Day 9: The Golden Circle

Outside of the Blue Lagoon, the most popular tourist attraction in Iceland is the Golden Circle circuit. As seen on the map above, it encompasses a good bit of driving giving day-package sightseers a good dose of countryside that includes 3 typically Icelandic features: a huge waterfall, a geyser, and an awesome display of plate tectonics & volcanic activity with a dose of history thrown in. Seeing it was so popular, I had to fight the crowds a bit more today, and saw a greater number of tour buses on the road, but nothing too frustrating. I still didn't see a single stop sign all day. There's such minimal traffic in Iceland there's only yield signs - even when getting onto the highway!

Geysir was the first stop for me. It's no great leap to figure out that's where our word "geyser" comes from. There's a little hot bed of hot springs activity there. Unfortunately the grand daddy spring, Geysir himself, has rarely been active since being plugged up with well-wishers' loose change about 50 years ago (or so the story goes), so the main action was over at Strokkur who pops to life every few minutes. It was fun to try to capture the whole sequence...

Next: Gullfloss. The roaring Hvítá River rages down a small series of steps before plunging over two consecutive ledges before disappearing from view, only to be seen later rushing thru a narrow canyon. At least, that's what I think I saw. The wind was so fierce I had tears running down my cheeks and my pant legs were whapping me hard like a Turkish massage. It was difficult just holding the camera steady. I had hoped to go for a wander upstream to stretch my legs but this wasn't the time nor the place.

And lastly, Thingvellir. A large national park that protects a massive rift valley - ie where North America is tugging its way west from Europe; that also happens to be the sight of Iceland's first (and world's oldest) parliament (held every summer at the base of the cliffs from 930 - 13th C), then was the nation's court of law till 1798. It's pretty impressive...

                  "Hello, America!", from no-mans land....

And that was it. The wind abated and the rain held off so I managed a good 2-hours walking at Thingvellir, so I'm happy with that. The touring was 'lite' and the driving was easy = a good day!