Today was a wonderful day. We had been to Reykjavik once before on a cruise ship, so we knew a bit of what to expect. One of those things that we did know was not to pay the $200 for the all-day Golden Circle tour that the ship was offering. We took our time in the morning, exploring the city on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. This was quite nice and relaxing. Then, at 12:30 p.m. we boarded a Golden Circle Direct tour that was 5 hours, and only $70. Iceland is such a richly beautiful country, that is very volcanic in nature. A “Golden Circle” tour takes its participants by bus to three locations: a geo-thermal field of active geysers, Gulfoss waterfall, and Thingervield National Park. This is a loop trip (hence a “circle”) for which the farthest place from the city is Gulfoss, which literally means “Golden Falls” because of the legend of gold being found at the ends of rainbows which often grace the spray from the falls.
Gulfoss is a wide multi-level waterfall that could be considered large size, if Niagra Falls was an extra-large. It is beautiful and powerful. From here we also got a view of Iceland’s 2nd largest glacier. The second stop was a geyser field where we were able to see the geysers named “Geysir” and “Stroker.” Geysir erupts a few times daily, which we were not privileged to see, and is the namesake of our English word geyser, which is the only Icelandic word found in the English language. Stroker erupts fairly consistently every 5 to 20 minutes, and we were able to see it spout numerous times. Stroker is the Icelandic word for a butter churner. That was fun. I really enjoyed watching the pool of water move around, and trying to predict when it would blow. Then after it blew, it left a large empty hole, which would quickly fill back up with water.
The last stop of our Golden Circle tour was Thingervield National Park. This park has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site, and is where the North American and European tectonic plates meet, creative some deep and wide crevices in the Earth’s surface, which is impressive to see, but not where you would want to be during an earthquake. All in all, it was a wonderful day in Iceland, and I am very much looking forward to our other Icelandic ports, to which I have not yet been. Blessings to you, my friends, and thinks for being interested enough in my life to follow my travel blog.
City View from the Pearlan
My folks at the Pearlan
The Pearlan
Gulfoss
My folks at Gulfoss
The geyser field
Strokker spouting off behind me
Strokker
The empty geyser hole refilling after eruption
My mother and Strokker
The crevise where the North American and European techtonic plates meet
Thingervield National Park
Me at Thingervield
The crevise
Anyone want a whale steak?
The viking boat art sculpture
Our boat, the Maasdam, crossed paths with the Prisendam
Yahhhh! I finally recieved my luggage.
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