes its name from the geothermal vapors visible at the time: Reykjavik literally means "the bay of smoke." Today, it is an astonishing city where more than 140,000 people live (nearly 240,000 with the metropolitan area, or two-thirds of the country's population).
Reykjavik is both a cultural and artistic capital – music (Björk, Sigur Rós, etc.), colorful street art, festivals – and a modern city marked by emblematic architecture such as Hallgrímskirkja, the concrete church that dominates the city, or the Harpa Concert Hall, inspired by basalt columns.
And despite its urban energy, nature is never far away: sea, mountains and hot springs always frame the horizon.
Late in the afternoon, we left Reykjavik, already lacking hot springs. That's good: after the hot waterfall and the hot springs... here's the hot river. Reykjadalur Thermal Bathing Pools, a place I didn't know, accessible either from below (like 99 % visitors), or from above, after a bumpy road followed by a 1h30 round-trip walk with a good elevation gain. Enough to discourage the tourist who came to "do Iceland".
Obviously, this is the option we choose. The approach walk is splendid, and the reward is worth the effort: an hour in very warm water, lost in the valley.
On the way back up, we decided to camp right there, among the Icelandic sheep who seemed to think it was normal to share their territory. The night was freezing, but what a setting for falling asleep.
Tomorrow, we head to Landmannalaugar, with a stop at Geysir and Gullfoss: two places that are a bit like Disneyland, but difficult to avoid.
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