The Golden Circle Tour: Gullfoss Waterfall and an Icelandic Horse Farm, Iceland

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Friday, May 15 continued... When it was time to leave the Geothermal Park, we boarded the bus and set off. Here was a shot of one of the many rivers we passed over along the way. The photo also gives a good sense of the scenery.

On the way, we also passed an Icelandic horse farm. The driver slowed down so we could take photos. The guide said the breed specific to Iceland. They were notably smaller than other breeds of horses and had a unique gait that other breeds of horses didn’t have.

The next stop was the Gullfoss Waterfall, which translated to the Golden Falls Waterfall. The water in this river was ice melt from the Langjökull glacier. As we drove, the guide explained that the first environmental activist in Iceland was a woman who was trying to protect this waterfall from being turned into a geothermal dam. The bus parked in the visitor’s center, along with several busses ghat we recognized from our other stops. We exited the bus and followed a path down to the water. Here was a shot looking back at the visitor’s center.

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The Golden Circle Tour: Efstidalur Family Dairy Farm and Haukadalur Valley Geothermal Field, Iceland

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continued... Shortly after we left Thingvellir National Park, the tour guide made a big deal about the continental divide line that we were about to cross on the road. We’d been on the North American side and we drove through a sizable stretch of road that the guide explained was technically defined as “nowhere” before we entered the European side. Who knew there were gaps of land that didn’t belong in either continental plate?

After we crossed into Europe, the guide told us he had a surprise for us — he’d squeezed in an extra itinerary item, a dairy farm where they made their own ice cream. Here was a shot of the scenery along the way.

The Efstidalur farm has been owned by the same family since 1850, and were committed to preserving Icelandic farming traditions. In addition to making ice cream, they also had an onsite hotel and restaurant, and rented horses for horseback riding. The guide said the ice cream was amazing and they didn’t it in the stores; this was the only place it could be purchased. The parking lot was packed with tour busses, which made parking tough. The left wing of the building was the dairy, the door on the first floor to the right was the entrance to the ice cream shop.

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The Golden Circle Tour: Thingvellir National Park in Iceland

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Friday, May 15 continued… The Golden Circle was the most popular tour in Iceland, and these two busses were a private tour group only for the partners/families of the conference attendees. Keith was hoping there would be other teens aboard that he could hang out with, but the person closest in age was 20. And we knew that because he’d shared his age while telling us that he was overjoyed that he could legally drink alcohol here in Iceland (he was American, and in the US, the legal drinking age was 21).

As we left the city, the bus driver said that Reykjavík was originally a small fishing village surrounded by potato farms until 1940. In the midst of World War II, then British established a military base. A year later, the US took control of the base and operated it until 2006. Reykjavík grew up around the base to service the military staff. He told us a lot more about the history of Iceland, as well, but we didn’t remember the other details. He made a lot of jokes and was hilariously funny, so it was a fun ride.

The scenery looked like this for the majority of the drive. It was probably really green later in the spring and in the summer, but now the grass was just beginning to come back to life from winter dormancy.

Our first stop was the Visitor’s Center in the Thingvellir National Park. The park was a UNESCO World Heritage site, but we were surprised to find out it attained this honor for its history, not for its unique geology. As we’d read in the Perlan, In 930 AD, early settlers formed a representative-style parliament that met here. While the parliament was eventually moved to Reykjavík, the same parliament government still continues to this day, making Þingvellir the original site of the world’s longest-running continuous parliament. 

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More Photos of Downtown Reykjavík, Iceland

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Friday, May 15 – Eric had gotten home late last night and Christi hadn’t slept well, so both of them had a hard time getting up this morning. After getting ready to go, the three of us walked downtown to the restaurant that Christi and Keith had tried to find yesterday.

This morning was warmer than it had been yesterday, and we were also feeling more acclimated to the weather. Yesterday, it was too cold for Christi to take her gloves off to snap photos as she walked, but today, she was able to do so. Yesterday, Christi had also been more focused on where we were going that on surroundings, and today she enjoyed the scenery more. Here were some photos of the walk from The Grandi Hotel to Baka Baka.

The Grandi was located on the edge between the residential part of downtown and Grandi Harbor. Here were the residential homes we passed. There was a mix of individual houses, row homes and a few multi-family units. The majority of the homes were the stereotypical traditional Icelandic style, made of brightly painted corrugated metal with steeply slanted metal roofs. Many had gingerbread trim and were adorable. Most looked historic, and most were well-maintained.

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Food Halls in Reykjavík and The Lava Tunnel in Raufarhólshellir, Iceland

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continued… After the show, we walked to a restaurant that the lady at the ticket counter had suggested. We hadn’t really understood the name she’d said, and when we’d asked for directions, she pointed to the next street over. Hoping the restaurant would be obvious, we took the closest cross street. The northwest side of the street was an endless row of these little storage units. Christi’s guess was they were primarily storage for small fishing boats and gear.

The other side of the street was a commercial harbor, called Grandi Harbor, with an array of buildings dotting the sea wall. Most of the boats in the harbor looked like fishing vessels. 

We followed the street southeast for a ways and saw nothing that looked like a restaurant — the one side was only storage units and the buildings on the other side looked like they were part of the commercial fishing industry. Then we saw a small sign in front of what we’d thought was another industrial building.

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