My Iceland Adventure - Day 1: Golden Circle

2/24/2014

Þingvellir

I just love Iceland's rugged nature! It's bleak, dark, spacious and clean at the same time. It looks almost 'otherworldly'. No wonder Iceland is a popular place for directors to shoot their movies and TV series. Over the last few years, Iceland has been a set for Game of Thrones, Prometheus, Oblivion, and many more. So for our first full day in Iceland we decided to do the 'Golden Circle', a route from Reykjavik to the major touristic sights near the capital.

A lot of roads are gravel roads in Iceland, so we thought it would be wise to rent a 4WD. Nothing special, but it does the job very well :-) Unfortunately my (male) travel companion Joeri (of 33 years old) has no driver's license, so he lets me do all the heavy lifting the next few days. Pff, men.... (yes, you Joeri, I know you're reading this!)

Our first stop along the way was at Þingvellir (the Þ is to be pronounced as Th) a rift valley marking where the North American and Eurasian continental plates are physically tearing apart, and it really is a beautiful place to walk. Þingvellir also has significant importance to the Icelanders because it is the place where they have held their Alþingi, the annual parliamentary gathering, for centuries.

One of the main tourist sights of Iceland is of course the area of boiling hot springs around Geysir (the 'original' geyser). They are visible from miles away as a pall of steam rising above the plains. Geysir ('the Gusher') has been inactive for decades, but after an earthquake in 2008 things are going again, although unfortunately Geysir's 70 metre high eruptions are still extremely irregular. Luckily his nearby little brother Strokkur ('the Churn'), fires off a 30 metre spout every 4 or 5 minutes and offers the opportunity to make some beautiful pictures.

Coat: TU at Sainsbury's / Scarf: Aquascutum / Skinny jeans: H&M / Suede boots: Pied-a-terre
Turtleneck jumper: H&M / Earrings: Souvenir from my previous visit to Iceland

Of course I was dressed warmly, but with Iceland's icy winds even my Darwin replikate jacket wasn't really enough (that's when you really notice the faux vs. real shearling difference!). Luckily at our last stop there was a warm cafetaria with a magnificent view of the Gullfoss ("Golden Falls") waterfall. Unfortunately, the elves were on strike, so we had to clean up after ourselves ;-)