Summer Adventure - Reykjavik, Brussels and Amsterdam 2015 - The Golden Circle - Waterfalls and Geysers

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Up early again today for our second tour... luckily it was our alarm today and not an obnoxious party that woke us! This time we are headed inland to what Icelanders refer to as the Golden Circle. It covers a 300Km loop from Reykjavik, into central Iceland and back. Our guide took us down a less travelled route out of the city and we got to see some amazing scenery. We headed Into the mountains - The mountain range is young by geological standards only about 5000 years old and formed by the very active volcanos in the region - we are actually travelling along and in between the N. American and Eurasian Plates, so a very active region. The terrain is very unusual and there have actually been many movies and TV series filmed in the area such as Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Game of Thrones for all you fans.

One of the first stops on the tour was at Þingvellir national park. The Park has both geological and historical significance. There is a lake in the park called pingvallavatn - it is the largest freshwater lake in iceland and was formed by an eruption of a shield volcano called Skaldbreidur...The lake lies in the middle of the rift between the two divergent continental plates and the ridges of both plates are visible on the western and eastern sides of the lake. The historical significance, is that Iceland's first legislative assembly was formed at this spot in the year 930 and continued there until the year 1798. The area is now a national park and a huge tourist destination.

From Þingvellir we headed to Gullfoss, which in Icelandic means "Golden Falls". It is not the largest waterfall in Iceland, but probably the most impressive as it falls on 2 levels at a 90 degree angle and through a magnificent canyon. There was almost a hydro dam constructed in the canyon in the middle part of last century, which thankfully was halted by some local residents. It is now one of Iceland's large attractions. The falls were beautiful, however it was here that the wind picked up and apparently by Iceland Standards and according to our guide, was "not that strong"... I would estimate that it was at LEAST 70-80km/hr Gusts. I had a hard time standing up haha. Apparently it gets windy here!!

After Gulfoss, we headed to the Haukadalur geothermal valley that contains the Geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Geysir has been inactive for quite some time after an earthquake altered things in the area, however there is a smaller "brother" geyser called Strokkur that erupts at regular frequency intervals every 5-10 minutes. It was really, really cool... The geyser erupts without any warning and can get up to heights of 200 ft in the air!!!

Out last stop on the tour was to another waterfall called Faxi... Not as large as Gullfoss, but very beautiful. Also a Fish ladder next to the falls, where they used to farm Salmon.

On our way back, we were able to drive by Iceland's most feared Volcano called Hekla - It's still an active Volcano and has erupted 20 times since 874. It last erupted in 2000 with very little warning. prior to that there was a very large eruption in 1947 that lasted a year and caused a lot of devastation. Europeans have referred to Hekla as the Gateway to Hell. Iceland has frequent Volcanic eruptions that we don't hear about... For instance, the eruption in 2011 of the volcano Grímsvötn was actually a very small one. We only heard about it because the ash cloud and the impact to European air traffic, which I was actually affected by when living in London (billions of dollars impact to air industry).

Last year, a volcano in the north highlands called Holuhraun erupted and lava flowed for over 6 months! I created a 1km fissure in the earth and the lava flow was quite the spectacle - people from all over the world came to see it.

Anyway - got back to our flat around 5 and had some wine before dinner. Eating out has been a bit challenging... Maxine and I are both allergic to seafood and I'm also allergic to nuts. So in a country and culture that eats a lot of fish its a bit of a struggle. Good thing they also eat a lot of lamb!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we plan on seeing ReykJavik, do some shopping and go out in the evening... Until then!

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