Today we were up early to go on the Golden Circle Tour which is a sightseeing tour around Icelands natural phenomena. Click on the map below to view our route.
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| Golden Circle Route |
Our first stop was a geothermal power plant where we learnt how they use Icelands geothermal energy to provide both water and electricity. There was a lot of steam bellowing out everywhere!
Next stop was Skalholt church, the ancient seat of the Icelandic Bishops. The church was lovely inside and had an unusual mosaic behind the alter. We were told a story that many years ago the people did not like the bishop so they put him in a bag and threw him in to the river! Obviously that is the Icelandic way so we had better not upset anyone whilst we are here!
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| Freezing outside the church! |
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| Mosaic in the church |
After the church we went on to Gulfoss (which means Golden waterfall in English). The waterfall is huge and we could hear it as soon as we got out of the coach even though it was quite a walk away. It was an amazing sight but my god it was windy there and really cold!
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| Gullfoss - partially frozen as it is so cold |
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| I am cold! |
We then travelled to the hot springs of Geysir and Strokkur. There were a number of hot springs that we could walk around and watch bubbling and steaming away, but one of them would spout water every 5 mins or so but we were lucky as it went off 3 times in a row - Peter went out on the ice to get some good photos but I was happy to watch from afar standing on a non-icey patch!
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| Don't stand too close! |
Our final stop on the trip was the Pingvellir National Park where tectonic plate boundaries form breathtaking views. The coach dropped us off at one spot and then we walked through the lovely scenery for about a mile to the pick up point. Because we were sheltered by the wall of the tectonic plates it didn't feel as cold because the wind wasn't going right through you!
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| Beautiful scenery |
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| Walking next to one of tectonic plates |
We walked down in to a valley, over a wooden walk way with little bridges over a frozen lake. There were icy patches in some places but nothing I couldn't handle (which is not a lot when it comes to ice!). One poor chap slipped right over and to make matters worse the people all around him went 'ooooh' which of course made it even more obvious!
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| Walking over the frozen lake - you can see our bus in the distance |
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| View over the frozen lake |
It was a long day but was definitely worth it - we really enjoyed the day and the scenery has been amazing - like nothing we have seen anywhere else. We were very lucky with the weather - it has been sunny with blue skies. I must admit it would have been miserable if it had rained all day.
In the evening we went to a lovely Italian for dinner where I had seafood pasta and Peter had carbonara.
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