The Icelandic Althing, literally all-gathering, is said to have been founded in 930, sixty years after the initial settlement of the island. It served as a national gathering place, judicial government, and social festival annually, and was the centerpiece of the Icelandic Free State. Often claimed to be the world's oldest parliament, the Althing is now a republican government centered in Reykjavik. Thingvellir, the central plain on which the ancient Althing met, remains as a testament to the fortitude and democratic impulses of the original settlers. Having written two papers on the site, I regarded this part of the Golden Circle tour as a bit of a pilgrimage, dampened only slightly by the biting rain.