Round the World in 150 days!: Day 5 & 6 - Thingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss, & the start of Vik

Our Iceland adventure continues! We have ventured out in our tiny grey european rental car (we say tiny because it seems like all Icelanders drive SUVs that have raised chassis and tires taller than Ines). We were lucky enough to have the most beautiful weather. We toured the central regions to see the most picturesque landscape Iceland has to offer. The photos below do not begin to demonstrate the wonder of what we viewed in person.

We started with the national park of Thingvellir, which provided a huge and gorgeous scenic Iceland landscape. Not far from there was the "Geysir". It's the mother of all geysers because it is the original geyser that named all others. Unfortunately it is no longer active, although just a few steps away another geyser called Strokkur (video below) provided us with a hot droplet shower every ten minutes (you would think we were kids in a candy store, so excited every time the geyser blew its boiling hot water droplets all over us). Safe to say no scalding burns were suffered, although Korey failed to wear his waterproof shoes so he was dancing around while walking trying to avoid the water pools.

The most spectacular scene was the Gullfoss waterfall, allowing us to get so close to the edge of the waterfall we could almost see the pot of gold at the end of the beautiful rainbow the waterfall created with its water spray. Korey says it rivals that of Niagara Falls (and doesn't have the commercialism surrounding it...), and Ines made him promise she could form her own judgement on that fact when we return to the US. You might ask, "How were these two able to cover so much distance and see so many sights in a day?", well, we beat the tourist lines - human cattle herding - and saved some Icelandic Krona by buying breakfast and lunch at the city supermarket (actually just a market, "super"-market is really an American term) and eating in the car between destinations (thanks Ines!).

The next day was filled with rest and relaxation due to inclement weather (36 degrees and 25 mph winds!). As Korey's father would say, we decided to "pit under the yellow" and took to the local restaurants in Vik, trying different Icelandic foods. Korey "let" Ines try them all and guess what they were, then confirm the guess with waitstaff, before trying himself. We know who the adventurous eater is in the family!

Things we learned. 1) Cured lamb jerky is delicious! (according to Ines, Korey liked it better after he knew what it was), and 2) We both can make it about 6 days of go, go, go before needing to sleep in till noon.