Iceland Babymoon day 2: The Golden Circle
Today was a day for some pretty amazing sights! We woke up early to catch our free buffet breakfast at the hotel which was actually really good and we were on our way to drive through the Golden Circle. Our stops were to include Thingvellir National Park - a place where tectonic plates meet with some beautiful landscape, Geysir where Strokkur Geysir goes off every 5-10 minutes, Gulfoss falls, and Kerid Crater.
Even just the sights from driving we saw a stunning landscape. Barely any trees line the roads so you can see mountains and the craggy volcanic landscape before you. There were horses and sheep hanging out in herds everywhere!
Some areas were jagged and only inhabited by moss and some grasses.
Mike loves driving his Icelandic car! It actually shuts off when you stop instead of idling to conserve energy which is really quite clever as this cuts down on emissions. All cars seem to do this in Iceland.
Pretty shots driving while the sun poked out.
We were able to see a rainbow when the sun came out for a second and had to take a couple shots!
We are going to get some pretty stunning shots on our DSLR camera.
Here is a picturesque view of Thingvellir National Park.
Had to grab a selfie! It was lightly drizzling at this point but nothing we couldn't handle.
Lots of jagged cliffs created by glaciers.
A look out at the park.
Here's our little 4 wheel drive Icelandic car!
There were geothermal pockets with steam everywhere.
Next stop, Geysir where we saw 3 different bubbling pools and one that shot up in the air ever 5-10 minutes! This was "little Geysir."
This was the pool of Geysir. It actually hold the record for the highest shooting Geysir in the world. The second highest is in New Zealand. It hasn't really been active since the early 2000's though. Strokkur down below where you can see the crowds is the more active Geysir.
There she blows!
Some stop offs for some pretty pictures.
This is Gulfoss falls. Looks much larger in real life. The waterfall seems to fall into oblivion.
Rain and fog seemed to add an element of awe.
More Merika selfies!
The rain did a number to my makeup. I don't know how long I was walking around like this. It was worse under my other eye.
We heard about this amazing tomato farm that puts out the freshest tomato soup called Friedheimar Farm.
They had fresh basil plants on each table where you could cut it up into the best tomato soup I've iver had. They had bloody Mary's while you waited. I had a virgin one and it was divine! Nothing like a fresh hot tomato soup on a rainy day after adventuring.
Mike grabbed a beer while he waited. They had tomato plants filling most of the greenhouse which made the place smell intoxicatingly good.
I grabbed a decaf tea to warm up.
They imported bumble bees from holland to pollinate the tomatoes. This species is stinger-less. Most of the food items in Iceland are imported since the land is hard to grow crops on. Or they have greenhouses like this.
Yum! Unlimited tomato soup and bread!
After we had our fill we went to Kerid Crater. Kerið was a cone volcano which erupted and emptied its magma reserve. Once the magma was depleted, the weight of the cone collapsed into the empty magma chamber. The aquamarine nature of the water is from the minerals in the water. So many different colors around it! The red rock is a special kind of volcanic rock. There is mostly black volcanic sand.
Baby bump by the crater!
Pathways through the grasses.
Such a beautiful and different landscape.
There is sometimes a long distance between points and they have these little... Let's call them stop off areas. You can see the sign where it says no pooping very uh, clearly.
It was quite the day! I was pooped by the end of the day and actually fell asleep around 10. We have a long day of some epic waterfalls tomorrow and a black sand beach so stay tuned!
Read more about day 3 here: Iceland Babylon day 3: South Iceland
