The Golden Circle Day 2

Tectonic plates, beautiful views and a massive waterfall…there’s a lot to love about the Golden Circle. It’s the most traveled area of Iceland because there’s so much to see and its so close to Reykjavik.

A very short walk from our hotel was the highly recommended Braud & Company for the best cinnamon rolls in all of Iceland. We also ordered coffee… I know I was supposed to make it in our room but I never do that! For some reason it just seems weird to me. I forgot how delicious European coffee is. It’s so smooth.

After a delicious breakfast we were ready to embark on one of the ultimate road trips – Iceland’s Ring Road, 820 miles of Fire and Ice. Today we were just doing the Golden Circle. To complicate matters I made both lunch and dinner reservations so we had a timeline to try and keep. We knew it would be tight and in the end we skipped two stops. Both things we have already seen back in the States – a geyser and volcanic crater. What we did see was amazing! Plus it was a stunning day. Something we had not planned on. The weather in Iceland is highly unpredictable. We were expecting rain and wind everyday. Today it got to 54 degrees – sometimes it felt like a beautiful fall day. And seconds later I was taking my jacket off wishing for shorts.

When we started planning this trip we learned that Rick Steves had not updated his Iceland book in years – waaaay before the pandemic. Turns out he traveled to Iceland this summer to work on the new edition. But that would not help us! Instead we found Jeannie. She grew up in Wisconsin and moved to Iceland 7 years ago. She’s like the Rick Steves of Iceland. We adapted her ring road itinerary for our trip. The first stop was what she calls a hidden gem. She rated it 4 out of 5 stars. We thought it was a good first site to see.

ÞÓRUFOSS

You might recognize this waterfall from a scene in Game of Thrones – when Daenery’s Dragon eats the goat and sets fire to the flock. We were literally the only ones there. We had the waterfall all to ourselves!

ÞINGVELLIR NATIONAL PARK

Important UNESCO World Heritage site for its history as an establishment of the first democratic parliament in AD 930 and for it’s unique geology – this is where you will find huge fissures in the earth’s crust caused by the rifting of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. You can literally straddle America and Europe!

Efstidalur has farm fresh ice cream. Who doesn’t love the sound of ice cream straight from the farm? This place was adorable, a family run farm turned into an ice cream parlor and restaurant. The ice cream was just as delicious as it looked. It’s made fresh on site. Plus they have windows looking into the barn where you can see the cows it came from.

Bruarfoss

This bright blue waterfall used to require a 3-hour hike. It was on our list to do but we discovered just a few weeks ago that they just built a road and parking lot that saves about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Yay! It used to be a hidden gem since not that many people wanted to hike the 3 hours. It was absolutely stunning. Jeannie rated it a 10 out of 5. We agreed! We also witnessed a proposal here… she said yes!

GULLFOSS

The crown jewel of the Golden Circle.

BRÚARHLÖÐ

An incredible canyon with glacier green water in the middle of nowhere. Another place we discovered because of Jeannie.

Friðheimar is a huge greenhouse that grows tomatoes and cucumbers. Their growing methods are completely sustainable and eco-friendly – think geothermal. This is the ultimate farm-to-table experience, I love the concept. We made reservations for lunch a few months ago.

Iceland is expensive. We knew this before we booked our plane tickets. Since this is the ultimate road trip we knew we would not want to spend time at a restaurant eating breakfast and lunch. Before we left Reykjavik we went to the grocery store to shop for breakfasts and lunches (I love to do this when we’re in Europe even if we don’t need groceries. It fascinates me!)

One piece of advice we read was that since a mediocre pizza will run you around $50, skip those types of meals and spend a little extra for a truly great meal. We definitely had a great meal for lunch at Friðheimar – added bonus it was cheap! Tonight we ate at Ingolfsskali Viking Restaurant. It was not as cheap. Jon had lamb rib eye and I had Arctic Char. The total bill came to 18,470 ISK. Those large number blow me away. Here’s a quick way to convert it. Drop the last 2 digits and then take 1/3 off. That’s about $140.

It did not feel like the usual amount of walking we do when we explore a European city. However I was able to log a respectable 13,901 steps today.