We had a very busy second day in Iceland visiting a cave, the Gullfoss Waterfall, the Great Geysir, and a volcano.
After a good night's rest at our hostel in the small town of Laugarvatn, we started our day with a great breakfast, and then we were ready to go!
Our first stop was at a cave that until 1922 served as a home for five different people. The first was a young Icelandic couple that live in the cave until 1911. When they moved out, a man made the cave his home, and then another couple lived there until 1922.
From there we ventured on to the Gullfoss Waterfall, Iceland's most popular waterfall.
The Gullfoss Waterfall is part of the Hvítá River, which translates in English to mean "white river." The water that cascades over the side of the cliff is a little brownish, however, because the water in the river is melted from the Lángjökull glacier and now carries the sediment the glacier scraped from the earth.
These falls are often referred to as the "Golden Falls" because on certain days they appear to be made of gold. We were lucky enough to visit the falls on a beautiful day!
From the falls, we continued on to see the Great Geysir, one of the most famous natural attractions in Iceland and the earliest geyser known to modern Europeans.
We explored the area around the geyser for some time before we stood at the edge of the Geysir, which goes off every four to five minutes. This was another magnificent site to add to the list we have already viewed in Iceland!
The final stop of our day was a short hike into the crater of a (dormant) volcano.
First we had to circle up the side of a mountain and then down the back side into what used to be among the many active volcanos in Iceland.
