Starting our Driving Tour around Iceland

I don't think we could have asked for a better day to introduce ourselves to Iceland than today.

We slept like the dead after the Blue Lagoon, and when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed we got started on our tour of the Golden Circle and some other common stops near Reykjavik. We had a beautiful, sunny morning to start, and it lasted most of the day (with the occasional interruption of a 3 minute rain cloud, because it IS Iceland).

The drive was stunning. There's no good way to capture Iceland in a photo - the mountains dwarfing you, the wide open fields, the brilliant plant colors in a stark, wide open landscape. The ground really is this amazing spring green color, and we saw rainbows galore throughout the day.

The first waterfall we were planning on seeing, Bruarfoss, is on private property and the owners no longer allow access. That meant that when we came to our next stop, Geysir, we had time to do a bit more of a hike rather than just running to see the geyser explode. (We DID see the geyser explode a few times, though!) The whole area is a bit surreal - black and red dirt surrounded by brilliant green moss, smoking orange and turquoise pools and the occasional pool that is continually bubbling like a witch's cauldron. It was very cool!

From there, we started the tour of waterfalls. There are a LOT of waterfalls to see here, and we could have stopped at far more of them than we did. Today we stuck to the most famous (and touristy) ones, and every one was incredible. We also only made it to our hotel 10 minutes before the end of check in time, so we couldn't have fit much more in!

In the middle of our waterfall tour, we took a quick break to visit a natural hot springs in the mountains that, decades ago, someone built into a swimming pool. It's in an incredible location, surrounded by mountains and waterfalls, but it's been a bit overrun by tourists and has gotten a little gross. It was still an interesting experience and absolutely worth at least the hike in to see the beautiful scenery - but I can't recommend the pool as the peaceful, pure oasis that people raved about.

Finally, we got to see a sunset in Iceland, which isn't something we expected to see a lot of - and we just came in from a wonderful viewing of the northern lights. For a first full day in Iceland, I don't think you could beat today!