We had another beautiful sunny day. Our guide told us that they have very few sunny days and even fewer sunny days in a row.
We left Reykjavík and drove along the Golden Circle on our way to Vik, the site of our next hotel. The Golden Circle is Iceland’s classic day trip from Reykjavík. Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park, the meeting point of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. These plates are moving apart and the earth’s crust is literally being torn apart. Also Thingvellir was the meeting site of the Chieftains starting in 930. They met annually to deal with government business.
We stopped on the North American side and walked along the edge of this tectonic plate. You could see many fissures which were the result of the plates pulling apart. The sun was rising and the light on the rocks along the rifts as well as the landscape in general was beautiful. I have included a lot of pictures because so you can see the general landscape of Iceland.
We continued on to Gullfoss Waterfall or Golden falls. The waterfall has two stages: a rocky upper cascade with a drop of about 35 feet, and a lower fall where the water drops about 70 feet straight down into a narrow gorge. About a 100 years ago they were going to use the falls to generate electricity but luckily the project was never started.
Our last stop on the Golden Circle was Geysir Geothermal Field. Before going out to see the Geysir we had lunch at the caferia. Once fed, we went to the geothermal field. We passed an area with steam venting out of the ground and pools of boiling water on our way to the Strokkur geyser. The word geyser comes from this site. Until the 20th century the Geysir geyser erupted regularly but now it is mostly dormant. The Strokkir geyser erupts about every 6 minutes and the water shoots about 50 ft in the air.
Next stop, the Lava Center which was very interesting and focused on volcanos, eruptions, and, you guessed it, lava. Then we drove to the hotel and got checked in. Here is the view from our hotel.
After dinner some of the group boarded the bus and we went to site where they thought we might see the northern lights. It was a very clear night but no northern lights. Just a bunch of cold people standing around looking at the sky.
Here is a map of our travels today.
