One of the things they say everyone should do in Iceland are the geothermal pools. One of the largest and most popular one is the Blue Lagoon. It is very touristy and pretty expensive so we thought we would check out what other options we had. There was a public bath house, Sundholl Reykjavikur, so we got up early so go check it out.
It is a lot like an Aquatic Center in the States except all their water is heated through geothermal energy. It is wild. After we figured out how to navigate all the rules, regulations and cultural hurdles, we ended up on the roof in a thermal hot tub. It was FREEZING outside and we were melting in the natural hot tubs. It was such a surreal experience.
We didn't last long before we walked back to the hotel to get cleaned up and ready to go for the rest of the day. Our game plan today was to hop in the car and drive a northern loop known as the Golden Circle. From the research we had done, we knew there wasn't going to be much along the roads other then amazing sights and plenty of volcanic rock so we tried to quickly figure out a plan for food on the road. Thankfully there was this amazing bakery, Sandholt, we happened upon a few blocks from the hotel.
This place was perfect! We grabbed some pastries for breakfast and some sandwiches for the road. It was great and it didn't break the bank.
The landscape in Iceland is pretty amazing. We just stared out the window and watched it all go by. We had to stop a few times to make faulted attempts of trying to capture it. It is just so beautiful and so different.
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| The Original Site of the First General Assembly |
Not only is this a very historic area for Iceland culture, it is a natural wonder of international scale. Thingvellir is located on the tectonic plates. Over the years, you are able to see the divide and it is impressive. We spent a few hours hiking the area, enjoying the landscape and our surroundings. It was beautiful.
Next stop was one that I found on a blog, it is a waterfall called Bruarfoss. Bruarfoss is not a waterfall that is heavily noted or are there any road signs for it. It is pretty low key and we knew we were going to have to work to find it. I was silly excited to go on this adventure and I was determined to drag everyone along with me. The directions we had were from this blog. It was helpful but pretty useless. I will spare you all the details and just tell you that we got lost, asked a gentlemen on the deck of a house that gave us more generic directions in a very heavy accent that only Eric heard and as everyone was most likely about ready to give up as we drove very slowly down random dirt roads looking for who knows what, I saw something. I had no idea what I had seen but I made Eric stop the car and I got out and just started running. I am sure the group thought I had lost my mind. I ran back to the car with this picture.
Having found a clue, it forced everyone to hop out and start hiking into no mans land hoping that I was right. I was so giddy, I ran ahead and ran back like a little kid. After reading the blog over and over, I was sure we were on the right path but the other three I don't think weren't buying it.
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| Our Path |
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| The excited crew |
It was incredible. Just breathtaking. Pictures will not be able to do justice for that moment of seeing this for the first time. The sense of accomplishment, the shear beauty, the untouched nature. We were the only ones there for a while and we felt 1 million miles away from everyone else in the world and we felt like we had found something so special that so many people miss because you have to work a little for it.
We could not wait to see what was next on the Golden Circle so we headed off to Geysir. This place was a lot more touristy then the last but it was still really impressive. It reminded me a lot of Yellowstone and Old Faithful. This is the first geysir ever noted in print and it is where the term we use for Old Faithful, geyser, comes from. It is was kind of going back to the original which was really neat. The original Great Geysir has been dormant for quite a while now but there is a smaller geysir, they call Strokkur that erupts every 10 minutes so we joined in with everyone else to try and get the perfect picture.
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| Quick stop to get warm in the gift shop. |
It was starting to get late (for Iceland) once we had hit Geysir so we had to make quick time there so we could get to our last two stops. We quickly hit the road to get to Gullfoss. Gullfoss is massive! This waterfall was so powerful. We couldn't help but stare in wonder at it.
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| Difficult to tell how large this waterfall is until you see that dots that are people. Can you see them? |
One of the many unbelievable things about this waterfall was how close you were allowed to go. We walked all the way up to the falls, we ended up pretty wet from all the mist but it was well worth it.
Gullfoss had a small visitor center that we were able to have dinner at. They were serving all you could eat lamb soup that was apparently the thing to eat there. It think Eric, Audrey and Jed all loved it. It was the perfect dinner, eating local food overlooking a beautiful waterfall.
Our last stop before getting back into Reykjavik was the Kerid crater. All of the pictures were had seen of this were so pretty and it looked like you were on the moon so we had to stop to see it for ourselves. We were all glad to stop (and even pay to get in, the only place of the day). But it was starting to get dark and it was COLD and WINDY!
Once we got back to Reykjavik, we weren't ready to end the day so we headed back out into town to explore a little more. One of the last things on our list to see in Reykjavik was the Sun Voyager. It was a great structure to photograph and it is a neat way to remember their Viking history.
It was still pretty cold so we decided to warm up and finish our fantastic day with Icelandic vodka, Reyka, at Kaffibarinn.
Iceland has been so unbelievable and we were excited to hit the countryside and head east for a few days in the morning.
