Iceland Tour Day 1

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Today's itinerary was the famous Golden Circle. We missed the first stop the Thingvellir National Park, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its historical, geological and cultural importance. Historically, in the year 930 AD, the Icelandic people established their Parliment and is the oldest continually operating parliament in the world. The cliff of the riff valley runs right through the Silfra Fissure which delves down through the Eurasian/N American tectonic plates.

We caught up with the tour group at the geothermal hot spring area at Geysir (which is where we get our English word, Geyser). The Geysir Strokkur spouts a large steam of super heated water every 5-10 minutes. This geyser was amazing for its predictable timing of the spray. Due to the high rate of volcanic activity in Iceland, it is home to some of the most famous geysers in the world. There are around 20–29 active geysers in the country as well as numerous formerly active geysers. Definitely not as spectacular as "Old Faithful", but this geyser was awesome!

The scenic drive along the beautiful south seacoast was where we were introduced to 2 amazing waterfalls. We stopped first at Seljalandsfoss Waterfalls which has a pathway in the rocks behind the falls. Renee who is very athletic did the long, wet trek. At Skogafoss Waterfalls, I stayed dry, well relatively speaking, since we did have a few raindrop fall. The pictures only show a fraction of the power and might of nature here.

On our way to our hotel for the night, we stopped at Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, and viewed the legendary peaks, believed to be those of 2 trolls. There are a lot of Troll legendary stories about how trolls were turned stone when they faced he morning sun. We had a group dinner at the hotel where we were able meet and talk with the others in our group. It was an amazing first day!

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Photos

Strokkur Hot Spring Geysir
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