The Golden Circle
On our first visit to Iceland in 2015, we did the Golden Circle tour - because EVERYONE does the Golden Circle tour… and for good reason. There are some spectacular sights to see on the itinerary.
Unfortunately, it rained the whole day on that trip, so we were hoping for better weather this time. The forecast said rain today as well, but our tour guide Pétur said we should be fine until the afternoon.
The view at breakfast said he might be right. Fingers crossed!
Reminder that clicking any image will open it in a way that the whole image fits on your screen without scrolling
For this trip, we got a tour guide from a site called ToursByLocals.com which is kinda like an Uber for tours. Locals pick you up at your hotel in their private vehicles and show you around. The advantage to this is being able to customize what you see and how long you stay. Pétur was a good guide and very knowledgable about his homeland.
It didn’t take long before the city scenery changed dramatically into this:
Look how green! We were here during November before and I took a pic of this same hill then, but the brown grass and snowcaps made it look quite different then:
Aaaaanyway, our first stop was Þingvellir, a national park that sits on the crack where two tectonic plates are separating.
Here’s Pétur showing us the map and explaining how volcanic forces push basalt rock up while earthquakes made other areas sink, creating cliff walls.
Like this:
Rob noticed that one rock formation formed the outline of a cat. Not the rocks, but the negative space hole between them.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
A short walk from there, we saw a small waterfall called Öxarárfoss. I did some finagling with the camera settings to see if I could get that cool blurred-water effect.
Here’s a regular shot of it:
And here’s the blurred-water version. Not sure which I like better.
Some of Game of Thrones was filmed here - The walkway from the parking lot to the waterfall was the “Bloody Gate” in the show, which appears several times - with the wooden walkway erased and no tourists in the shot, of course.
The crack between the tectonic plates is obvious:
It’s also incredibly deep and the spring water in it is crystal clear. This makes it a popular spot for snorkelling (which we saw just down the road from here)
We didn’t get sunshine, but the rain held off, so yay.
The could cover even reflected nicely on the water.
The only drawback were the insufferable swarms of tiny black flies that made visiting this location quite uncomfortable. I thought they were mosquitos at first, but they weren’t. It’s a shame that they were so prevalent there, as it made us want to get away from this place fairly quickly.
Next stop was a farm that makes ice cream, which we sampled as the cows looked on.
A few miles from there, we stopped to pet and give treats to some Icelandic horses.
Rob has a new friend
Then onto Gullfoss waterfall. We remembered this being spectacular in spite of the rain on our last visit and we were super-excited to see it with a bit of blue in the sky for a change. It did not disappoint:
It doesn’t look that big until you notice the people on the left side of the upper falls
From where those people are standing, you can get an up-close view of the first cascade
As well as a view of the third cascade from the back side
Going up to the top of the cliff, we saw some more Icelandic horses prancing in front of a large glacier as their backdrop
Lunch at Gullfoss consisted of a really crappy ham/cheese sandwich, but they had Skyr so that made everything better.
Skyr is similar to Greek yogurt, but it’s thicker and less pungent. The bacteria cultures used to make it are the main difference, as those cultures are only found in Iceland. It’s been a staple of Icelandic cuisine for over a thousand years - but it’s only started showing up in stores outside of Iceland for a few years now. Real Canadian Superstore carries it, as do a few other groceries. It’s delicious.
The “Volcano Shot” was interesting. Kinda like someone dissolved liquorice in vodka. It was good, but I’m in no hurry to have another one.
From here, Pétur took us to see a little church for some reason. He told us a whole story about it on the way, but I don’t remember any of it, sorry.
The church was closed, but I got a shot thru the window of the interior
Plus, I got this really bizarre shot - no camera trickery was done here! It’s a shot in thru the window, but I was at a strange angle to the glass and it reflected what was behind me while simultaneously catching Rob walking past a window on the other side.
Then onto Geysir - which is where we get the term ‘geyser’. And for obvious reasons.
The surrounding area is a steaming swamp of (literally) boiling water, sulfur deposits, moss, and other stuff.
There are plenty of warning signs about not touching the boiling water, but the steam makes them redundant.
OK, remember the Gulfoss waterfall? (scroll up if you don’t) That water was glacier runoff. Downstream from there, that river merges with another river that’s spring fed. You can literally see the difference in the waters of the two rivers when they meet.
Pétur wanted to take us to see a tomato farm next, but we told him we weren’t really interested in that - one of the perks of doing a ToursByLocals tour! So he took us to a black sand beach on the way back to the hotel.
The brown-red stuff is washed-up plant life, which makes an interesting stripe between the black sand and the water.
The sand is a bit sparkly if you look at it up close…
And that’s when the rain hit. Back to the hotel we went and we took advantage of a break in the rain to walk to a nearby restaurant called Caruso. Yes, it’s Italian.
After several days of Icelandic food, it was nice to treat our tummies to something at least vaguely familiar.
Rob had tartielle pasta with langoustine and I had a pizza with pepperoni, jalapeño, pineapple, and blue cheese. Good stuff.
And now we’re exhausted!!
We got lots of walking in today: almost 10K and the equivalent of 19 flights of stairs, according to my watch.
Tomorrow is a ‘lazy day’ with maybe a bit of shopping and lounging around watching the rain (which it’s doing now and is supposed to be doing all day tomorrow as well). We’ll need the rest, as we’ve got another big tour with Pétur on Sunday.
Till then….