Iceland 2025 - Day 3

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2025 // Day 3

What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?

You stand up.

We checked out of our hotel around 8:30 this morning and hopped on the bus for a drive to Thingvellir National Park. This park is special because it is home to a large crack between the North American and Eurasian plates. We were able to walk between the plates and learned about the history of the space. Long ago, this was where parliament was before it got moved to Reykjavík. This space was also used for many punishments. For example, they hung ‘witches’ there, and drown women who had babies out of wedlock. They used the land for fight-to-the-health duels.

We drove a little further to visit a geothermal area where the lake was warm and the craters were boiling. Literally! In fact, they were using it to bake bread while we were there. To do so, you dig a hole in the ground until you get to the boiling water. Then, you put a pot with dough inside of it in the hole and cover it will sand. Come back 24 hours later, and bam! Bread! A neat fact about Iceland is that 90% of the heating is geothermal.

Our next venture was Friðheimer Farm - they are known for their tomatoes. We got a tour of the greenhouse and learned about their operations. They use hot water that flows through the ground in Iceland to heat the greenhouse. A tomato plant spends roughly 9 months in the greenhouse and is nearly 10 meters tall by the end! I was impressed with how thick the stem/vines were. Their tomatoes are distributed to local supermarkets. Around the greenhouse you will find bumble bees! They import a box of them from the Netherlands. The males fly around for two weeks and die - they’re pretty useless. The females however each pollinate up to 2000 flowers a day! The box has to be replaced every 8 weeks because that is the life expectancy of the females.

After our greenhouse tour, we sat down at tables within the greenhouse for lunch - delicious bread and tomato soup! I don’t typically like tomato soup, but I threw in a few basil leaves from the basil plant on the table and dunked my bread in it like its sole purpose was to be used as a dip. It was yummy!

On their property, they also trained Icelandic horses. We learned a bit about the history of Iceland’s horses, and then got to watch one “perform.” In the years 900-1000, various breeds of horses were brought over to Iceland that eventually evolved into the Icelandic horse. The horses were used for transportation for centuries. Something unique about Icelandic horses is that they have 5 gaits - all of which they are born knowing. Because of this, the horses spend their first four years living in a big pasture with other horses. It is only after they have “lived like a horse” for that handful of years that they begin to train them.  The five gaits for competition are walking, trotting, galloping, and then the two special ones - töt (like walking but faster) and flying pace (same side legs at same time). No other horse can do all five of these. Icelandic horses are also the most colorful breed. They can be 40 different colors in 100 variations. Iceland has about 100,000 Icelandic horses, and exports 2000 - 2500 horses each year. No other horses are allowed on the island, as to prevent diseases. There are no diseases for the horses here, so they’re unvaccinated - unless they’re being exported, in which case they have to be vaccinated to have any sort of immune system. The life expectancy of an Icelandic horse is about 35 years.

From there we went to explore the Great Geysir geothermal area. There were quite a few tiny geysers, and a handful of big ones. The biggest Geysir in the world is here - though it is dormant. We did get to see one shoot up pretty high though!

Our last official stop of the day was Gullfoss waterfall - also known as “The Golden Waterfall.” It was massive! One of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe. There was a path to walk out to the top of the falls, so we put on our rain suits and did just that. It was neat to see, but honestly the view of the whole falls was better.

We had about another hours drive to Selfoss where we checked into our hotel for the night - Hotel South Coast. We then split up for dinner - I ended up getting fish and chips for the third day in a row. It came with truffle fries! I can never pass those up.

We took a little stroll around Selfoss and wandered into a grocery store just to check it out. Then - ice cream from Groovis! I got a strawberry soft serve with strawberry sprinkles and cotton candy.

We hung out in the lobby of our hotel for a bit before settling in for the night.

Find all Iceland posts here!