The hardest part of any vacation is saying goodbye to the new places you have called home. In the Icelandic language the name of their country is very simply “island” which speaks to the insulated nature of their society. The events beyond the sea are not of much concern here which was a very refreshing opportunity for us to disconnect. The Icelandic word for goodbye is Bless (hence the title Bless ísland). For our final day on The Island we returned to where we began (the golden circle) and saw the remaining sites that we bypassed on our first day.

We started our day at another well known Icelandic waterfall (Gullfoss). Today the strong winds returned which coupled with a significant drop in temperature created very frigid conditions. The winds are elevated all across Iceland as we heard stories of camper vans being flipped over up north which has been experiencing hurricane force winds (~150 mph) over the last few days. The winds down South were closer to 40 mph so while not dangerous driving they were bone chilling. Our timing continues to be impeccable as we have avoided many challenging weather conditions throughout our loop drive.

Following Gullfoss we headed to a series of geysers which can be thought of as this island’s version of Old Faithful. The geyser Strokkur erupts every 4 – 10 minutes on average and can reach heights of up to 140 feet. We saw Strokkur blow during our visit but the height we witnessed while much shorter (around 30 feet) was still a fun experience. As we have neared the capital again the number of visitors at each of these sites has grown exponentially from what we saw up north. In addition, each major site is accompanied by large lavish hotels and gift shops. Gone were the parks with gravel lots and the occasional restroom which we had grown so accustomed to during the majority of our trip.

Before making our way to the airport we saw one final waterfall (Faxafoss) and one of the larger rettir pens we have seen in Iceland. We were able to get very close to the base of this waterfall which offered a new visual experience that our previous stops did not. Throughout our time in Iceland we saw countless waterfalls, each one unique and impressive in their own right. For lunch we stopped at a European food hall, something we experienced for the first time in London, which had several unique food options. Today was a perfect end to our wonderful visit to The Island.