Today we left our hotel in Reykjavik and began our tour. The other three people that were supposed to join our group did not ever check into the Hotel, so did not make the tour. So that means it is onlu 8 of us plus the guide, Karl. And, Jaime is the only guy! Well, except for our guide.

Breakfast was included with this hotel as well, so we got up, enjoyed some food, and got on our shuttle to begin. We left about 9am, and it was still dark at that time. The darkness makes you sleepy, no matter how much sleep you get the night before. So on the drive to the Golden Circle, we slept a little more. Karl said that most of the time, we will leave early in the morning so we can drive while it is dark, and get to our locations before they get too crowded.

Our stops today were on a famous route in Iceland known as the Golden Circle. It includes a few locations. Our first stop was at Thingevellir - where the National Parliament of Iceland was. It also lies in a valley that is the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates - hence the cool cliffs and scenery. It was a little walk down the path to see the sites at this National Park, then it was back into the shuttle.

On the way to each location, Karl would explain where we were going and the significance of each place. Our second stop was at the Strokkur Geyser. This was a very interesting area. There were several geysers there, only the one that erupts, but several boiling pools, and other geothermal areas that produced steam. You can see the different areas where steam is coming off from the ground in one of the photos. The Strokkur Geyser erupts every 6 to 12 minutes or so. We were lucky enough to see it a couple of times, and also lucky enough to be there when it wasn't too crowded, so we could enjoy the view fully.

The next stop was at the Gullfoss Waterfall (Golden Waterfall). The place looked oddly familiar, and Jaime pointed out that this was our meeting point yesterday when we switched from the shuttle to the SuperJeep for our snowmobiling tour! We were at this exact parking lot yesterday, and had no idea the Gullfoss was just a mere two minute walk past the gift shop. That was ok though, we got to save the glory for today. Karl said the Gullfoss is said to rival Niagra Falls, and while not as big, it is comparably breathtaking. We took a lot of photos here, because it was not that crowded, so we took advantage of that. Some were taken with my cell phone, but the really vivid ones were taken with Jaime's fancy camera. I swear some of the photos look like we are just standing in front of a fake backdrop, the scenery is so unbelievable, but trust me, we were there. It was real.

Because we were making such good time, Karl stopped at yet another waterfall, and so help me, I cannot remember the name of this one. But still made for some great photos.

The next stop was optional, but several of us decided to partake in swimming in the Secret Lagoon. Now unlike the Blue Lagoon, the Secret Lagoon is a natural geothermal pool, and it has a little geyser near it that went off every 10 minutes or so. The water here was very hot, almost too hot in some places, and the bottom of it was just dirt and rocks, it was not paved or anything. Made for a pretty cool and authentic Iceland experience. (Even though it was just tourists there - it is really not that secret. But still cool). In the group photo, there are three of the people on our tour with us, all super cool. Katya is from Germany, Megan is from North Carolina, and Steph is from Australia. We enjoyed getting to know each other a bit more. Jaime and I also got some Icelandic Beer and really thought it was cool to drink that while relaxing in the natural hot spring.

After our (too short) time at the Secret Lagoon we loaded back into the shuttle and continued to our last stop - the Uridafoss Waterfall. As we were losing daylight, we then continued to our accomodations for the night - a local farm turned into a guesthouse in the Hvolsvollur Valley.

It is kind of like a hotel in that everybody has their own rooms and bathrooms, but it is just a one-story place, and the rooms have real keys, not key cards. And it is locally owned, so we are supporting a local business. Which also means real Icelandic cooking. Dinner is not required, but fun to sit around and eat with everybody, so Jaime and I of course joined for dinner. My only option was yet again "Vegetarian Dish," but was I ever lucky again. It was delicious! Jaime had a pulled pork sandwich, which I forgot to take a photo of.

Karl said every hour or so, he would go out to check if the Northern Lights were out. There was a room at the end of the hallway where our rooms were, so we all hung out in there, drank some beer, played some cards, and waiting to see if the Aurora Borealis would show. The cool and weird thing was, that it did, but it was hard to see with the naked eye.

The photos you see of the Northern Lights are often photoshopped or time lapsed. The vivid green lights that take up the whole sky is not what it really looks like each time it comes out. Karl explained how the natural phenomena takes place, but I really couldn't try to re-explain it if I tried. He also explained that something in the camera lens catches something else that the naked eye can't see and that is why you can see them more clearly in photos. It is all very complicated. Anyways, it was a bit cloudy and even if the lights are out, if it is cloudy, you cannot see them. We all also had apps on our phones that let us know the probability of seeing them if the skies are clear, so we were all checking that as well.

The lights were out, but you could barely see them. Now if you take a slow exposure photo with a professional camera, you could see the tint of green in the sky, as seen in the last photo in this album. I will not lie to you, I could not see this just by looking at the sky. Karl said he could make it out, that is why he knew to take the photo. So while we could see the lights were in the sky since the camera captured it, it was not very vivid in person. Was still very cool to be in the presence of the Aurora Borelis, and we are still going to count this one, in the even the lights do not come back out before we go home. ;)

Tomorrow is another long day with lots of driving and stops along the way. We will be making our way to Jokulsarlon, which is all the way on the East Coast. More beautiful nature tomorrow!