On our first full day in Iceland, we had the Golden Circle planned. When I first started thinking about an Iceland trip if was for the Northern Lights in winter and I was worried about self-driving. We ended up with a beautiful, bright sun day perfect for a roadtrip. Early May is definitely shoulder season in Iceland. The lights aren't visible due to the increasingly sunny days but the summer green and the cruise ship season hasn't started. It was the perfect speed for us. Temperature was mostly 50s and windy. I wore wool lined yoga pants, long sleeve shirt, puffer coat and a wind breaker over it for rain (but mostly wind) and had gloves and earband. The wind made the earband key to keep my hair out of my eyes and my ears warm.
Before we hit the road, we ventured down Rainbow Street to get coffee and pastries and window shop.
The Golden Circle main highlights are Thingvellir National Park, Geysir Geothermal Area, and Gullfoss Waterfall
First up was Thingvellir, about a 90 minute drive from our hotel. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home of Iceland's first settlement and where parliament met in the first millennia. It is where the tectonic plates of America and Asia drift apart and it is possible in Silfra Fissure to snorkel or scuba in the divide.
Next was Geysir. To be honest, this was under whelming since we have been to Yellowstone. Strokkur is the main geyser that is currently erupting every 8-10 minutes, so we saw it a few times. We did have an app that we downloaded to narrate our tour and give us some history along the drive. That's where we learned that the Iceland word, geysir, (pronounced gay-szeer) is the origin for the English word geyser. 
The final signature stop was Gullfoss, which means golden waterfall, and is famous for its volume and unusual shape. We were glad to have our raincoats for the splash blowing in the wind! We walked down to the lower viewing platform and also walked up to the upper parking lot for additional views. I wasn't able to capture it in photos well but beyond the water falls you could see the glaciers of the inner part of the island.
Our last stop of the day was at Kerid Crater, a volcanic crater which has a lake fed from ground water. The parking lot is along the top but it is easy to hike down and walk around the lake, which we did.
We had a lovely lunch during our roadtrip at Fridheimar, a tomato greenhouse that has a restaurant inside. Every dish had tomatoes (some of which John found surprising!), and it was all very delicious and fresh. We learned about how the geothermal activity is harnessed for heating the greenhouse. A very cool experience. Also outside were Icelandic horses that we finally got to see up close!
