This was part of our family vacation to Iceland in 2022. (You can read more about Reykjavik and The Golden Circle in another Iceland trip in 2019.
(Click here to see all our trips.)
Day 1: The Golden Circle
We stayed in Selfoss last night. Though it wasn’t raining this morning, it was super windy. We were doing the Golden Circle today, from Selfoss to Reykjavik. It’s the opposite direction from the last one we did in 2019.
We first stopped at the Geysir Geothermal Field. Strokkur erupted every few minutes, but it was like a quick explosion and would be over in a few seconds. Therefore, one must have the camera or phone ready in waiting and quickly press the button when it erupts. Otherwise, you would miss it and would have to wait for the next one. I missed a couple times before finally managed to take a photo.
There’s a large gift shop on site selling a large selection of merchandise. We checked the prices of chocolate candies there, and they were more than double the prices we found in a supermarket. Since they were so overpriced, we decided not to buy anything in the store, even though I liked some T-shirts the store carried. It turned out to be a mistake not buying from the store, because we couldn’t find similar T-shirts in Reykjavik.
Gullfoss Waterfall (“Golden Falls”) was only a short drive away. We started with the Lower Path, but it was too wet! So, we climbed up to the Upper Path, which was a much better place to take photos of the falls because you wouldn’t get your camera or phone wet. We all took many pictures of the waterfall, even though the light wasn’t ideal.
It was very windy outside, so we retreated to the cafe to have lunch. The food there was only so-so, but the latte was good.
After lunch we drove to the Þingvellir National Park to continue our sightseeing. The park was situated between the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates. It was impressive to walk between high rock walls. This place also had a major significance to the Iceland history — it was where the first parliament was held near the Law Rock. Brother (our older son) and Sister (our daughter) were both tired and didn’t feel so well. Brother decided to return to the Visitor Center after visiting only the first viewing platform. Sister managed to reach the Law Rock before giving up. Only Cutie (our younger son) went with us to Oxararfoss. But then he needed to use WC, so we had to return. (The WC at Parking P2 near the fall was closed for renovation.) Since Rei and I have visited Þingvellir in the previous trip, we decided to cut this visit short. So, we all returned to the car to drive to Reykjavik.
We stayed at the V54 Apartment on Vesturgata. The apartment had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen and a living room area with a sofa bed. Rei made an 8:30pm dinner reservation (couldn’t get an earlier one) at the Food Cellar. It was only around 4:30pm when we checked into the apartment, so Cutie suggested that we went out to get food. (He’s always hungry.)
Cutie had done his research very well. Following his instruction, we first went to Baejarins Beztu Pylsur to get a hot dog. This was the place where President Clinton had a hot dog when he visited Iceland in 2004. Since then, it became a famous place, and there’s always a long line waiting to buy hot dogs, even though the food wasn’t something special. Cutie also led us to a fine bakery store called Sandholt to buy pastries for tomorrow’s breakfast.
The dinner at Matarkjallarinn (“The Food Cellar”) was good, but the service was very slow. Rei ordered a tiger prawn appetizer that had 5 tempura prawns, just enough for each of us. Cutie ordered a mixed meat and seafood plate, which he said was only okay. Brother had fishmen soup and duck. Sister ordered lobster salad. I had char and Rei had tuna. Because it was already late and we were all tired, we decided to skip desserts. Cutie found a gelato shop nearby to have his ice cream dessert.
Day 2: Reykjavik Downtown and the Blue Lagoon
We made coffee and had the pastries we bought yesterday evening as breakfast before going out sightseeing.
We walked along the coast to reach Harpa (the concert hall). This time we had a quick look inside (last time we didn’t enter) before proceeding to the Sun Voyager sculpture.
It was still early morning, and there weren’t too many tourists, so we were able to have some nice pictures there. We also asked another tourist to take a family photo for the five of us. The photo turned out to be the best family picture of the trip. The other family photos were taken using the camera auto setting with a tripod, and they weren’t as good.
Rei and Cutie had their second breakfast when we were on our way to the Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran Church. The sunlight came from the back of the church, and therefore it wasn’t ideal for photo taking. However, we did have chance for an inside visit.
We went into some stores to check their merchandise, but we didn’t make any purchases, because everything was so expensive even though the US dollar was strong. Then we walked past the lake and took several bird photos before choosing a place to have lunch.
After lunch, Rei, Cutie and I went to the Blue Lagoon, while Sister and Brother remained in Reykjavik to do their own sightseeing. We really enjoyed the Blue Lagoon though it’s expensive and considered by many as too tourists. The facility was better than the Myvatn Nature Baths. The water was dreamy blue and hotter. There were many places one could simply sit down to enjoy the fantastic views and steamy hot springs. Our comfort package also came with a drink. Since it was expensive, we spent around two hours there to get our money’s worth.
Later we returned to Reykjavik, and they went to the Omnom Chocolate store to buy a large amount of chocolate to bring back for themselves and friends.
We had dinner at Messinn. The five of us shared seafood pasta and three fish dishes. The food was good and not as expensive as the Food Cellar. We were too sated to have any desserts.
We were all tired, so we simply returned to the apartment to pack our luggage. We were going home tomorrow morning.
Amy 'n Rei 