Check the weather today!!

We are on the bus for the Golden Circle tour. We just booked through Bus Iceland direct as we’d used Get Your Guide before.

We had to walk a half hour in Reykjavik, to get to the tour bus stop for 8am.

The weather has completely changed. The temperature has increased by about 10 degrees… at least… but it is wet and windy. The compacted snow everywhere has now all turned to the worst black ice!! It still feels very cold.

Here’s an overview of our trip.

Our first stop was Kerid Crater. I think we are very lucky to see this completely frozen. This is a volcano that erupted 6.000 years ago and the cone fell in leaving this lake that’s 7-15m deep. It’s usually a beautiful turquoise in the sunshine!! Here’s the website Kerid Volcano

It still feels really cold with the wind chill factor… or the gale-chill factor 😆😆 see what I did there?!?

I have so many clothes on that I can barely move 😆😆

The Columbia ski trousers I have on came from my Mum’s Oxfam shop for £18 and there’s not a mark on them! They’ve been amazing but with almost 9° today I was almost melting by the time the bus got back into Reykjavík!

I’ve taken a few photos of the road as we went… honestly we’ve not been able to see much today.

The Secret Lagoon doesn’t look like much from the outside… it was built in 1891 and is where many Icelanders learned to swim.

It is surrounded by hot springs and the water is between 38 to 40°C.

You head in to a mixed changing room and leave your boots and socks, then head to ladies and gents respectively.

You then have to shower naked and wash in a communal ladies of gents shower, before you put your swimming costume on.

I cringed a little bit at this but, to be honest, as the locals are all doing it, come the time to strip off, it actually seems like the most natural thing in the world. The youngsters on our bus all kept their bikini bottoms on. Us Brits are such a shy race when it comes to stuff like that. Is it a bit weird that I’m really proud of myself for embracing it?!? Also there’s a strong likelihood that my derrier is covered in black plaster patch marks from my HRT patches… 🙄😬 hey ho.

This is the view from the water.

I took some pics and then I went and out my phone back in the locker. The walk from the changing room to the warm water is bitter!!

My towel had landed in a puddle….. it was wringing wet. Rookie error not to leave it in the locker.

Here’s one of the springs at the side of the pool. They can get up to temps of 100°C or 212°F!!

I had to take my glasses off too as I was steaming up!

We then take a walk around the hot springs, once we are fully dressed obviously!

Our next stop was the Geysir region named after the famous Geysir which is the first geyser in Iceland to receive a name. It was once the most powerful shooting fountain in Iceland but it has now been dormant since 1916!! It only spouted once again in 1935 and never since!

Strokkur is the main erupting hot spring in the Haukadalur Valley of South Western Iceland now.

Yup I missed it…. I pressed record then stop recording pretty much in the same second!

Craig got a video of it!

This was the next stop…. Only 7 minutes up the road.

This was the best place all day. Gullfoss Waterfall. It was mind blowing, just out of this world.

I cannot tell you how spectacular this looks in real life. I will post some videos when I get a chance.

When your husband is 10feet tall!!

Such a special place despite the howling gales!I’m so glad we got to Gullfoss.

Our last and final stop was Thingvellir National Park. Here’s the link to the website Thingvellir National Park… these photos make it look lighter than it actually was.

The only downside to going in the winter is that it was almost dark already. We could hardly stand up on the ice in the strong wind and it was hard to take photos!! This is the gap between two tectonic plates…. Is my understanding… it was also the site of the annual parliament I. Iceland from the year 930 until 1798.

It was beyond wild here! We could hardly see anything. The pics turned out surprisingly well. This is us….😆

The bus headed straight back to Reykjavik from here and we were able to get off at the bus stop right next to our hotel woop woop! I was a tad warm as I was wearing 3 pairs of trousers!!!!!

We have a code for 10% off…. SUNNY10 for anyone who might want to use it!!

So out for dinner tonight….

Amazing other amazing meal. I am stuffed

Another great day. We are pre-sad we have to come home on Tuesday.

Stay safe everyone 🫶🏼🇮🇸🫶🏼