Day five was our last full day, since I had lost day six due to my flight to Iceland being delayed 24 hours. Because of this we had slightly rushed our schedule and crossed a few things off our list. We were unsure if we would make it to "The Golden Circle", but we did, and had even made it to Thingvellir National Park to camp the night before and begin our adventures early on our last day.
We had gone to sleep to dreary rainy weather, and unfortunately it went on through the night and woke up to a full day of THAT too. Boo. Not great, but at least it was still something you could go out in, being a misty dreary weather and not the torrential downpour like I'm used to of Florida's rainy weather.
So, first to explore Thingvellir and see the walk the rift between the tectonic plates.
That is one of the many cairns you see across Iceland that were used for navigation in the old days.
Also at Thingvellir here is the waterfall Oxararfoss.
And look, a bit of rare Icelandic forest...
Thingvellir was so beautiful. I wish the weather had been nicer so I could have really gotten into exploring more. Off of one picnic area we found a trail down into what looked like another rift, it was oh so mossy and beautiful.
After Thingvellir the next stop on The Golden Circle is Geysir. It was crowded and none of the photos I took looked great so I got nothing to post here. Honestly, we were not very enchanted by Geysir, although the land is steaming and it's cool to see the geyser go off, but compared to all the amazing things I had already seen in Iceland, this was not very exciting.
From there you can go on to Gulfoss, another impressive and powerful waterfall, that has some neat history behind it too- many thanks to Sigridur Tomasdottir for saving the falls from being developed as an electrical plant so we can all enjoy it!
Amidst our cold and wet adventures of the day, there was a warm comforting most PERFECT place on The Golden Circle- Fridheimar greenhouse restaurant.
Fridheimar's greenhouse grows tomatoes for all of Iceland, and for their restaurant. You can tour the greenhouse, which is buzzing with bees and has Wagtail's flitting about.
And then, you can EAT at the greenhouse because it's a restaurant too! And you can enjoy all those birds and bees while you're eating! There is a menu offered, but the choice was obvious for us- the all you can eat tomoto soup and bread buffet. They also bring you water with little cherry tomatoes in it, cucumber salsa for the bread, and a fresh basil plant on the table to pluck leaves from for your soup. And a coffee/tea bar so I had like 5 cups of delicious warm coffee after a week of drinking instant in the camper! It was heaven.
A couple days after I got home from Iceland I was making their tomato soup recipe at home trying to recreate the magic- impossible! Although the soup was good and their recipe can be found online. (It is sweetened with mango.) And now, I end the day with more sweet (wet) Icelandic animals.
