After my first day in Reykjavik, I had heard of The Golden Circle Tour by everyone, everywhere I went. I was told it was a "must see" tour and it was offered by many different tour companies. The problem for me was these tours are 7-9 hours long as they cover 150-190 miles, and I did not have that much time on my last day in Reykjavik since I had to board the cruise ship at 1:30 p.m. So the hotel concierge connected me with a private tour guide who said she could do it in 5 hours for a personalized tour of the sites I chose. She picked me (and my luggage) up at the hotel at 8:30 a.m., took me to the Golden Circle sites I wanted to see, and then delivered me (and my luggage) to the cruise ship for 1:30 p.m. The three primary Golden Circle highlights I saw are: (1) Thingvellir National Park (in Selfoss, Iceland), where you can see the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the only place in the world where the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate meet above ground, and you can walk in between them. (2) is Geysir Geothermal Park where you can see geothermal activity, including geysers. (3) is Friðheimar Greenhouse & Restaurant in the village of Reykholt; a unique greenhouse which grows produce and incorporates the restaurant among the groves. Greenhouses are very important as Iceland's growing season is too short for most produce. For photos taken at each of these sites, I begin their captions with a (1), (2), or (3) to indicate at which site they were taken.
Copyright on All Photos: © 2023 Mark A. Nutting
Created on 12/11/2023 4:23:12 PM
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