Here’s a unique summary. Many references to the Golden Circle tour have the perfunctory comments. This one includes knitwear, singing, Guinness and Icelandic beer and inspired the ‘witty’ category and tag.
Quote from Stouters:
There are hazards in Iceland. Knitwear is one, singing seems to be another. So, while we were travelling round on the Golden Circle tour, the tour guide insisted on singing us the sort of traditional Icelandic songs that probably requires knitwear to be worn while performing.
The Golden Circle is one of those things that you do even though it’s touristy: some things are touristy for a reason and that’s usually because in some way shape or form they tend to verge on the epic. The Kerið volcanic crater passes in a blur, the Gullfoss waterfall is an amazing torrent of water over ice, and the Geysir thermal area is, of course, the place that christened an entire geological phenomenon. Þingvellir National Park is probably the piece de resistance though, the site of not only the oldest existing parliament in the world but also where the North American and Eurasian continental plates are being ripped apart by plate tectonics at the stately rate of 2cm per year. Under azure skies, you gaze down from a basalt cliff at the flagpole which marks where the Lawspeaker used to stand and recite the law and settle disputes and then across a 7km wide rift valley. Aside from a couple of islands (several off the Icelandic coast) this is some of the youngest land in the world.
We celebrate by finding an Irish pub and downing a couple of Guinnessi. Now, this may sound like cultural imperialism but, to be honest, the only thing Icelandic beer has got going for it is the complete absence of flavour (which, considering the aforementioned putrefied shark or sheep’s head is probably a good thing). It’s cold, it’s vaguely fizzy, comes in strong and astoundingly weak varieties, and the head brewer at the Vífilfell Brewery rejoices in the name Baldur. Insert your own Tolkein joke here.
