Iceland's Golden Circle

We were disappointed when we tried to book shore excursions for Iceland online prior to sailing, as they were all sold out.

Lake Thingyallavatn

The only thing available was riding ATVs across lava fields, and we didn’t think that was something we wanted to attempt! Having arrived two full days prior to embarkation gave us the opportunity to book an alternate tour to what the cruise line offered. We decided on a tour called the Golden Circle tour of Iceland which would take us to Iceland’s most frequented and popular tourist attractions—Thingvellir National Park, the Geysir geothermal area, and the ever popular Gullfoss Waterfall.

Rift valley fault

After being picked up at our hotel, we joined another group and headed for our first stop, Thingvellir National Park. We enjoyed the rich and varying landscapes on the hour ride to the park, noting especially the rural scenes that began appearing as soon as we left metropolitan Reykjavik. Thingvellir is a richly diverse park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

North American right-Eurasian plate left

Historically, the area was also the founding site for Iceland’s national parliament, dating back to 930AD with the world’s first democratically elected parliament that remains functioning to this day.

As we enter the park, our guide, Christina, points out Iceland’s second largest lake, Thingvallavatn.

Church on Eurasian plate

The lake is a rift valley lake with a surface area of around 32 mi.² and a depth of nearly 400 feet. But the most unique features of Thingvellir are the faults and fissures indicative of a rift valley. Known for unusual tectonic and volcanic activity for a rift valley, the continental drift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates can clearly be seen in its topographic features. We exit our bus and head for a viewing stand adjacent to the visitor’s center to view the fissures. Standing on the North American plate side, what we see is really impressive given the width and depth of the faults.

Where women learned to be wives!

There is a paved walkway that allows visitors to descend into the fissures and walk along the rift, but our time here didn’t allow for this experience. We take our pictures and go into the visitor’s center to see the ranger and find out if this national park has a stamp!

Making LOTS of hay!

Sure enough, he tells us, it does and we collect it to add to our collection.

We leave Thingvellir and head for our next stop, the Geysir geothermal area. Along the way we stop at a thermal spa to pick up a family that will join us for the remainder of the trip. Next to the spa Christina points out a yellow-sided structure that was built in the 1920s and served as a school for women.

Giving a wedgie!

But the education, she tells us, isn’t what one would expect and women were sent here to receive instruction on how to be a good wife! The remainder of the ride to Geysir takes us through what appears to be very productive farm country, and Christina tells us that the land is used almost exclusively to grow hay. Farm animals must be kept inside and protected during the winter months, so farmers must grow and ensure an adequate supply of hay to see them through the winter.

Best known for having lent its name to geysers all around the world, Geysir is a geothermal area with hot springs and geysers. Geysers are hot pools of water that periodically erupt whereas hot springs are pools of hot water that do not erupt.

Strokkur erupts

Most of the pools in this field do not erupt, but one, named Strokkur, erupts every 6-10 minutes, usually reaching a height of 50-65 feet. We exited the bus and followed Christina who was leading us to view Strokkur. As we approached the geyser, it erupted, so we had to wait another 5+ minutes to capture the eruption with our cameras.

Hot springs field

We got some great shots when the eruption finally occurred. It was impressive, but no match, in our view, to Old Faithful. We viewed the remainder of the vent field then went into the visitor’s center to spend the remainder of our time.

We left Geysir and headed for our third and final stop, Gullfoss Falls. Fed by the Hvítá River with water from the Langjökol glacier, Gullfoss presents a 105 foot drop over to stages to the river.

Gullfoss Falls

We had two options to view the falls, one of which involved a 100-step descent down a set of stairs to the bottom of the falls. This option may have provided for the best viewing, but we remembered  some of the climbing that we did in Machu Picchu we really didn’t have to think twice about staying above to do our viewing. We felt that this turned out to be a pretty good choice as we could see not only the falls but a good portion of the river leading to the falls as a single system.

Mandatory selfie!

And because sunlight didn’t penetrate the lower depths, we were able to capture rainbows as they formed above the falls. After taking our selfies, we headed to a viewing platform that allowed us some pretty decent views of the glacier that feeds this system. We headed back to the restaurant/visitor’s center and spent the rest of our time people watching.

We had a nearly 2-hour drive back to Reykjavik, but Christina helped pass the time by providing us with tidbits about life in Iceland. She noted that one of the hardest things to deal with are the winters.

A bit of a rainbow

Not only can it be very cold and snowy, but there are 24 hours of darkness from about the middle of October to the middle of March. On the other hand, there are 24 hours of daylight from about the middle of May to the middle of July—but the summers are still very short. Golf is the number one summertime sport enjoyed by many Icelanders, and we noticed several small (2 and 3 hole private courses) on many of the farms.

Langjökol Glacier

Swimming, she says, is the number one wintertime sport and everybody enjoys the outdoor pools that are heated year-round by the geothermal water supply. It was quite obvious that she was quite proud of her country and its people.