I hope you enjoyed my other posts about our Iceland trip, including our transatlantic flight, Southern Iceland adventures, the Iceberg Lagoon, and Vik!  Here I'll detail all of my favorite spots of the capital city and golden circle!

We stayed by the Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavik - one of the tallest monuments in the whole country. It was the perfect spot to call home for a few days while we explored the city center. From here we had walking access to the city center and shopping districts.

Walking around we found a bakery (Braud & Co.) and bar that served as our favorite spots. We went there 2-3 days in a row. The smell of the fresh bread and baked good at Braud and Co was too good to pass up each morning. The restaurant we loved was the Rok. The atmosphere of the dining was perfect. The restaurant had an outdoor seating area with fur blankets to keep warm in Icelands' chill air. It was a great spot to give the kids a little freedom while we ate awesome local food!

After a week with my parents and au pair, Sophia had to say goodbye and Paul flew in to join us for a whirlwind Iceland adventure. We decided to do the Golden Circle while he was here to catch the big ticket sights!

The traditional Golden Circle route includes Pingvellir National Park, the geothermal area Haukadalur with geysers Geysir and Storkkur, and finally Gullfoss waterfall. We decided to skip the national park since we wanted to speed up the trip and hiking was hard with our crew. Paul just arrived and was cashed from the plane, my mom wasn't in hiking form with her new knee replacement and we were eager for the other sites to make the day more reasonable.

The geothermal area was our first stop - and different from all of our other exploring in Iceland thus far! The boys loved seeing Storkkur erupt!  It was so neat. It brought back memories of walking around the geothermal areas of Yellowstone when I was a kid. I was so excited to share this with the boys!

We continued to venture on to Gullfoss waterfall. This is a true beauty. There are many look out points and views of the falls. We had a great time taking pictures!

There are other great spots along the route including a thermal spa and petting zoo, but we decided to stop at a place along the route where you can donate to feed the horses along the side of the road. One local farm owner bring some of his older, calmer horses to the front gates and has "horse candy" available for purchase on the honor system. By chance we found it and pulled off to give the boys the chance to feed the horses. Oh man, he loved it!! The owner drove past and helped my son open his hand flat to feed the horses. The smiles were so wonderful. It was one of my favorite stops. Simplicity. Feeding horses was such an amazing experience and worth the honor system donation, and then some!

We added a stop to look at an underground turf house at Skalholt. Skálholt is a historical town in Iceland, even considered Iceland’s first town. It has a chapel and turf house, which is a little difficult to find from the road, but worth the stop. It was the one turf house we were able to see during our trip and the detour didn't add much time to our trip!

Last was a quick stop at Kerið, a volcanic crater lake. It's located right on the road along the Golden Circle loop home. For a small fee you can access the attraction and the walking trails around the crater. The sunshine completely changes the appearance of this attraction, and apparently they even hosts concerts there. I can't imagine!

We had a great time running into the local grocery stores, cooking food at home, enjoying the coffeeshops, and exploring the city of Reykjavik!  I was so sad to see this part of our travels come to an end. Iceland has so much to offer.

Iceland, I will be back!

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