We started the day with a bit of breakfast at a great bakery not far from our hotel, Sandholt. The seating at the bakery was tough for five of us so we took to the street to eat our breakfast pastries and coffee.
Enjoying morning coffee and pastries on the streets of Reykjavik. So American.
My brother Don kindly rented a car to take us around to see some of the sights here in Reykjavik. Yesterday Don took us on a tour of the Golden Circle, which is a circuit of sights to see outside of Reykjavik. And we did see some great sights. Starting with the most impressive, we got to see the Gullfoss Waterfall:
Gullfoss Waterfall
From left: Me, Don, Gail and Bill
This is a two level waterfall and it is a truly wondrous sight. The quantity of water flowing over these falls is almost incomprehensible. It seems like every drop of water in the world is flowing over these falls. We stared at it for a long time.
Next most impressive sight was Iceland’s OG version of Old Faithful, just called Geysir, which I guess is probably where we got our word “geyser” from. We saw one erupting a couple of times in about ten minutes. There was a big crowd of people waiting around for the eruptions, and they all oohed, ahhed, and clapped after each eruption. It was all great fun. There was a sign warning visitors to watch out for pickpockets. I guess people get so involved with waiting for the Geysir to erupt that they don’t realize that someone is stealing their wallet. It’s kind of hard to imagine in Iceland but I doubt if they would post those signs if it weren’t a problem. We did not have any pickpocketing incidents ourselves.
Geysir
Probably the least great thing we visited was the Kerid Crater, which was essentially an inactive volcano crater with a lake at the bottom. I don’t know what we were all expecting when we paid $7 each to go into the crater, but we were underwhelmed. Looking at the photo now, it does look very nice. But very much overshadowed by the Geysir and the waterfall.
We probably missed a sight or two on this self-guided tour but we felt that we got a good sampling of the beauty of the Golden Circle. When we got back to Reykjavik it was time for a little bit of downtime before dinner. Yes, I had another birthday dinner. I guess because I’m 70 or maybe because my wife is so nice. We went to a wonderful restaurant in Reykjavik named Grillmarkaðurinn, a very Icelandic restaurant that specializes in meats grilled over open fire. The food was delicious and the atmosphere very contemporary. We ate hanger stake (they call it “butcher steak”, because the butcher keeps it for himself). Cath had a cauliflower steak and that was delicious as well.
From left: Tom, Sheila, me, Cath, Gail, Don and Bill. The wall is decorated with thatched grass
And they brought me a fireworks dessert too:
Careful there…
So ended our second full day in Iceland. It is a really beautiful country and I’m starting to realize there are a lot of sights to see here.
For those who don’t know everyone in these photos, on this trip we have my three siblings, Noreen, Don and Sheila, Don’s wife, Gail, Sheila’s husband Tom, my wife, Cath, and Cath’s brother, Bill. So eight of us all together.