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The Geysir geothermal area in Haukadalur Valley is a small but accessible hot spring on the Golden Circle in the western part of Iceland. The Strokkur geyser is the only one active right now. It erupts about every 5-10 minutes reaching 65-130 feet high. We stayed to watch a few eruptions. They were pretty cool, but hardly mind-blowing.

Beautiful but not much compared to Old Faithful in Yellowstone.

There are several other geysers in the small park but they are currently inactive. We are definitely back in the tourist zone – lots of people around on big tour buses. We’ve been spoiled and people unnerved us!

Gullfoss is a waterfall just up the road from the hot spring. We parked at the lower viewpoint and walked into the spray out to the falls.

It was sunny but very windy!
Gullfoss is on the Olfusa River and is fed by the Langjokull glacier

We then walked up the stairs for upper viewpoint.

The glaciers were begging for more photos. How can you say no to this view?

There were various tour vehicles parked in the upper parking lots. This is one of the more extreme ones. Iceland is a huge 4×4 engineering mecca.

Continuous tire inflation, 335/41” tires. Yeah, serious stuff. 4×4 geek heaven. This means Dave cared and Kris didn’t.
Makes our rental Jeep feel extremely stock and boring!

Lunch was at Fridheimar Farm, a tomato greenhouse with a restaurant inside. Everything on the menu (yes everything) contains some form of tomato. They grow four different kinds of tomatoes and harvest about 2 tons every day. Most remain at the restaurant or local supermarkets. Very few are exported out of Iceland.

There were lots of huge bumblebees flying among the flowers. Busy bees, pretty flowers. The greenhouse has many managed bee hives inside to ensure lots of pollination of the tomato plants.

The refillable tomato soup with beautiful bread selection was a definite highlight.

So very yummy. Cucumber relish and fresh sweet basil right on the table!
Birch Tree Schnapps served in a tomato cup. The schnapps bottle contains a birch twig. Weird but good.
Tomato Lager Beer. Tasted like beer (thankfully).
Tomato IPA Beer. One was brewed from green tomatoes, the other from red tomatoes (not sure which was which)
Green tomato ice cream. Better than you’d think.

The farm has some Icelandic horses for competition. No feeding but petting is allowed.

After many days of hikes it was time for some hot springs. Secret Lagoon (Gamla Laudin – or the old pool) is the oldest natural swimming pool in Iceland. We had to obey Icelandic hot spring etiquette – naked shower before entering the pool.

Scrub everywhere! It’s a rule.
Small but very nice lagoon beside a hot spring out in the middle of nowhere
Old change huts behind us.

cute little turf house models scattered around the lagoon

All around the pool are the natural hot springs. The signs are for real. This water is deadly!

Definitely 100ºC

After pasta with meatballs for dinner, we expect to sleep well tonight!

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