We packed up our belongings , and said goodbye to Moussoulens to begin stage 2 of our adventure! As we were leaving Rhonda became very excited as finally all the sunflowers that she had been hoping to see were out in full glory , so of course we had to take a photo!

So Iceland here we come!

We stayed the night with our French family , and then took the TGV train to the airport and flew to Reykjavik, and our first impressions were……WOW !

 

The weather helped, being a sunny,  balmy 14 degrees, but hey no rain! You could easily recognize the locals, as they were wearing shorts, t shirts, and thongs. The city could be described as “quite trendy” as there are lots of bars , coffee shops , and loads of shops selling Icelandic knitwear , which of course Rhonda has already bought! The buildings in the main street have loads of character , and we are both quite excited by the fact that Icelanders seem to know how to make good coffee. We have had the best coffee so far since we have been away, almost as good as Brunettis!

 

 

 

We were quite impressed with the Harpa Concert Hall.

 

 

 

We will return to Reykjavik at the end of our tour of “The Ring Road” for a couple of nights so we will be able to frequent a few more bars! One thing we have noticed very early is the cost! A coffee is about $6 Aussie and the beers are reasonable ……but only in Happy Hour where you get 2 for 1 ! the city reminds us a little of Wellington in NZ.

So after our first night in Iceland, this morning we picked up our hire car, a little Peugeot 2008, which we have affectionately names “Pjetur” (an Icelandic name) but we call him Pete for short!

We set off around the “Golden Circle” and our first stop was Pinguellir National Park. It was here on June 17th 1944 that Icelanders celebrated their Independence from Denmark.

The park is situated on the tectonic plate where North America and Europe are tearing away from each other at a rate of 1mm to 18mm per year! (Now that Trump has become President the European side may want to accelerate the separation faster!)

The rock formations were stunning and Greg’s knees got a work out as walked throughout the Park. The pretty wooden church dates back to 1859. The National Park is home to Iceland’s biggest lake, 84 sq kms of pure glacial water.

We then continued to the Gullfoss Waterfall, a 2 tiered waterfall that drops 32 metres into a narrow canyon 70 metres deep and 2.5 kms long. It was pretty stunning, although Greg did say he preferred Niagara Falls!

We did get a little wet when we walked to the viewing platform on the rocks for a closer look but it was worth it.

 

 

Next stop was Geysir, one of the most popular geothermal regions in Iceland ( and as were all of our attractions today , full of tourists!)

The geyser Strokkur, erupts about every 5 to 10 minutes. It was quite amusing to watch all the photographers (Greg included) standing there with cameras poised….waiting waiting waiting!

And there she blows!

 

Our final stop for the day was at Skalholt to see the church, yes there are plenty of them here……here goes more ABC’s!

It was then time to head to our accommodation, the Sel Guesthouse. When we arrived, we found out that the internet was quite fast , so hence the blog!

One thing we are enjoying here in Iceland , is the fact that we can drink water straight from the tap, pure fresh cold glacial water. It is so much better than that bottled stuff we had to buy in France!

By the way the sun sets at around midnight and rises around 2am, and it is never really dark! It is quite strange, but we think that the accommodation places have good block out curtains, or at least we hope they do!

So it’s time for dinner now! We hate to think how many thousand Krona it will be, but hey one has to eat!

So its bye for now

Love Greg and Rhonda