Cruising the Golden Circle

For the third day the plan was to rent a car and drive around the “Golden Circle.” Now, by this time we had learned a little about Icelandic culture. Like they don’t like to wake up early in the morning. For instance – the flea market in downtown Reykjavik, which sounded pretty cool, opens at 11 am. The coffee shops on Laugavegur don’t open until 8 or 9 am. So naturally our rental car was set for 9 am pickup. We got picked up at the hotel in a shuttle with some other folks being adventurous and after a little jaunt made it to the rental agency. We’re both pretty tall so I decided we should splurge on the VW Golf instead of the Hyundai i10 or whatever. Good choice of the day #1. We were then off on our unguided adventure! Except for the google maps GPS of course. The weather was mostly cloudy with some occasional small rain showers, but overall we had a good amount of sun. We made a couple scenic stops to try to grab some photos before our first stop.

Our first stop was Thingvellir national park. Here I believe the Atlantic plate juts up out of the ground all menacing like and looks out over Thingvallavatn. It was also here that the original Viking Althingi was held – people would come from all over Iceland to stand in judgement of persons and work to create laws. Unfortunately none of the buildings are still standing. We made our way with the giant throng of people down between some fissures and out to some overlooks. Kristen knew that the free bathrooms were down by the dive site so we decided to make our way there. And boy am I glad we did! We spent a good amount of time strolling around the walkways and bridges that are built over the irregular borders and inlets that make up the lake. We eventually made it to the dive site, where Kristen showed me the grueling 200m walk she had to make back from the end of the dive.

We then made our way back, past Thingvellkirkja and the grave of the national pets. At least Kristen thought the graves were of the national pets, everyone else thought they were the national poets. A little walk further is the ‘wishing well’ type area that is full of coins! The water is so clear you can just straight up see them. Throughout this walk we decided that the smallest inconvenience (a 100-200m walk) is enough that 95% of the tourists don’t make it down here! And since we had the car we were able to make our own time.

We meandered down the road to the parking lot for Oxarfoss (?) and then started walking towards it. We read some informative signs where we learned that near here was where people were executed. Luckily for men we were able to be beheaded. Women, on the other hand, were exclusively drowned. Doesn’t really seem like a good way to go. Oxarfoss is a cute little waterfall, I also figured out the selfie mode on my camera here! On the walk back out we learned that people don’t really respect the “don’t walk here” signs too well – something we would view as a general theme of the tourists here in Iceland.

We cracked out some White Cheddar Cheez-its and PB&Js for the long haul to the next stop, Geysir. The scenery was pretty spectacular for the drive – fields of light green moss contrasted with brilliant yellow and bunches of dull red juxtaposed against towering mountains where the light green of the moss is set against the black of the rock underneath. We couldn’t stop at every scenic spot because it’s literally every foot of the way there, so we enjoyed the drive and stopped a few times. When we got to Geysir we found out where all of the people had gone. It’s like Yellowstone Light, but still worth it. Geysir itself sits dormant on its mound, but the slightly smaller geyser next to it, Strókkur, erupts about every five minutes. There are also hot springs bubbling up all around – complete with handy signs informing you not to touch the 80-100 C water. Despite these signs people insisted on trying to see if they were immune to boiling water.

After we saw Geysir we looked around and Kristen wanted to know how to get up to the little hill behind it, so we took the trail up. It was like walking through a curtain… hundreds of people were standing by the geyser and nobody was on the trail or hill! The views from up here were also absolutely spectacular. On the opposite side from Geysir there was a small, winding, river flowing through a valley between the hill we were on and a mountain on the other side. There were several cottages and farms there as well. It was also up here that we had the best view of Geysir and Strókkur and I snapped possible the best geyser eruption picture ever taken. Who needs the Icelandic Phallological Museum when you’ve got this!

Next we walked down and Kristen realized she couldn’t find her purse. So back up the hill I went. It was at this point that I found a small patch of what must be Icelandic blueberries! I didn’t try to eat them because they could also have been Hemlock… Unfortunately I couldn’t find the clutch so back to the car I went.

Next was a short little car ride up to Gullfoss. Here we found some signs that I wished were everywhere – No Drones. Drones might be the most annoying things at scenic sites. Anyway, we walked to all of the various viewpoints to see the waterfalls from and boy was it cool! It’s also especially cool how the rivers basically takes a 90 degree turn after the last cascade. They had some cool informative signs to learn more about the local geology and basic facts about the waterfall. I’m not sure I totally agree with all of what they say though…

Next stop on the trek was Faxi. Faxi is another picturesque waterfall set against the enchanting palette of colors in the Icelandic landscape. It was also nice because there weren’t many people actually looking at the waterfall and I was able to snag some pictures mostly without other people in them. When we went to leave Kristen found her wallet in the glove box. The final stop of the adventure was going to be the Fridheimar tomato farm, but in perfect Icelandic form their hours are 12 pm to 4 pm. Must be rough. The drive back to the rental car agency was about 110 km and we made it with time to ask directions to the bus stop back to downtown Reykjavik. I would like to point out that the rental car place closes promptly at 6. So the end of the day is well timed… the beginning not so much.

The bus was pretty cool! I downloaded an app, paid the fare online and then showed the bus driver a weird electronic ticket that I don’t think he actually looked at. We got off the bus when everyone else got off because I don’t actually know where the bus was going. Safety first. Since it was about 7 pm we decided to go to one of the American style sports bars that have cropped up in downtown Reykjavik to watch the end of the Steelers game, which happened to be blacked out in Lancaster. Score! They had a special for a pitcher of beer and nachos for 3000 ISK. Then we went to the hot dog place next door and snagged some hot dogs. They weren’t as good as the place Bill Clinton likes but still pretty tasty. After that I relaxed in the room and got ready for our South Coast trip the next day!