The Golden Circle Tour. Part 1 - into the countryside.

It started again as a bit of a grotty day. Imagine our surprise to find, after driving for about 20 minutes we were in the country side passing mountains covered in snow!

As we drove the weather varied and we could see hills, lakes, streams and lots of Icelandic ponies. No other mammals (sheep and cows are kept indoors in the cold winter) but plenty of geese and swans.

(This is the first of 5 parts  - so keep scrolling and moving down!)

Part 2 - Skalholt

Skalholt is a lovely cathedral built in the 1950s in the middle of nowhere. It is sited in the first power base for the church in Iceland and was next to archeological diggings of older buildings. The views again were great and our tour of the church was accompanied by fantastic live organ music.

Part 3 - Gulfoss, The Golden Waterfall

It didn't really matter that it started raining here - there was a lot of water anyway.
An amazing waterfall even without the sun producing rainbows. The water was green and ice blue in places and so clear and there were still large sections of un-melted ice. The time of year was perfect for the amount of water. We were surrounded by a mist of water particles and was stunned at the size. Hope the photos show it at it's best.

Part 4 - Geysers at Geysir

Then we went on a visit reminiscent of New Zealand - smelly geysers!

The main one here - GEYSIR - is the one that all these phenomena are named after. Unfortunately it has been dormant for nearly 100 years! Mind you, the next one along (Strokkur) performed every 3 to 4 minutes to great amusement.

Part 5 - Pingvellir

Our final place to visit was Pingviller - an Unesco site, which is the first site of the Icelandic Parliament which they held once a year in ancient times.

We walked across the place where the European and North American tectonic plates meet (one photo is of the fault line). We walked to the flag pole that marked the spot, round to the pool where they drowned convicted felons and back to the coach which took us up the hill to see the site from a different view point.
After that it was back to the city for a rest (but still no Northern Lights tour!)

**Star news - we can now see that the city is surrounded by mountains. The mist has lifted enough for a great view from our hotel room**

"Mist"yfied in the City

Our Northern Lights tour was cancelled due to the bad weather last night - and we woke up to continued mist and drizzle this morning!
However, as very little stops us, we set off into the city - an easy 10 minute walk. As you can see from the photos it was grotty, but a sweet little city. We began at the lovely cathedral which was smaller than most of our parish churches. From there we investigated the 2 main shopping streets full of (closed) art and craft shops. Not a High street shop to be found. We hadn't worked out that the 5 days we are in Iceland is a 5 day Easter holiday weekend, but we aren't shoppers anyway.
Then to Hallgrimskirkja, a fantastic church built between the 1940s and 80s. We even had a little snooze through the Good Friday service.
We carried on mooching through the city and having a great coffee and cake for lunch before investigating the harbour and seaside.
We ended at the Reykjavik 871 +/-2 Museum which is about the excavation of a Viking longhouse in situ before wandering back to the hotel via one last church and the Tjornin City Pond in Pavillion Park.
All a bit chilly and wet - but a great day.

Off to Iceland

A fairly early start; easy trip to LHR; great airport parking and an excellent flight were a good start to the holiday.
Pity the weather turned!
Anyway, we took a coach from the airport to the very comfortable hotel. Then, as the Northern Lights tour was cancelled we had succulent lamb in the restaurant and a saunter in the drizzle to the nearest coast line. Very reminiscent of the black beaches in Northern Ireland with brightly coloured cockles and winkles.