Today on Monday Mysteries we consider a small mystery that came up last week, when I was on the Golden Circle Tour, which is a standard day-long bus excursion that is designed to allow you to explore the natural beauty of Iceland outside the capital city of Reykjavik.

However, out first stop turned out to be at a man-made structure. Specifically, at a greenhouse.  A really huge greenhouse.

This was the real scheduled first stop, not an emergency pull-over. The visit there is designed to show off the fact that Iceland has a huge greenhouse industry, which is necessary in order to grow things like tomatoes which can’t otherwise grow in the soil or climate of Iceland.

It was a dark and stormy morning — to borrow a phrase — on that day of my tour. It was quite striking to pull up to the greenhouse and have it shining so brightly through the gloom that otherwise surrounded us. As it was raining quite a bit, I couldn’t get a photo that properly captured that impression of the greenhouse being a beacon of light; the one I took as I was leaving the greenhouse, which is included in the gallery below, was taken it was only slightly spritzing. However, in that photo I have tried to capture the idea that the greenhouse is a literal bright spot among the darkness of the day – well, at least of that stop on the tour.

While we were there, the owner of the greenhouse explained everything there was to know about their business of growing tomatoes in a greenhouse in Iceland.  It could have been interesting, but at that point I was busy trying to take a photo of the cup of fresh tomato soup and freshly baked bread that went with it, so I failed to pay strict attention to the talk. They harvest 4 times per year, I think that’s what he said, and they bring in bees to pollinate; he was waving what he said was a box of bees as he talked. I remember hoping it wasn’t actually full of bees at that moment, and/or the seal on the box was a tight one. Anyway, that’s all I retained from what I heard of the talk.

On the up side, the soup was delicious; it was like a light, warm tomato juice with a bunch of herbs and tomato junks. The bread was even better — very chewy and flavorful. It was billed as a “cinnamon and sugar” variety, but it wasn’t sweet at all. It was tasty with the soup.

So why does a greenhouse rate a full stop on a day-long tour? Well, perhaps after 1.5 hours on the bus people need the option of a pit stop? The next stop after that was another 30-40 minutes away. At least the soup at the greenhouse was unexpectedly good. Plus, I wound up chatting with 2 young women on another bus tour who were there at the same time as my tour.  I complimented them on their sweaters and asked where they had purchased them (the main souvenir from Iceland seems to be knitted sweaters and tons of stores in Reykjavik sell them). The women said they actually had bought theirs before the trip at a thrift store in … NJ, in a town about an hour from where I grew up.

A small world intersects in a large greenhouse in Iceland. Too funny.
Anyway, below I have a few photos form the first stop on the Golden Circle in Iceland. I.e., the photos are all from the greenhouse. More coming later this week – stay tuned.