Crowds at Thingvellir

Iceland Day 4- Grundarfjordur to Gullfoss

This morning there were snow showers and low cloud, so no opportunities for photography.  The drive from Grundarfjorder to Gullfoss first involved driving over a mountain pass to reach the south side of the Snaefelsnes peninsula, which was slow going in heavy snow with poor visibility.  We then retraced our outward routs our original route as far as Borgarnes, then headed over another high pass in poor visibility to arrive at Thingvellir.

Thingvellir is a very popular tourist stop on the ‘Golden Triangle tour from Reykjavik, so it was very busy compared to our previous stops.  From the car park there are views across Thingvallaten, the largest lake in Iceland, but the main attraction is the gorge descending from the car park, which has formed as the  American and European tectonic plates are pulling apart.  This gorge was the location for the ancient Icelandic parliament, and more recently was used as a location in Game Of Thrones.  The path descending the gorge continues for about 1.5 miles to reach Parliament Falls.  These were almost buried in heavy snow, so did not look as impressive as they do in the summer.

From Thingvellir we continued to our final destination at the Gullfoss Hotel.  Once again the weather closed in, so we left a visit to the waterfall for the following morning.


Iceland Day 4


Iceland Day 3     Iceland Day 5