May 29, 2016
The second day we decided to travel around the Golden Circle, a national park type area, where many tourists visit, especially if they cannot see the whole island. The Golden Circle gave us a taste of Iceland and is a wonderful trip if travelers are limited with time. Upon entering the area considered the Golden Circle, was saw horses grazing along rocky hills, cottages dotting the shoreline of Lake Þingvallavatn, and majestic snow covered mountains in the distance. Þingvellir (pronounced Thingvellir) National Park is the first major stop in the Golden Circle. Here, we saw craggy cliffs dotted green and yellow, a cute little church, and our first waterfalls (Öxarárfoss). Of course, we were reminded of Game of Thrones because the popular show featured this park in season 4- North of the Wall. The next stop was Geysir. All geysers around the world are called ‘geyser’ because of Geysir. The origin of the word traces back to Old Norse and the Icelandic word geysa or to gush. The third major stop in the Golden Circle was the waterfall Gullfoss. About the size of Niagara Falls on the US side, it is the largest waterfall in Iceland, signifying the start of many splendid waterfalls that we would come across. Although there are many more things to see along the Golden Circle, we decided to head to guesthouse near Vík.
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