Iceland - Vik

About three hours drive from Reykjavik along the southern coast is Vik, which is known for its black sand beach from lava flows.   Most famous is Reynisfjara which has very dangerous currents in addition to dramatic basalt columns (sea stacks) used for many backdrops such as Game of Thrones.  

Immediately prior to the beach is Dyrholaey Lighthouse, a famous puffin nesting ground.  We were a week or so too early in the season to see the puffins, but we scoured the place "just in case!"  

After lunch at a great micro brewery in Vik, we heading back inland to see Skogafoss and then for another stop by Thingvellir and got these amazing photos of Silfra and talked about what it would have been like had we done the dry suit snorkel tour in the freezing water between the tectonic plates.  Spoiler alert:  I was anxious just taking the gorgeous photo from the loading dock!

Skogafoss was amazing.  I actually didn't want us to stop because you could see the waterfall from teh highway and I thought it was just another waterfall.  But it has a few unique features.  You can get incredibly close to it.   There is a double, horizontal rainbow.   And then you can climb a set of stairs to go to the top of the waterfall.  This area at the top of the waterfall is supposed to be gorgeous in the summer covered in wildflowers and additional waterfalls as you can hike several hours inland.   It was neat to hike up to but pretty windy and we wanted to continue on to Thingvellir so didn't stay too longer.

Iceland - Golden Circle

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! 

Iceland - Sky Lagoon

After a quick flight from Stockholm, we landed in Iceland and picked up our rental car and hit the road.  I had listened to a podcast leading up to the trip called "All Things Iceland" and got the scoop on the rental car among other things.  (The host has a very soothing voice and sometimes I just turn it on for her to put me to sleep!)   Of course the most iconic site for Reykjavik is Hallgrimskirkja Church, so I had to snap a photo of that on the approach.   We dropped out bags at our hotel room downtown and then head to our reservation at Sky Lagoon.   Blue Lagoon is the more iconic, better known lagoon, but Sky Lagoon is developing a following.  It's near the city while Blue Lagoon is near the airport and included on a lot of layover and tour itineraries.   Sky Lagoon is newer and cleaner being man made!

Their ticket includes a seven-step ritual:  lagoon (warm), cold (cold plunge tub), warmth (sauna with beautiful views over the water), drizzle (cold fog-mist room), softness (exfoliating scrub), steam (steam room), and shower.  You wear the scrub into the steam room, so need to rinse off before you go back to the lagoon.  Each step is neat but I knew my favorite part would be floating in the lagoon.   The steam room and sauna are too hot for me and the cold plunge is too cold.  I really enjoyed being in the lagoon and watching people in the cold plunge, which was the only one of the steps that was exposed.  The others were inside a separate building/rooms.  It looked like a small hotel hot tub but was freezing cold.  Some people sat in there a long time.  Most did a quick dip and then ran back to the lagoon or into the sauna.  

The sunset around 9:30 p.m. when we were there.   That was great for getting in lots of sights but it made evening meals a challenge because we would lose track of time and not have many open kitchens by the time we were ready to eat.   Our reservation the first night was cancelled (they called me at the airport earlier in the day) because our 10 pm reservation was after the 9 pm kitchen close.   They recommended another place nearby which we went to - Tres Locos - and ended up enjoying so much that we ate there a second time during our three night stay.