The Golden Circle. This is the thing you do when you have only 24 hours on Iceland. It is a required thing. They might even test you when you leave the country – “didn’t drive the Golden Circle?” and then stamp your passport with a big FAIL. Why is it such a big deal? In the space of a 140 mile circular route you get a view of some of the incredible sites available in Iceland. It’s a very easy drive (my understanding is that the road is kept clear all winter too), jaw dropping views, a waterfall or two, the required volcano stuff, houses of tomatoes and an overactive geyser. You may say you’ve seen lots of waterfalls elsewhere. So have I. But Icelandic waterfalls are a whole ‘nother category unto themselves. And Iceland is just shy of 40,000 square miles – about the size of Kentucky – but Kentucky doesn’t have 31, that’s 31, active volcanoes. The thing is, the volcanoes aren’t all these majestic cone shaped mountains, a la Mount Rainier, sometimes you don’t even know they are there (like the current eruption – but that’s the next blog post!) or there’s a freaking glacier sitting on top! Anyway, back to the Golden Circle. Most of the most commonly visited places are along the top part of the drive so you could, conceivably, just do that shorter drive out and back. But then it’s not a circle is it? Hmmm?
It was a beautiful morning when we set out in our little rented Hyundai I30. Not a bad car. We had my iPod (yes, I’m still that old school) plugged in, so there was an adequate amount of Beach Boys, Go-Gos and ABBA to be played. We were set!
The best part about driving in a new place is never knowing what’s around the next corner. Things like:
Our first stop along the road – which, by the way, we did in reverse from the way most people go – was at the Kerid Crater. This word is spelled slightly differently in Icelandic but I don’t feel like messing with that. The Kerid Crater is a volcanic caldera (not unlike Crater Lake in Oregon just a whole lot smaller) that is very obviously a volcanic crater! The elevation is not particularly high, as opposed to Crater Lake, but in Iceland that doesn’t mean much. There is a path all the way around the caldera. However, knowing my klutzy self, it was deemed not a good idea. One side of the crater is gently sloped and a staircase has been built into it. People do swim in the lake but it is not graced with geothermal heat.
Our next stop was for lunch at a very unique place. Earlier I mentioned that areas with geothermal venting often have hothouses nearby as you have a free and easy method of warming your green house. One particular family has taken this to great heights. They are growing tomatoes. Like, a LOT of tomatoes. Huge greenhouse after greenhouse full of tomatoes. It was so cool! To add to the coolness factor they have a tomato themed restaurant inside one of the greenhouses ( https://www.fridheimar.is/en ) . It was warm in there, but not overly so. Nor was it super humid like so many greenhouses can be. It was like a perfect spring day without any wind. Which, in Iceland, is a super treat!
We had one more place to go that afternoon and it too had to do with food! Ugh, we were rather full, but this was to be another incredibly unique experience! If anyone has watched the Netflix show Down to Earth with Zac Efron you will know what I am referring to – we were going to bake bread in the sand! At Laugervatn Fontana ( https://www.fontana.is/en/rye-bread-experience ) you can bake bread in sand that is naturally hot. Actually it is the boiling hot water just a few inches down that is heating the sand. Anyway, it takes about 24 hours for the bread to bake. So the demonstrator had a premade pot with dough in it (already sealed up for sanitary purposes), dug in a spot marked with a rock to indicate that there was another pot already there, ready to be removed.
Once we were done with our food fest we set off for our hotel. The Hotel Geysir is directly across the road from the active geyser area. Guess what??? The English word geyser comes from the Icelandic word geysir. Funny that. The original geyser, called Geysir, (I’m going to get confused) only erupts very occasionally now. I guess it’s pretty dramatic when it does blow but we were not fortunate enough to see it. We did get to see Strokkur erupt a few times though. It’s not as impressive as Old Faithful at Yellowstone but you are a whole lot closer to it!
Our last stop on this crazy busy day of sightseeing was Gullfoss. When people talk about THE waterfall in Iceland usually they are referring to Gullfoss. It was one of the times when I wish we had a drone for photos because that’s the only way to truly capture the immensity of the double waterfall. There is also a fantastic shop up there🤗
All of these amazing places and we weren’t done yet! Day two had us driving to Thingvellir National Park (the name looks way cooler in Icelandic). This park has a couple of seriously significant features: tectonic plates and it was the original capitol of Iceland (in a loose, Vikingish way). First of all, the tectonic plates. This is where the North American plates and the European plates meet and you can see them. Normally the plates are deep under the ocean (and when they shift you get earthquakes), but in this location you can see them, walk on them and see that they are slowly moving apart. The Husband, being the son of a geology professor, totally geeked out over the whole thing. It was pretty amazing I must say. If you would like a much better explanation of the whole subject this website explains it much more clearly https://www.icelandontheweb.com/articles-on-iceland/nature/geology/tectonic-plates . The other cool detail about this area? In 930 CE the chieftains of Iceland decided there was a need of a general assembly to decide on common laws and to hold courts. Thingvellir was chosen for a variety of reasons – probably mainly because it looked super cool. The legislative sessions were held in this location until 1798! Maybe they thought their laws were so important they could feel the earth move under their feet…yeah, bad joke. And, appropriately enough, when Iceland gained complete independence from Denmark in 1944 the contracts were signed at Thingvellir in the same spot the ancient chieftains use to decide the laws (a place called…Law Rock).
We had one more stop planned (and oh, was I excited for this one!). On the way I wanted to stop at Ikea to get a pillow as the one I had here at our flat was making my neck hurt. As we pulled off the highway at the exit for Ikea, there, looming above us was…COSTCO! My heart sang. Well, no Ikea for us – we were going to Costco. It was a blast looking around, seeing what was familiar and what was different – how come US Costco doesn’t have Victorian Sponge cakes, huh??????????????? But they did have the sweet potato crackers! Pillows chosen, a couple of other items too and we went to the check out. Note to others going to a non-US Costco…yes you can use your Costco credit card but a manager has to do some kind of override and they seemed excited by us being there. It was fun! And, even though neither of us had had a Costco hot dog in years, we were seized by the need to have one. Tasty indeed.
Our final stop was all about relaxation and just chilling out. The Blue Lagoon. Yep, another Blue Lagoon (first one was Malta), but a completely different experience. This one was created in the early 70s when a geothermal plant was being built. The water had high amounts of salt water and silica, which made it unusable for geothermal purposes, but at a constant 102 degrees (F) year round, so it was perfect for bathing in and the silica is wonderful for the skin. This unused water from the geothermal plant is pumped out into lava fields for a visually beautiful experience. Decades ago anyone could hop into the waters, now it is a beautiful resort. We elected to pay for the package with a luxurious bath robe: lovely, warm water…cold air…brrr. A robe is a good idea. Plus we got three facial masks as opposed to the single silica mask the basic package gives you. The entire experience was wonderful – definitely recommend! We asked the driver who picked us up at the airport if it was really worth it to go to the Blue Lagoon. His answer was a resounding YES. I concur entirely. Once again we did not have to deal with crowds, though it was Mother’s Day so there were lots of Icelandic families in attendance.
All in all an excellent weekend.