Day 3: Golden Circle Tour from Reykjavik
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All day coach tour visiting Thingvellir National
Park, Gullfoss (lunch stop), Geysir and Kerið
Crater lake.
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Leaving the hotel, our
route today took us east out of Reykjavik and then in a
clockwise direction to visit some of the most famous tourist
attractions in Iceland before returning to the harbour in
the centre of the city where our ship awaited us. |
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The places we visited
were all well worth visiting, despite being fairly busy
with coachloads of tourists like ourselves. What isn't always
mentioned on tours like this is the gorgeous scenery en-route
to the various sites. I took lots of photos from the moving
coach, which aren't the best quality, but they give some
idea of the dramatic landscape. |
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The visitor centre in
the Thingvellir National Park, where we were dropped off
for the start of a guided walk. The coach picked us up at
a different point 90 minutes later. We didn't go into the
visitor centre itself. |
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The scenery from
the viewing platform at the visitor centre is lovely. |
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After admiring the views,
our tour manager Marjorie and our Icelandic guide led us
along a well maintained path to explore this geographically,
politically and culturally significant area. |
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Thingvellier is geographically
significant because the Mid-Atlantic ridge runs through
it and it is easy to see the ever widening rift caused by
the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates as they
move slowly away from one another. |
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The route from the visitor
centre took us along the fault line to the beautiful Öxarárfoss
waterfall, pausing at Lögberg (Law Rock) along the
way. |
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W.G. Collingwood, one
of many artists who portrayed Lögberg, travelled here
during the 19th century. |
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Lögberg (law rock)
was where laws where recited. Every man could raise his
disputes and speak freely. |
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This
is all that there is to mark the important location. |
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We continued
walking towards the waterfall. |
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The beautiful
Öxarárfoss! |
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Back on the coach, we
began our onward journey towards Gullfoss. The scenery just
got better and better. |
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Our first glimpse of
Icelandic
horses. We were to see many more of them in the days
to come. |
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It was time for lunch
by the time we arrived at Gulfoss and so, before visiting
the falls themselves, we were taken to the restaurant. |
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We bumped into Angela
and her husband John at the restaurant. We last saw them
on a cruise around the Black Sea in 2014, but had kept in
touch with them after that. This morning, they disembarked
from the ship that we were going to embark later today and
were doing a post-cruise extension with the same itinerary
as our pre-cruise extension. |
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After lunch we walked
down to Gulfoss.
No explanations required - they were magnificent. |
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From Gulfoss, it was
a short drive to the Geysir
geothermal area. |
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To complete the circular
tour we took the southern road back to Reykjavik with a
stop at the Kerið
Crater lake. |
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After a vrey interesting
day of sightseeing, we arrived back to the now familar sights
of Reyjavik and headed straight the city central harbour
to board our ship. |
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