Golden Circle your with Reykjavik Excursions

Last night we went to sleep at midnight (9pm EST). It was a struggle to stay away but we made it.  The kids fell asleep immediately.  Once they were asleep I got up filled out the post cards and booked a tour to "the golden circle" for today.  I booked through Reykjavik Excursions tour company.  It cost 9900isk for me and children 0-11 were free!  Woohoo! So far the kids have been free, thank god, you know my budget be tight!!! (Yes.. It BE tight!) there were many tours that looked great like a glacier adventure on snowmobiles, it was crazy expensive though (the kids weren't free) and I didn't want to add to the fierce wind by gliding on a glacier with the elements kicking our asses!  Dude is too young for whale watching so that was also out.  I boat tour through glaciers at Jökulsárlón glacial Lagoon looked nice, the kids could go free but it said to bring rain gear and warm clothes.  The pix looked like you were inviting the glacier to attack you with aggressive coldness.  I think this is something I can do with the boys when they are like 20 yrs old, if they still want to travel with me. So that is how we decided in the Golden Corcle tour.  From what I could tell we would see an amazing waterfall and a geyser and the trip was from 9am- 5pm.  Little did I know that it was much more than those 2 things.  

I booked out pick up from a nearby hotel.  I almost panicked when I saw the tour company only picked up from hotels but on the list a saw "hotel cabin" and remembered that as a bus stop 3 blocks from our apartment so I crossed my fingers and named that as our pick up spot.  

After we woke up we got dressed in many many layers.  I could hear the wind beating at the window and blowing the  layers of curtains inside the house.  I could only imagine the wind abuse we'd suffer once we got outside.  We left the house at 8, pick us was at 8:30. It took us about 4 minutes to walk to hotel cabin.  I was soon relieved and happy to see others tourist waiting in the lobby to join the same tour.  They bus got to us about 8:50.  We drove to the main BSI tour terminal switched buses.  We grabbed some quick snacks then got in our bus to Golden Cirlce.  Dude and Zane got chips and powerade,  I got a cheese and garlic sandwich (only in Europe is this a choice!) and it was delicious!! I still have bottle water from the plane ride that I stashed... Yea I took like 5 bottles while we were deplane get.  Ok back toniceland... After getting our snacks we got on the bus with the English Dutch speaking guide because the English French was full.  We took seats toward the back of the already full tour bus and as I looked around I was convince that only about 7 people (including U.S. 3) were the only ones under 60 years old! The guide introduced herself and we were off.  Dude quickly ate his chips and fell asleep almost immediately.  Zane was up and looking around in amazement,occasionally checking US sports info over the bus's free wifi.  

We learned so much about Iceland.  First we passed over he colcano rift.  Iceland was formed by volcanic eruptions, and crossed over to tectonic plates.  It's inky 1% forest and most of he trees are very small.  The joke here is that if you ever get lost in the forest in Iceland- "just stand up"!  After about an hour and a half drive we arrived at a greenhouse tomato farm.  It was so much more interesting than I would have thought check the next post for pix and videos! 

Glaciers

Short Icelandic pine forest.  LOL!