Our blue dot has docked in Reykjavik again, and our shore excursion was an 8-hour tour of the “Golden Circle.”

At our first stop, we visited Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO site. We walked along the rift valley between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate.  So, we stepped on two continents today.

A word about the flag above… The “normal” Icelandic flag is rectangular, but if you look closely, you’ll see this one has a notch.  That’s because the national park is an “official” place so they can fly this “official” flag.

Next stop was Gullfoss Waterful, meaning “Golden Waterfall”.

Then on to the geothermic area of Geysir.  We enjoyed lunch there, along with a little tourist shopping.

The next visit was to a power plant where they harvest the energy of the hot water and steam to create much of the island’s electricity.  Electricity is so inexpensive here that other countries send their raw materials to the aluminum smelting plants here.

Finally, before returning to the ship, we had a surprise visit to a horse ranch.  This was a family affair with youngsters as young as six displaying their Icelandic horses and putting on an exhibition, where we were able to view all five gaits these horses use.  Beautiful!

And, to show us how smooth the horses’ gaits are, a couple of the adults rode around the rink several times holding full beer steins without spilling a drop.

Back at the ship, the evening was spent packing for tomorrow’s transfer to the Grand Hotel in downtown Reyjkavik.