Chasing Waterfalls Around Reykjavik

Iceland in August still surprised us with how much daylight there was to work with. We drove the Golden Circle in a single, very full day: Thingvellir's rift valley, the Geysir hot springs going off every few minutes, and Gullfoss thundering down in two dramatic stages.

Back in Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon's milky water was warmer than expected against the cool air, and the harbor's little seafood shacks turned out to be some of the best meals of the whole trip. The landscape out here feels genuinely otherworldly, like nowhere else we've been.