Today we rented out 2 cars (5/pp per vehicle) to take on the Golden Circle at our own leisurely pace. This ended up costing around $60-$70 USD per person for the whole day (including car rental insurance), which was a little cheaper than taking a public bus around the Golden Circle but which also allowed us to take our time at taking pictures of vistas that fancied us.

 

Our first official stop on the Golden Circle Route was Thingvellir Park, Iceland’s first national park and only 23km north of Reykjavik:

 

We then walked through the official separation of the tectonic plates between North America and Eurasia at Thingvellir:

 

We then headed to our second stop on the Golden Circle: Geysir and Strokkur, to watch…uhm, the geysers?

 

We then finished the Golden Circle route with a third stop at Gullfoss, a beautiful convergence of 3 waterfalls, probably most recognizable for where Ridley Scott’s Prometheus was filmed:

Some more nature:

 

We also checked out Kerid, a meteor lake that was the only thing we’ve been to in Iceland that cost an admission fee ($3 USD per person). Not sure why, but this is what you get for $3 USD:

 

We walked around the other side for another photo op:

We also stopped by the side of the road on our way from Kerid  to catch a wicked sunset:

 

And to end a very productive DIY day, we rested our weary feet at the newly refurbished Laugarvatn Geothermal Hot Springs (about $23 USD/pp):

Cheers to our last day in Iceland! Couldn’t really sleep while driving around today, so I’ve been awake for approximately 48 hours at this point. I’m both running on fumes and starting to feel a little insane. I think we’re all getting a little loopy. Let’s get weird tonight!

- At time of posting in Gullfoss, it was 24.8 °F -

Humidity: 76% | Wind Speed: n/a | Cloud Cover: cloudy