On day five, our last day in Iceland, we got up early to drive out to the Thingvellir National Park. It isn't a very far drive from Reykjavik and it's part of what they call the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle's main attractions are Strokkur, Geysir and Gullifoss (foss in Icelandic means waterfall).
Lots of troll rocks.
The continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates can be clearly seen in the cracks.
A popular thing to do in Thingvellir is to go scuba diving in the crystal clear water. And they do it year round! People were just finishing up when we arrived and as we were leaving, several groups were getting ready to go in the water.
The image below is not my image, I took it off of Google. I just wanted to show you what it looks like under water when you are scuba diving in Thingvellir. You actually scuba in between techtonic plates. Scuba diving in Iceland! In winter! Ha!
There is a bridge you walk over and people throw coins in. If you can see your coin touch the bottom, your wish will come true. It sounds simple enough but it takes a decent amount of time to watch your coin float down. It flips and turns like a piece of paper floating in the wind. Neat stuff!
The rock looked like an old tree trunk.
It's really hard to tell but we are about to hike a small area of land in between two rivers. It was so secluded where we were, all alone. Loved it!
We were geocaching and you had to climb up over the rocks to get to it since the path was frozen over.
The cache hidden under rocks.
We were on the edge of a cliff. Nothing but rocks and cold water down below!
My treasures I took. Some kid thought this was treasure enough to put in a cache so now it's my treasure. The door is my favorite. I love it and still have it.
This was the first group of sheep we saw. They were grazing in this picturesque field with the awesome sky. I had to stop. They were so funny. Once I got out of the car the whole group started moving but they would all look and stare at me.
We made it to Geysir! This is a small hot bubbling pool of water.
Could we have picked a more gorgeous day to be out here?!
Aaron snapped a shot of me while I was taking a pic. Very rare sight, indeed.
Took this lonely road to find a cache hidden somewhere in that little forest over there.
Turns out the road dead ends at this adorable little church on a small cliff overlooking a river. That is why I love geocaching!! It takes you places you would not visit and you get to see things you would not normally be able to see!
Aaron didn't want a picture in his silly hat but I had to. I just couldn't resist.
The cache!
After that stop we headed to the Gullifoss waterfall. It was so cold. In general, Iceland is cold in February but Gullifoss brought cold to a whole new level that day. I took my pictures and got the heck out of there!!
Is was very beautiful. I am someone who loves to watch water. I like rivers, oceans, waterfalls. I wanted to stand and marvel in it's glory but it was too much wind for me!
We decided to stray off of the Golden Circle and do our own thing. We passed over a cute bridge and I thought the water was just amazing. The teal color mixed with the chunks of ice floating in it. Breathtaking!
Finally got a chance to stop and take some horse pictures. Icelandic horses are stout in winter with that heavy winter coat on! Adorable. They look like hobbit horses. I want one.
Wouldn't this horse be ridiculously good looking in this pic if it wasn't for the barb wire? I think this is his blue steel look.
This smart fellow figured out Aaron had a sugar cube in his pocket and went right for it as soon as Aaron walked up.
The other horses knew someone was getting treats and came to join him. Aaron only had the one sugar cube though.
Stopped for another cache in the dark!
We had to walk across a solid sheet of ice. We had to shuffle our feet to make it without falling. Good times.
When we got back into Reykjavik we stopped and grabbed a little bit of dinner at Krua Thai.
I've never seen such an orange toilet in such an orange bathroom before!
Our dinner was about $31.
Thai food in Iceland is a bit different than here. It was very running. I'm used to a little thicker of a sauce. The flavor was spot on though. The heat level nice.
Oh, you thought our evening ended there? Nope!! Not by a long shot!!!! We decided to find a cache that is only accessible when the tides are down, which happened to be about 10 pm that night, so we made the trip around 11 pm. Aren't we cool in our headlights?! Not very stylish, but a definite necessity!
Random cache swag.
Our travel bug Sam we left in Iceland. (He is currently traveling around Germany).
So we walk across this beach to get to a little island where there is a light house. The cache we were after was hidden somewhere on this island. It was 11 pm, pitch black, freezing cold and impossible to find the cache.
I didn't write down the clue so we had to go back to our hotel to get more info to find this cache. The whole time we could see cars pull into the deserted parking lot where we parked. We could not figure out why people kept driving out to this deserted spot so late at night.
DUH!!!! When we got back to park and get out, the wole sky was lit up with the Northern Lights. It was amazing! The lights come and go as they please and these lingered for a good 10 minutes. Amazing. What a great last night in Iceland!!
I could not take a good pic of the lights to save my life!! But this is what I got.
We march back across the beach (whose tide is much higher now) and try again to find the cache. We didn't and the tide was getting higher and higher. This was probably 1 am at this point. I gave up long before Aaron and found this snow carving someone had left.
After the lighthouse island fiasco (the lights made up for it) we drove back into the heart of Reykjavik for one last cache. Remember this mural from day 1 of our trip? Well that is the location of a hidden cache!
The largest cache I have ever and probably will ever see!! Loved it!!
This is my treasure. A real painting done in 1995 by I have no idea. It's paint and dirt and has details etched in the paint all throughout. I love it and it is hanging in my craft room!! I will never let it go! I was seriously excited when I saw this. In case you haven't noticed...I love handmade swag the best.
That was our last night in Iceland. Only one day left!
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