Driving the Golden Circle to Geysir

Geysir

This is Geysir.  THE Geysir.  The geyser from which all other geysers have been named.  And he can be found on Golden Circle.

In recent years, Geysir's star has been eclipse by the new star of the Golden Circle:

Strokkur.  The crowds that once went to Geysir now crowd around Strokkur:

Geysir can't get an audience anymore.

You know what this reminds me of?  It's just like "A Star Is Born."  Geysir once was the star, but his protege geyser is now, by far, the bigger star.  Geysir is like Kris Kristofferson.

And Strokkur is most definitely Barbra Streisand.  Not only does Strokkur pack in the crowds, now having totally eclipsed her prior main star compatriot, but Strokkur erupts in violent fury every few minutes.

Just like you know Babs would.

There is a lot of steam when Strokkur blows.

While the other geysers get scant attention.

There is also a nice walking trail up the side of a small hill just behind the geyser area of Geysir.  Note there is this purple flower growing everywhere.  Must be hardy.  Research tells me this flower is the lupine, as in that Monty Python sketch with the line "hand over your lupines."  That flower.

At the top of the hill is a view of this nice green river valley.  I expected the interior of Iceland to be a moonscape, with lava rocks.  There are places like that, like the area around the Bridge Between Two Continents, for example.  But there is a lot of greenery, too.  I never would have guessed that a picture from Iceland would look idyllic like that.