【Day 3】Iceland 5-Day Trip

Day 3 heading to the Golden Circle~

On the Way to the Bus Station

Going to the bus station in the morning to meet up with the tour guide. Saw a cute kitty on the way there~

Heading to the Icelandic Golden Circle

The first destination of the Golden Circle is Þingvellir National Park, which takes about 1 hour to drive from Reykjavik. The scenery along the way on the bus is also really nice too~

Þingvellir National Park

Arrived at the destination Þingvellir National Park~ It is a World Cultural Heritage site!
The tour guide said this is the only place in the world where you can visually see the rift valley at the boundary of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates on land. The big rift is called Silfra.

The scenery at the visitor center opposite is not bad either, very Icelandic vibes (?)

Nordic style little houses paired with this natural landscape is just so aesthetic!

Next, heading over to the canyon side~

Waited a long time for this flag to be blown up by the wind.. there just wasn’t much wind that day.. a bit of a pity.

Lunch

Heading to the next destination in the Golden Circle~ Eating lunch first after arriving~

It tastes thicker and denser than regular yogurt, very nice! Kinda like lemon cake. The price is also okay, this small box is about 300 Icelandic Krona.

The Icelandic specialty black bread (Rúgbrauð) is very soft, eating it feels a bit like cake (?), wet and sticky. The taste is a little sour, and you can taste the grain flavor. This small box of salad dressing bought from the supermarket is super delicious, with lots of small shrimp inside. The price is also very affordable, only about 400 Icelandic Krona. The background is the water vapor of the Geysir geothermal area, eating lunch accompanied by this sulfur smell has a special flavor (?)

Geysir Geothermal Area

This area has lots of steam vents, hot springs and boiling mud pools.

The highlight of this area is the Strokkur geyser, which erupts every ten minutes or so, reaching a height of about 20 meters, and every time it is full of onlookers. Truly very spectacular! Because time was limited, I only saw 3 eruptions, had to leave without recording a perfect and complete eruption moment QAQ

Gullfoss Waterfall

The scenery on the way to Gullfoss Waterfall is also awesome!

You can see rainbows at Gullfoss Waterfall when the weather is good, alas it was cloudy all morning today. It didn’t photograph as spectacularly as it looks in person either, slightly disappointed. Feels like it still needs color grading and filters to look good wow.

Return Trip

On the way back, the tour guide took us to a nearby ranch to pet the horses~ Because Iceland is relatively cold, Icelandic horses are also on the shorter side, with longer hair.

Took a nap on the way back, and the sun came out when I woke up! Iceland with sunshine is indeed more beautiful!

The sunlight hit the small island across the sea, exceptionally beautiful! This island is called Viðey, and there are often boats heading there from the Reykjavik pier. But there didn’t seem to be any attractions on the island so I didn’t go explore. One relatively famous thing is the Imagine Peace Tower, which is a memorial tower for John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Höfði House was built in 1909 and is the former residence of Icelandic poet Einar Benediktsson. It is most famous for being the location of the Reykjavik Summit in 1986 between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, which was an important step in ending the Cold War.

Dinner was bread + salad dressing + ham, the pudding flavored skyr felt just okay. A large tub is about 500 Icelandic Krona, the price is very affordable.