The golden Circle is an area north of the capital city rich in important historical sites and geothermal landscapes. Visiting the Golden Circle you'll likely see a variety of geothermal springs and bubbly things. We saw a geyser, liken to old faithful in the states. It went off every five minutes or so, leaving a plume of hot steam, amazed tourists, and fogged camera lenses.
Part of the Golden Circle includes a lookout over a flat open plain (the site of Iceland's original parliament) and a filming location for Game Of Thrones. From that same vantage place you can also see the site where the American and European continents meet. A channel of water sits on the border; experienced guides will take people diving in the Silfra Fissure. We opted to go on such a dive with a group one morning but the event was cancelled on account of bad weather, which in Iceland is really bad weather.
The same bad weather was the reason the children's Christmas tree burning bonfire was cancelled. We heard that it's usually a wild event. After Christmas everyone brings their trees to a site on the coast for a huge fire. Children are primarily responsible for throwing their family's tree in. In case I forget to mention it anywhere else in the blog, Icelander's take Christmas VERY seriously. There's a national schedule for putting up and taking down lights, tons of Christmas decorations, and no shortage of wonderfully magical folk tales. Some of our favorites were the 13 Trolls, Yule lads, and the Christmas Cat, which you can see a statue of in this post.