The weather is sunny – just perfect for the Golden circle route – one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland. The hostess suggest another road to the first part of the route. The suggestion turns out to be good. The road goes high near the hill tops and the sights are gorgeous.
Just after starting to drive we loose the navigation support – the sygic application decides to upgrade some map and refuses to do anything without the internet connection. Luckily we have good old paper map with us.
So we drive the Iceland’s top tourist route in the middle of the season, the weather is excellent. No surprise there are some other people around 🙂
The first stop is the national park of Tingvellir. Here one can stroll the wide pathway in a gorge between the North American and Eurasian plates. The pedestrian traffic here is like in a city centre.
9 centuries ago the sight should be even more impressive. When the rulers held speech from the height of cliff walls of the gorge to 5000 strong citizen crowd below.
Geysir and Strokkur are the most famous geysers of the Iceland. Geysir is larger but silent. Strokkur blasts water to heights of around fifteen to twenty metres every five to ten minutes (it is known to reach up to forty metres). There are a number of small to even smaller holes that bring to the sun hot water or mud.
Gullfoss waterfall is the most impressive experience of the day. The road to the Gullfoss goes by the plain and one can almost reach it without seeing it. Gullfoss falls below in a gorge that looks like a wound in the plane. The water falls in the gorge from the side, then the stream bends and falls further below by the gorge bed. Many have come here to enjoy the sight. The huge parking lot is full and the wide two lane staircases look a bit as underground in a rush hour.
One can approach the waterfall by the higher and the lower path. The lower one has a rainbow and a shower. The higher has superior sights.
We follow to the South to the Skalholt church that is erected in the place of the older one that has been used up to the 18th century by the bishops of Iceland. Later on the bishops moved to Reykjavik to escape the devastating volcano eruptions.
Our next accommodation is located in Selfoss and is run by retired policeman David and his wife Barney. David and a couple of guests have a dinner in a large dining room when we arrive. He welcomes as and invites to feel at home.