Saturday, November 24, 2007
DAY 3: The Golden Circle
After walking in the rain on a glacier, we took the next day pretty easy. The fact that we were almost 30 years younger than the average tourist on the bus would give you some idea.
The Golden Circle is THE touristy thing to do (other than the Blue Lagoon) since it shows off many of Iceland's natural wonders.
First stop was in the town of Hveragerði, a town built around the industry of "greenhouse vegetables." The tomatoes that we ate every morning came from this town... a weird orangy, thin skinned,sweet-sour tasting fruit er...,vegetable, as did the more normal tasting cucumbers. This town of barely 2,000 also grows the most bananas in Europe.
This stop was primarily a tourist trap... we stayed for about 45 minutes to use the "facilities" and buy plastic trolls, postcards, etc at the Eden-themed giftshop/restaurant. It was filled with fellow Golden Circle-ists (two buses full).
We were in the German/English tour bus so everything was said in duplicate. I warned Lucky that I might accidentally talk to him in German because I could hear in my head the merging of languages that happens whenever I'm immersed in German. The seats were very cramped and I seriously considered switching to the other bus but luckily we didn't...
On the way to our next stop, the other tour bus somehow got into an accident with a compact car and was delayed waiting for it all to be sorted out.
That stop was Kerith (Kerið)...a volcanic crater lake. It was amazing. The water is a stunning turquoise blue and the red rock was covered with moss and lichen.
Day 3: Part 1