Iceland Adventure: Day 6

Thursday 9/8: Golden Circle & Snorkeling

Today was our shortest day tour, still beginning at 8am but returning by 6:30pm. We began with our snorkel adventure in the Silfra fissure, which is in Thingvellir National Park. The water comes from a glacier (of course) and is always right around 3 degrees Celsius (37ish degrees Fahrenheit). We had to provide our own base layer of long underwear and then got into a fleece-lined jumpsuit and finished off with a dry suit. We also had wetsuit gloves and a head covering. This was the first time in a dry suit for both of us! The water was incredibly clear so you could see deep into the fissure, and the protective gear kept us relatively warm, although my hands and wrists took a while to warm up, especially because I had extra elastics around the wrist area to help keep the dry suit seal tight.

 (Note: The last two photos are from the tour company's staff, not specifically from our snorkel experience. They definitely give a good sense of the experience!) 

Once we got out of our gear and back into our regular clothes, we were dropped off at the site of the first Parliament, a very historic and cultural space for Iceland and Icelanders.

We had nearly two hours to explore and have lunch before getting picked up for the remainder of the Golden Circle tour in the afternoon, which included stops at the AMAZING waterfall Gullfoss and then finishing with a stop at Geysir to see some hot pots and geyser eruptions.

Then back to Reykjavik, where once again got off near the church, which was silhouetted against the twilight sky.

We took advantage of the earlier return time to go to the SKY rooftop bar for a cocktail and a great view out over the harbor. Mr. E ordered his usual special Manhattan, and I had a Negroni made with Stuðlaberg Icelandic gin, which we were able to find later at the Duty Free store in the airport to bring home with us!