Day 2 Game of Thrones tour: The majority of this one took place in and around Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park and while the scenes from a bit of Season 3 and mostly Season 4 were wonderful to see, I’m thinking this tour may be better to do in the summer months to get the full GoT effect. The areas visited were covered in snow whereas the same scenes from the show are south of The Wall where there was no snow to be had. Regardless, this was an amazing tour of the film locations we traveled to!
Before reaching Thingvellir National Park, my tour group made a pit stop at Laxnes Horse Farm where lo and behold, right there on the farm are the very horses that Arya and The Hound rode through the Riverlands toward the end of Season 3! These are Icelandic horses which are a bit smaller than horses we are used to seeing in North America. And don’t use the ‘P’ word to describe them in Iceland, that WILL start a brawl, so I’m told! The Hound’s horse (far left in first picture below) to me hardly looks like the one in the show with all that hair in its face however; We were advised that The Hound was apparently too big for his horse and some ‘adjustments’ had to be made, huh! Arya’s horse is the white one for anyone who may not have already known or guessed!
Our next stop was at the þórufoss waterfall, it’s a bit frozen but wow, despite the falls and the land beside it being covered in snow and ice, it looks so much like the scene in Season 4 where the boy is at the ledge and then we see Drogon fly up from below to roast all the goats. Well I guess that’s because this is the spot where that scene was filmed! When looking at the falls and then looking behind where I was standing, the background in the show where we saw Drogon fly off with a goat is right there. Right. There!!
Next stop was the Riverlands, it’s kind of hard to see from the distance where we were standing, as the pathway only went so far, plus it’s all covered in snow but hey! The Riverlands!! It went on and on forever.
While still viewing the Riverlands, alongside and closer to our walking pathway, we saw where the Bloody Gate scenes were filmed, when Sansa and Littlefinger first approached the Eyrie together and then again when Arya and The Hound approached. Looks a bit different with snow but still, it was so cool to see. Although there were other random people wandering around in it, the path down was quite uneven and slippery and our guide didn’t want anyone risking themselves which was too bad, as it would have been real neat to have gotten some photos taken while walking through it, oh well. Safety first! When we left the area and continued our drive, there was another similar looking area on the other side of the highway which was the film spot for the scene when Tormund and Ygritte meet up with the Thenns.
We saw Olly’s village, this was super epic! This is at a place called Þjóðveldisbærinn, and was used in Season 4 when the free folk attacked the village and massacred everyone, all except Olly who fled to the Night’s Watch to advise them what happened.
Game of Thrones revisited indeed!
