Scandinavia 2019 Day 2: Golden Circle, Iceland

DAY 2: 27 NOV 2019

Gulfoss

Good morning!

After a fruitful night, we woke up early for breakfast before heading out.

While doing research online, many advised against driving in Icelandic winter conditions.

I am not a confident driver and hence, I decided to book tours instead.

I booked the Golden Circle tour with Troll Expeditions today at 0900.

Troll offers small group tours at a relatively affordable price and 

I paid 10,250 isk (75 eur) per person.

When doing tours in Iceland, you will be picked up at major hotels or bus stops.

We were picked up by 0930 at bus stop #8 and the sun only started to rise then.

Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park which sits in a rift valley caused by the 

separation of two tectonic plates: American and Eurasian.

Thingvellir National Park

 

The park is huge and we were given 45 minutes to explore.

Thereafter, we were brought to a local farm to have some ice cream!

Ice cream with a view

Our tour package includes 1 free ice cream per person and I chose the chocolate flavour.

We were able to see the cows when looking out of the windows at the dining area.

Next, we drove to Strokkur Geysir which is the most active geysir in the Geysir Geothermal Area.

Geysir Geothermal Area

It was a short walk from the carpark to the geysir.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was at the correct geysir.

However, a few seconds later, a geysir erupted and water shot up really high in the sky.

That’s when I knew I was at the right geysir.

The geysir erupts every 5 to 10 minutes and I constantly took videos as it was not easy to anticipate when the eruption will occur unlike the blowholes.

Icelandic lamb soup

Upon getting a good shot, we made our way back to the main area for lunch.

Our guide recommended lamb soup at a particular restaurant as one of the affordable options available.

The restaurant operated like IKEA style and we had to scoop our soups on our own.

Because of that, we were able to fill our bowls with huge portions of meat!

Each bowl of lamb soup comes with a bread (self-service) and it costs 1,790 isk (13 eur).

The lamb soup was clear but flavourful!

We had lamb soup again on our last night and it had the exact same taste too.

After lunch, we headed to Gulfoss, one of the famous waterfalls in Iceland.

We were given 30 minutes to explore, which is sufficient for me as it was really cold!

There are two ways to view the waterfall.

The first viewpoint is just straight ahead from the carpark.

To get to the second viewpoint, you will need to climb up the stairs.

I would recommend the latter as it gives a birds’ eye view of the waterfall.

Gulfoss

If you were to compare the volume of water flowing in summer and winter, 

it will definitely be lesser in winter due to certain areas being frozen.

Nevertheless, the view was as stunning!

Before we headed to our last attraction, our guide kindly stopped at a farm so that 

we could pet the Icelandic horses!

Icelandic horses

Icelandic horses look like miniature horses but they are strong enough to withstand the harsh weather conditions in Iceland.

They were so friendly and liked our gentle touches!

The sun was about to set soon and we hurried to Kerid crater.

Kerid crater had a small entrance fee of 350 isk which we paid.

Kerid crater

We arrived back in the city centre at around 5.30pm.

By then, it was complete darkness as the sun starts to set at 3.45pm.

As it was our only night with a kitchen, we decided to cook dinner tonight!

We headed to Bonus supermarket along Laugavegur street, just 15 minutes away from our apartment.

The pricing is definitely cheap for Iceland and our dinner costs about S$12 in total.

On our way home, we passed by Braud & Co, a bakery famous for their cinnamon buns.

Unable to resist the temptations, we bought a cinnamon bun for 490 isk (3.60 eur) to share.

The cinnamon bun was so good!

The cinnamon taste was strong which I really liked and the bun was fluffy.

It was huge too and we saved half of it for breakfast.

That’s it for Day 2!

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Click here for our Day 3 adventures

or retrace our steps here for our Day 1 adventures!

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