15TH JULY - GOLDEN CIRCLE

WHAT WE DID:

We rented a car and did the Golden Circle, so in order we saw Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss. On the way back we also saw Kerið.

COMMENT:

We had rented a 'Toyota Yaris or equivalent' as the roads for the Golden Circle are mostly fine, apart from a short part with no asphalt. Driving is all-right as you don't really meet many cars.In Þingvellir you can see the fault between Europe and America, which slowly widens over time. The nearby lake, Pingvallavatn, is the largest in Iceland. We saw a few birds here, including the one making the 'alien sound', and a waterfall, too.

In the Geysir area, where the smell of sulphur is quite strong, there's many hot springs (but it doesn't compare to the Yellowstone geysir area). One of them Strokkur, regularly erupts every 5 minutes or so and hence is the biggest attraction. During those 5 minutes you can see the water moving about, until you see a big bubble coming from below causing the explosion. There's also Geysir, from which the word Geysir comes, but we didn't see any activity there. It used to be bigger than Strokkur is now. We also saw a couple of 'hot water pools' with quite intersting colours.

Gullfoss, which means 'golden waterfall', is quite special. You can get very near the water, and it also make a rather peculiar turn. On the way back we stopped to see Kerið, a crater with some water inside it. We read that this water is actually connected to the underground water system and hence the water level doesn't depend on rain and other factors, but on the changes in underground water.