The Golden Circle is a popular tourist route in South Iceland, covering about 300 km looping from Reykjavík into central Iceland and back. Let me point out that "morning" doesn't begin in Iceland until roughly 11am every day. My definition of "morning" means the sun rises. The sun does not rise until almost noon in Iceland! Crazy, right?
So we are picked up at our hotel at 9am (still dark!). Our first stop on the tour is the Gullfoss (Golden Falls) waterfall, created by the river Hvítá, which tumbles and plunges into a crevice some 32 m (105 ft.) deep. The sun is just starting to peek out over the distant mountains when we arrive. Ever see a huge frozen waterfall?
Next we headed back to the Geysir geothermal area where the Strokkur geyser shoots a column of water up to 30 metres (98 ft.) into the air every 4-8 minutes in a thrilling display of nature’s forces. I stood patiently waiting for several blasts from the crater. Then, a slight rumble before a whooooooooooooooooooooooooosh!!!!
The entire geothermal area was pretty awesome. The fields were a haze of steam rising up from different spots all around you. Signs were posted everywhere that warned you not to touch the nearby streams of water. Water bubbled in several pools near the footpath.
The last stop on our Golden Circle tour included a historical and geological wonder where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling apart at a rate of a few centimeters each year. Nowhere on Earth is the continental drift more visible than in Iceland's Thingvellir National Park. It was quite a unique experience to walk across the valley that separates the two continents. AND....this park was filmed as a backdrop in season 4 of HBO's Game of Thrones!
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