Golden Circle Deluxe

Trip Start May 07, 2010

Trip End Sep 04, 2010

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Flag of Iceland Þingvellir, South, Iceland
Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Golden Circle is a standard set of tourist attractions in Southwest Iceland that make for an easy day trip from Reykjav�k. It includes �ingvellir National Park (pronounced Thingvetlir), the Gullfoss waterfall, and Geysir. Our trip included a few extra stops, hence the "deluxe," the Hrunalaug hot spring and �lvisholt brewery.

�ingvellir has a lot of historical significance in Iceland, which I didn't memorize so I won't repeat it here. You can read about it if you click here. What was more interesting to me is that it is the border of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. These plates separate by 2 cm per year and are currently 7 km apart.

Þingvellir

Strokkur Geyser

Geysir is a large geyser in Iceland that shoots water 200 feet into the air, but not very often. It is also the origin of the word geyser. It's not much of a sight since it doesn't go off very frequently anymore, but right next to it is the Strokkur geyser, which goes off about every 5 minutes and shoots water 100 feet high.

There isn't much to say about the Gullfoss waterfall, except that it is spectacular.