Saturday, August 25, 2012

Day Seventeen - The Golden Circle on Our Last Day

From September 25, 2010

The most popular (due to its close proximity to Reykjavik) sights in Iceland are all part of what is called The Golden Circle.  The Circle includes Gulfoss, Þingvellir (site of the first Icelandic parliament) and Geysir (where the word "geyser" originated). Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard when we were at Þingvellir so we weren't able to get out and explore much. The rift between the North American and European plate is also at Þingvellir and that was very exciting to see. The earth is literally tearing apart right there.

We watched Strokkur (the geysir next to Geysir) go off a couple times. Unfortunately, Geysir is pretty unreliable now days.


Gulfoss turned out to be the most underwhelming waterfall we saw during our travels, but was still impressive.


After checking out The Golden Circle, we headed to the Blue Lagoon, another very popular tourist area. The Blue Lagoon is geothermal spa with bright blue water. There is nothing else like it! The perfect way to end an incredible adventure in the country we fell completely head-over-heels in love with. We will be back!




The Mid-Atlantic Ridge


Waiting for Strokkur to go off.

Gulfoss




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