Beautiful Icelandic Nature

Day 2 Iceland (Thurs, June 23)
Three stops, long day, finish with haute cuisine and sleeping at a rural Airbnb next to a pasture of Icelandic horses.

The first of our Golden Circle stops was Þingvellir, anglicised as Thingvellir, followed by Geysir, and the finale was Gullfoss Falls. 

Let's get the unpleasant out of the way.
The tour busses were a bit overwhelming as they would descend upon a beautiful landmark in droves, most everyone apparently unable to understand there were other folks around beside themselves. Getting behind one of these human traffic jams became physically and mentally challenging. And like lemmings, they all immediately lined up at the WC to get some their 200 Isk Krona bladder relief. The other more minor challenge were the flies. They only come out in the warm summer months and there presence actually seems amazing became Iceland doesn't have many insects due to the cold. However they were slightly irksome as they were attracted to human warmth and human orifices and all the wild air swatting made said human look nuts from afar.

Then to the beauty. Mountains, lakes, tectonic plate and Continent shifts. Parliament meetings, religion swapping, and history. And off the beaten path small winding trails. Thingvelir.

Yikes

Fissures ran through

the land

Lava flow frozen in time

Escape route

View from below

The oldest Iceland

Church location

Looking up from below

The unbeaten path

Patience, expectation, 100 degree Celsius geothermal bursts. Lupin, climbing to the top of a mountain (steep rocky hilltop), bubbling hot sulfur smelling creeks Geysir.

Purple and luscious green everywhere

Steam came up from many

holes in the ground

View of the blast from the top

of the mountain. The elusive but magnifcent display comes every few to ten minutes. No warning. The crowd exclaims and dashes from the hot, wet mist.

Mountain conquered

Rainbows, rushing forceful water, and lots of mist. Gullfoss.

Wet from the spray and very happy

Old fishing village with a oceanside restaurant serving lobster soup and delicate lamb shanks. We had two fishing villages to choose from.

Fjorubordid in Stokkseyri won for our top delicious dining experience

But Eyrarbakki won for eclectic

The boardwalk was designed to allow the existing lava rock to stay in place.

For dinner later?

The safety flags alerting sailors about the surf in the straits between Iceland's southern coast and nearby islands

The sea

Outside the bedroom window of 

our Airbnb