Waking up today was hard. Not jetlag hard, but I was up at 3AM two days ago and then awake all night on Saturday (because, let’s face it, sleep did not happen on the plane) hard. Iceland is five hours ahead of Nashville and our itinerary for day 2 was one of the busier ones which means that we were up and moving at 7 AM (okay, 7:20) local time and 2 AM our time.

We packed up the car, grabbed a quick bite to eat at our hotel restaurant’s delectable breakfast buffet and headed out. Today’s plan was checkout: 8:30 AM, drive to Geysir (the original namesake of all geysers): 10 AM, continue on to Gullfoss (an amazing waterfall): 10:30 AM, Drive to Laugarvatn Fontana (geothermal spas anyone?): 12:00 PM, and finally, arrive at our hotel in Vik: 4:00 PM.

The Drive to the Golden Circle

Today went, almost, according to plan. Let me start this portion by saying, I’ve never been in a sand storm. I want to say the closest I’ve ever gotten is either a vicarious experience through a movie or maybe when sand pelted me in the face during a mild breeze across the great sand dunes in Colorado.When we started driving today, we knew the following things: today would be colder, today would be snowier, and today would be driving through less inhabited portions of Iceland as we made our way across the top of what’s known as the Golden Circle.

What felt, at the time like a wasteland of just snow and ice everywhere. At several points it was so windy we couldn’t see the car in front of us as the snow blew across the road.

What we did not know was that our GPS has a delightfully Icelandic road trip guide with fun tidbits about the history and culture of the land we were about to drive through. We also did not know that said guide would try to hijack GPS navigation girl’s directions in a tug of war for our attention (no worries we didn’t get lost). But perhaps, most importantly, we did not know that just outside Reykjavik the land evens out into a beautiful near wasteland of uncultivated space. The long road stretching in front of us and the breeze swirling snow made us feel like isolated beings on some sort of frontier-land (with a nicely paved road to follow) until the pleasant breeze grew strong enough to push the car around (in Michael’s capable hands, we were fine). But the snow assailed us until I found myself thinking, this is what it must be like to be in a sandstorm.

Thankfully, the windy-snowy blind didn’t last long, but certainly long enough to get my adrenaline kicked in and push us about an hour behind schedule. The sun came out, making the rest of the drive to Geysir bright and beautiful.

Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir National Park (pronounced Thing-vel-ear).

We drove through Þingvellir national park with either Michael or me constantly pointing out the windows at some new beautiful thing to see. Maybe later we’ll be able to drive back and explore some more. At Laugarvatn GPS road trip guys cheerily informed us the ancient Viking tribes were baptized into Catholicism, which ended later when the last bishop in Iceland was slaughtered with his two sons.

Geysir

Geysir, which doesn’t erupt very often anymore, is where we get the word “geyser” from. In it’s heyday it would toss boiling water in the air over 250 feet high.

Shortly, we arrived at the sight of Geysir which has been inactive for most of this decade. I quickly realized that we had not dressed warm enough for the weather. While the day itself was not that cold, the winds that threw us into a snow storm were biting through my jeans and loosely woven hat. Steam poured out of the ground around us like the special affects in an 80’s fantasy film, and boiling water wove across the earth. Just as we parked an eruption of water shot up from Strokkur (Geysir’s over-achieving little brother), and we watched the wind sweep it away in a cloud of steam. We walked up to the mouth of Strokkur and watched again and again as the bright blue water bubbled up to burst (roughly every five minutes). The temptation to reach out and touch the beautiful water was strong, but the thought of scalded skin stopped me. The water can get up to 100 degrees Celsius (according to the dozen signs I passed in the 200 or so meters between the car and the geyser). I don’t really know what 100 degrees Celsius means in Fahrenheit, but the signs were very serious.

Everywhere you look had this crazy steam coming out of little pockets of water. The heat from the ground is used to cook food sometimes.

Gullfoss

We drove the fifteen or so minutes East to get to Gulfoss. By then the wind had really picked up and the temperature had really dropped. But last night Michael told me the café at Gullfoss sold a meat soup (with refill) and coffee. The thought of soup kept me going. The waterfall was gorgeous.  The sun danced across the water as the wind picked up the spray and shot it at us. Michael and I took turns blocking the camera lens long enough to wipe off the glass and get a nice picture. At one point, this sight was going to be developed into an electricity generater, but, as the story goes, a woman determined to preserve the falls saved it.

The wind was very unforgiving at the look out for Gullfoss.

Gullfoss (Golden Falls) is breathtakingly beautiful.

Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Spa

The view from the geothermal pools is utterly incredible. The pools themselves are like relaxing in hot tubs of different heats without the need for any chemicals.

We finished our picture taking and warmed ourselves up inside the café we turned West to the Fontana Spa and rye bread tasting we had scheduled. The Fontana Spa filters in water straight from the hot springs and the rye bread is cooked by the geothermals for 24 hours before it is deemed ready. This process allows the sugars in the bread to get nice and caramelized, making it a delicious treat. Michael has already looked up recipes to mimic this bread at home. We soaked the cold out of our fingers and toes before enjoying hearty slices of bread slathered in butter.

Rye bread that gets buried in a pot and baked geothermally for 24 hours.

The Drive to Vik

Once we were done with that we started on the road to Vik, where our hotel is  for the night. The GPS navigation girl was quite pleased with our drive. The road trip guide kept telling us how we’d gotten off the route, and we should make the first possible u-turn to return to the safety of the main road. After a while, he settled in our new course of travel, and started spouting off statistics about the history of volcanic activity (apparently the people of Iceland have a habit of naming their children after the two most active volcanoes). We passed a few of the most destructive volcanos and the tongue of one of Europe’s largest glaciers. The ice of which  rises over the mountains and presses down into the earth until it’s reached below sea level. Many of the glaciers in Iceland stretch over the tops of volcanos. When they errupt, the glaciers suppress the lava, but the subsequent melted ice can flood the land.

The sun stayed bright and cheery all day, and the sky has been cloud free. We checked into our hotel in Vik and then shared an amazing meal. I had lobster grilled and served with the geothermal rye bread, but Michael won the tasteoff with lamb cooked over a lava stone and served with a sweet beet sauce. Hopefully, the solar activity will flare up tonight allowing us to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. We’ve got a wake up call scheduled with the front desk should that happen.