Day Two - Golden Circle
Day two in Reykjavik started bright and early. The tour bus picked us up at the hotel at 8:00 then we set out for the Golden Circle tour.
The first stop was Kerio, a volcanic crater in southern Iceland. It was formed about 6,500 years ago. The water level rises and falls during the year. It was freezing cold on the rim of the crater, the wind was blowing like crazy so our look at the crater was brief, but it was really beautiful.
Driving along we passed herd after herd of Icelandic horses. They are descendents of the original Viking horses that were brought to Iceland a very long time ago. They are referred to as horses, but they are the size of ponies. For many years as a hippology coach we learned about the Icelandic horses so it was really nice to see some. They have to be some tough, hairy creatures to survive the winters in Iceland.
There are many waterfalls in Iceland. Our next stop was Faxi Waterfall which I thought was beautiful.
Irv wandered off to find a geocache while I went off to take pictures.
We got a random stranger to take a shot of us. I was so impressed by this waterfall, but then we continued to....
Gullfossi or Golden Falls.
The only thing I could say was "WOW". This was so impressive and is now up there with my favorite falls--the lower Yellowstone Falls and I actually thought it was more beautiful than Niagra Falls. You see all that ice? It was cold and I mean so cold that I thought my fingers were going to freeze even with gloves. This view was totally worth it though. Breathtaking!
The next stop was Geysir Hot Springs where the star is a geyser named Stokkur.
Stokkur erupts every 8-10 minutes, but it only lasts a few seconds. I felt lucky to have gotten this shot because you have to be prepared the second it goes off. Not as big as Old Faithful, but still impressive.
The geyser had a visitor center with shops and several cafes/restaurants. We decided to warm up with some soup then Irv went on the hunt for another geocache while I purchased some fairies, vikings, and troll momentos from the gift shop. I loved the troll and fairy stories that our tour guide entertained us with all day.
The final stop of the day was Thingvellir National Park. This is where the American and EuroAsian Plates meet. It is a sacred place for the Icelanders. The Viking chieftans started meeting on this ground around 980 AD to create rules and laws for all the tribes to live by. The parliament continued meeting here until 1798
These rock formations were probably my favorite part of the tour. You could see how the plates have moved apart over the thousands of years.
It was a bit disconcerting to think that we were standing on ground that is splitting apart and bubbling beneath. Iceland has a lot of earthquakes because it is build on volatile, volcanic rock.
Here's Irv finding another geocache. (I think most people thought he was a little nuts.)
Here I am walking between the plates.
We got back to our hotel around 7:00 then we went off to plant a travel bug and find some dinner. Reykjavik is covered with graffiti on almost all it's buildings. Some of it is quite artistic and some is not. This mural was on the side of a building just down the road from our hotel and I liked it.
Lucky for us it had a geocache by it that was big enough to accomodate a travel bug.
We chose three travel bugs to take with us. Since we're horse people we named this one "My Little Icelandic Pony". It was picked up within hours of it being placed in the cache and it's now in Norway.
We were famished so time to go to dinner.
Our hotel made a booking for us at a restaurant called Resto that was just a few blocks away. Irv had the salmon.
Day three is half a day in Reykjavik and then travel to London. The beautiful weather we had experienced in Iceland so far wasn't going to continue....more on that later.
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