Golden Circle tour
Day 4 began with the usual 8am alarm followed by “cuppa chai de Girnar” in the hot water prepared in the electric kettle with a slice of their famous bread before the rest of the household woke up. We’d meet up with the rest of the group at our daily meeting point outside Chintan/Digish’s apartment building next to the theater and head over to the Pingvellir National Park.
We walked through the park enjoying the various scenic points of interest. The highlight of the self guided walking tour were the basalt columns soaring proudly above the ground and the continental divide where the tectonic plates meet, the oldest parliament in the world, Althing which had relocated to Pingvellir National park for several years. We would eventually realize that we would have been more efficient covering more sights had we driven between the points.
Our next stop was Geysir, the site of the geothermal geyser eruptions. The only active geyser, Stokkur would abruptly erupt with no forewarning and was pretty anticlimactic compared to the ones in Yellowstone National Park or even Rotorua, NZ. It was a natural phenomenon that deserves a reasonable applaud.
The show stopper of our entire day was the majestic Gulfoss with its mighty forcefully gushing water. Walking close to its head and getting sprayed with its cool rainfall like mist was refreshing, and we couldn’t take our eyes off of the beauty from different vantage points which helped us appreciate the layers and rhe magnanimity of the roaring falls. The cafe next to the falls offered a nice little lunch break where we enjoyed our thepla, mocha and a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate cake and Icelandic apple pie 🥧 (Kahan!). We had been wired to carry lunch on these daily excursions away from the city. However, we realized that there were decent options at various cafes at most points along the famous tourist attraction of Golden Circle.
It’s tough to ignore Zak Effron’s highly recommended stop, the Secret Lagoon from the Netflix show “Down to Earth”. With not much to take home to, the “not so Secret Lagoon” was still in a beautiful natural setting. And a place like this helps being with a group of friends, chatting and joking away while soaking in the hot water. The clothing free locker rooms and completely open showers did generate snickering and mild discomfort amongst the kids. And the entitled bunch had to announce that the winner of all Lagoons was the Blue!
We drove about 30 minutes to the Kareo crater, a 6500 year old crater in Iceland. The kids had a blast playing around the circular water feature. Marveling at something that has withstood time for that long is a humbling experience, one that reminds us of our fleeting existence and the power of natural forces we are surrounded by.
Dinner was at a fancy Tapas place called Tapa Barinn with friends and a delicious Passion fruit Sangria. While Patatas Bravas brought back some memories of Spain, the cauliflower tapas was plated and made well. The jackfruit taco was decent as well. With bars closing at midnight, we didn’t have much time left to explore the nightlife and so we were all at peace calling it a night after a stimulating fun long day.
Comments
Post a Comment