Iceland: The Golden Circle

 Like me, you may have heard of the Golden Circle. 

In essence it's a beautifully scenic drive to 3 of Iceland's treasures; Thingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss Falls.  And then a lot more. We hired a car and decided to drive this ourselves, giving us the freedom to stop and start at will, shop for souvenirs, eat when the urge strikes and .... enjoy seat heaters. Oh yeah, it's still pretty cold here despite starting out an absolutely gorgeous sunny day.

I make this sound like a very uncomplicated day. That is never the case in a foreign land, as you know.

Mark's alarm went off at 5:30am. His phone had fallen under the bed and it continued to play chirpy notes until it was found and retrieved. Way too long!

We toddled downstairs to take part in the hotel's 'early' breakfast. Apparently a light version of the regular breakfast. We were the only ones there and it felt like stealing when I had to uncover all the food. Early breakfast is missing the oatmeal. I didn't think this would be any issue at all, but apparently I have come to love the oats cooked in water and salt. (I'm surprised too.)

At 6:30am it was time to catch the shuttle to the airport. That's where our rental car was to be picked up.

By 9:00am we were de-icing said rental car in freezing temps and learning to drive the world's smallest car on icy roads. Fun!

Ok, on with the day... We left Reykjavik with a map that no-one would envy and the nav system paired to my phone for directions. All good. The decision had been made to drive the Golden Circle and just see what happened. :-)

Stop 1: Just outside of Reykjavik - I think! Maybe still in Reykjavik? The sun was rising and the light looked fab on the mountains.

Stop 2: Near and inside Thingvellir National Park. The original place of parliament, then later a place that handed out judgment and sentencing to criminals. Apparently mostly incest and fornication type crimes... as they believed that God would judge the whole of their society for the crimes of members, so death sentences were commonly used - and worked as a good deterrent. I guess there were a few women tied up in sacks and drowned too... even just in the swamp!

At first it seemed that getting to the places on the map that we'd highlighted, was the goal. After a while though, we did come to understand that the journey rather than the destination was going to be the most enjoyable part. 

Stop #2: Geysir  

Yup, the original thing. All of our geysers took their name from this one. A less spectacular version of Old Faithful. It erupts with greater frequency, just a 5 minute walk from the car on muddy terrain. 

Nobody thought to warn us that the empty park bench that we sat our butts on, was "downwind" of the fallout. We were all of 2 minutes on it before the eruption and subsequent egg-smelling rain was upon us. :-) Aren't the best memories born from traveling moments like this?

The final stop for today was Gullfoss Falls. Iconic Iceland. 

It was a tiny bit cold and getting darker. The wind was fierce and we had ALL our layers on. Thankfully, there was a visitor center/cafeteria/gift store at the end of this road too. We had lamb soup and fresh bread served in large bowls. I found a wee elf Christmas decoration and adopted him near Gullfoss Falls too. (I found Icelandic wool to be too scratchy against the skin for my liking, but darn if they dont make lovely little mementos with it!)

The car ride back to the hotel in Reykjavik took just over an hour. The roads were getting slicker and we were tired. 

 I'm kinda sort embarrassed to admit we stopped at a Domino's to grab pizza (take out) for dinner. This is where we discovered that Iceland is pretty serious about reducing paper. NO menu's - not even on the walls. We had to borrow a cellphone of an employee to order pizza in the store

Pizza and wine were consumed while playing Gin at the hotel. What a pleasant evening! 

NOTE: Too cloudy again tonight to view the Northern Lights.  :-(