So, we picked up our rent-a-car and proceeded to try to type in the first destination but.. whaat? There are a few letters in the Icelandic alphabet that are not familiar at all. I went back in to ask the guy, and when he told me "th", I realized he had tried to tell us already but we had no idea why "th" was so important 😊😊 Þ = th
The Golden Circle is the basic first destination of all of the 2,195,271( 2017) visitors that come to Iceland because you can see a pretty good sample of Iceland's amazing sights within a days drive of Reykjavik. However, that means there are just way too many tourists for my comfort. And so many of them want selfies, group photos, go-pro images, etc. It is more daunting when you understand the population of the island is only 350,000.
The first stop is Þingvellir (Thingvellir), a historic site and national park in Iceland, east of Reykjavík. It's known for the Alþing (Althing), the site of Iceland's parliament from the 10th to 18th centuries. The park sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of 2 tectonic plates, with rocky cliffs and fissures like the huge Almannagjá fault
It the only UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Icelandic mainland
You literally are walking between two continents.
A lovely waterfall, Öxaráfoss, is at the end of your walk
Next stop is Geysir which is exactly that. There are two geysers there. One erupts massively but very infrequently. The other shoots up around every 6 minutes. Actually, there was some human intervention. They did something to the water table to make it erupt more frequently for the tourist's sake. 😊
We climbed up the hill nearby to catch a bigger picture
Finally on to something truly Spectacular: Gullfoss.
A two-tiered waterfall that just left you breathless!
Giddy with joy at this point. We're here! We're actually here!
The 3000 year old Kerið crater was next and that's when we first experienced the incredible Icelandic winds.
Now we know why nobody uses umbrellas over there.
They would just blow away!
Many folks have been interested in how our trip worked. Well, we booked with Nordic Visitor. They plan your itinerary for you, book the hotels, plot your route on a map, include a book with all of the information. They arrange your rent car which comes with GPS and a local cell phone. You can choose your vehicle and then you choose budget/comfort/quality for your accommodations, which determines your final price. We went with comfort and a small car (diesel). It was wonderful to not have to figure that all out.
Just show up and it's all done for you. Maybe not the cheapest way to go,
but it surely worked for us this time around!
We chose the Iceland Full Circle Classic, 10 days, 9 nights around the entire island (except the western fjords).
So amazing!!!!
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