May 30 – Gullfoss, Greenhouse Lunch, Dyrhólaey

We passed through some beautiful countryside...

small towns...

 farms...

past glacier topped mountains...

and alongside many rivers…

on our way to our first stop, Gullfoss.  It was a sunny day and Gullfoss looked magnificent.

*******************************
Video of Gullfoss
*******************************

The waterfall drops in approximately a right angle to the canyon below.

We viewed the falls from every possible angle.

After taking a gazillion photos we headed off to the Geysir area.  There we saw mud pots and steaming water pots and beautiful mineral deposits.

******************************************
Video of water pot
******************************************

Geysir (pronounced “geezer”), the geyser that gave its name to all others around the world no longer spouts regularly after an earthquake a few years back.  However, Strokkur Geysir spouts every five minutes or so which gave us the opportunity for lots of pictures.

Paul caught it just before it blew (the rounded "dome" of water). 

***********************************************
Video of Geysir
***********************************************

We also stopped at the Secret Lagoon (which isn’t that much of a secret) with the intent to do some thermal bath bathing.  However, while it was thermally heated it seemed to be really just a swimming pool and was pretty crowded so we opted out. 

For lunch we went to the Friðmeimar Greenhouse.  Here they grow mostly tomatoes, almost 17% of all of the tomatoes sold in Iceland.  

We actually ate inside one of the greenhouses.  And the menu was all things tomato...tomato soup, tomato schnapps, tomato beer, tomato pizza, tomato in the water pitcher, pasta with tomatoes and mussels with tomatoes. 

They also had a pot of basil on the table so we could add it to any of our tomato dishes. 

And if that wasn't enough tomatoes, we could (and did) finish the meal with tomato ice cream with tomato based toppings and green tomato and apple pie with whipped cream (desserts served in little terracotta flower pots...how cute).  And it was all very good. 

They had a honeybee hive on display with a glass side so you could see the bees at work.

At the nearby stables there were a number of Icelandic horses. 

A young woman was riding one of the horses in a paddock and the horse was doing the Tӧlt, a smooth, ambling gate  that is unique to the Icelandic horse or breeds that descended from this horse.  It is really interesting to watch. 

***********************************************
Video of the Tolt
***********************************************

From there we headed down to the coastline where we caught a brief glimpse Skógafoss waterfall in the distance.  

Then it was on to the Black Sand Beach.  Iceland has 400 kilometers (250 miles) of black sand beach along its southern coast.  And it is beautiful, particularly when the sun shines.  Our main stop was atop the Dyrohólaey promontory where we had endless views of the beach and the surrounding mountains. 

And of course this was the perfect location for a lighthouse.

We also had good views of the Dyrohólaey Sea Arch that was alive with birds.

There were also good views of Reynisdrangar, the nearby basalt sea stacks.  

We even had good views of the Vestmannaeyhar Islands in the distance.  .

While these features are beautiful (and are a must for tourists) we did manage an unexpected, special shot....a bridal couple was getting photos taken in a very shallow lagoon behind the Dyrohólaey promontory.   And the reflection in the shot was amazing.  This photo was taken through the car window as we were driving past.  It is amazing that it turned out so very well.