Today we resumed our visit to the schools of Reykjavík. We visited the schools of Breiðagerðisskóli, Vogaskóli, Langholtsskóli, Laugarnesskóli and Álftamýrarskóli.

The children tended to be so different from school to school, and illustrated the uniqueness and diversity of the children here in Iceland.

Perhaps it was too early in the morning when we met the children at the first school, Breiðagerðisskóli at 08.20 as initially they were not too receptive and rather quiet. However, once we gave them the torch they smiled broadly and enjoyed themselves.

When we arrived at Vogaskóli the dark clouds that had threatened rain earlier on now released its rain. Despite the rain we met the children outside who were very enthusiastic to meet with us and run with the torch.

When we arrived at out third school, Langholtsskóli, it was raining heavily so we met the children in their classroom.

The children listened superbly and were so well behaved. They enjoyed guessing which country each runner was from and coming to the front to point out the respective country on the map of Europe. When we went out into the playground they couldn’t wait to hold the torch and run. They were like little Vikings frantically running in every direction with the torch. When it was time to leave they didn’t want us to leave and they continued running with us beyond the school’s grounds and it was hard to convince some of the boys to go back.

At our fourth school, Laugarnesskóli we were warmly greeted, and Pedja made friends with a young boy originally from Serbia.

As the morning progressed the enthusiasm from the children was getting greater and greater, and at our final school, Álftamýrarskóli, this was no exception. There we met a sweet young girl originally from Morocco.

As always the children loved to hold the torch and they ran with us out of the school to the start of a bridge over the main highway.

There we said goodbye and we told them that we hoped to visit them again next year.

In the afternoon we visited the Great Geysir that spouted hot water and steam 50-60m high.

With the torch we met many tourists, especially people from New York, New Jersey and Germany.

An even more spectacular site was the two-tier waterfall on the river Hvítá of Gullfoss – The Golden Falls. The upper waterfall has a drop of 11 metres and the lower one 21 metres. The canyon below Gullfoss extends for some 2.5 km and reaches a depth of 70 metres.

In the yawning canyon the water powerfully cascades downwards in a white torrent with the spray drenching the surrounding vegetation.

On the canyon’s edge we were able to observe and feel the full force of the water pouring from the river. It was an amazing sight.

Iceland never disappoints. Always around the corner there is a magnificent waterfall or a stunning mountain.

We returned to the house of our Icelandic hosts and Gangane said he never had so many people in the flat, so we had to take a group photograph for posterity.

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Team Members:
Mark Collinson (England), Marton Fekete (Hungary), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Pierre Lantuas Monfouga (France), Predrag Knezevic (Serbia).

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

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