Day Eight - Golden Circle Tour

Brenda Kerr

Sep 2, 2023 • 3 min read

Since we were not coming from Reykjavík we were going against traffic on our tour. It was very windy with bouts of rain. Gullfoss (Golden Falls) was the first stop. There is a very big gift shop and a lot of people buy raingear so they can get close to the falls. I probably should have bought same rain pants for the latter part of the day.

We were trying to get Robin's hair to show how windy it was.

I stopped well before the spray, Rachael and Rob continued on.

Stop #2 was the Geysir Geothermal Area. It turns out this area contains the OG geyser and its name is "Geysir." All other geysers were named after this one. The OG hasn't been active since 2000 when it began erupting after an earthquake (after a hundred year break of no eruptions). It erupted several times a day for eight years then tapered off to nothing. Strokkur, on the other hand erupts every 8-10 minutes. There is a sudden boom and water erupts. It is over quickly then there is another boom and another quick blast of hot water.

Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park was our final stop of the day. The rain stopped so we took a chance after eating lunch in the car (still very windy). Thingvellir is located in a rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It is also the site of Iceland's original government, which met once a year and worked on any issues from the previous year, made any law changes that were needed, and handed out punishments.

Not for the faint of heart, my watch recorded a walk of three miles. You walk down quite a ways then you have to walk back up, of course. And it started raining again about halfway through. Those rain pants would have been useful.

North America on the left Eurasia on the right.

This fall leads to Drekkingarhylur ("The Drowning Pool"). Women condemned to death for incest or murdering children were put in sacks and thrown in the pool to drown.

Sheltering from the rain that came back.

Þingvellir Church - there has been a church here since 1015. This building is from 1859.

Just some beautiful ferns on the walk back.

We returned to Reykjavík to complete our circle of the island. Resting and watching the Michigan football game are on the agenda.

p.s. We ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant too.