Iceland - day 2

The weather today is much better.  Still cold, but mostly sunny.  We get an early start to drive the "Golden Circle". We opted to rent a car and drive ourselves instead of taking one of the many tours so that we had the freedom to explore at our own pace.

 What's up with this funny sign????

The rain clouds followed us all day but we only had an occasional sprinkle catch up to us.  The landscape was much prettier and more colorful than I expected. Each curve in the road brought out ooos and ahhhhs - I expected harsh, barren land and instead found this colorful landscape.

And a glacier.........

We arrived at Thingvellir park where we saw the valley between the North American tectonic plate and the European plate.  It's about 7km wide and moves apart at 1cm a year. We watched but didn't see any movement. :) This park is also the site of the country's first church and the prime minister's summer home.

This cliff is the face of the North American tectonic plate.

 Prime Minister's summer home.

Next stop was Geysir.  We saw the Strokkur geysir go off a couple times then continued down the road another 15 minutes or so to Gullfoss Falls.

Gullfoss falls - one of the largest in Europe.  There is a serious volume of water crashing over this falls. It may not be tall, but it is mighty.

On the left of the photo you can see a trail with people and then midway, out on the point, those little dots are people looking out over the top of the falls.  We walked out there and got soaked in the mist!

You can see the people a bit easier here..... and me below, wet and cold.

Overall the drive was probably 80-90 miles and, as you can see, it was totally worth getting out of the city and seeing more of the country.  Truly beautiful. 

Tomorrow is an early morning flight to London.