The Golden Circle is the name given to a group of
spectacular scenery southeast of Reykjavik. This area is the home of
waterfalls, geysers, bubbling and boiling hot springs, and other
geographical oddities. The ice and snow of the winter season made the
sights even more spectacular, even though the temperature throughout
the day was around 25 degrees F with a -10 degree wind chill.
To the left is a river completely covered in ice. On the other side of the bridge at the left side of the car, you could see the blue water of the river flowing into ice. The water in the rivers are blue because of the lack of pollution in Iceland. These rivers have no problems with sewerage or industrial waste flowing into them. Below is a typical Icelandic river, in which blue water flows rapidly downstream due glacial melting and runoff at higher levels.
Below are some interesting sites at Geysir, the geyser from which all geysers in the
world are named. The temperature and wind chill were so cold at this
site that as I took my hand out of my glove to wait for the geyser
Strokkur to erupt (which is every 5 to 7 minutes),
my hands got so cold that I could not manipulate the shutter and zoom
buttons on my camera. I was wearing long underwear, a blouse,
sweater, blue jeans, snow boots, my heavy coat, gloves, and an old
Santa Claus-type hat that Bill hates. (I did buy a new wool hat in
Iceland.) Bill said he just had to take this picture showing me
wearing the hat. I didn't care as long as I could stay warm.
Return to "On Top of
the World."