Well, I slept in till five, and it is not a sunny day, but it is not raining either. I let Gail sleep in till eight, brought her coffee, we showered up and made our breakfast.
The shower works really well, surprising enough for its size. The water shoots out really hot, and the trick is to figure out how to add some cold water to moderate it. I am thinking that, between showering and the hot baths, drinking coffee and brushing my teeth with this sulfur tinged water, now I am not just an old fart, but I smell like one too.
We had a nice drive to the Blue Lagoon, which you could see from over ten kilometers away. On the way there, out in the middle of the barren lava fields, we pulled over at a scenic view point and I spied a ladder dropping into a hole in the ground. Sure enough, it was the entrance to a lava tube. Well, the wind was gusting and it started to rain, so Gail stayed in the car while I explored. It reminded me of all the lava tubes Dennis and I explored and several we discovered over the years up at Old Station. Thinking of that made me miss Uncle Runts, where we used to stop for a cheeseburger and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale... So here I am, in Iceland, craving a cheeseburger.
You can see the steam rising from Blue Lagoon over 10km away. It is a pretty massive pond of water, kind of like a giant hot tub on silica steroids. Sure enough, it is pretty much blue, or at least blue-grey when the clouds are thick. It is surrounded by a wall of black lava, jagged and sharp. Where the water meets rock there is a white layer, a ring of silica deposited. The steam rises like a misty fog, blowing over the surface and giving a mysterious air to it all. We paid about $55 USD each to rent towels and gain admission (14,400isk) and I have to say, it was worth it. Just the cool, "I have seen and done that" factor alone made it worth while. Plus, it was a really nice way to spend four hours or so.
So here it is: you pay up and get a wrist band with an RFD chip. This lets you in, and opens the locker. There are shoe racks before you get to the locker room, so drop the shoes. Strip, lock up, and take a shower. They really insist you shower naked and clean up. There was a guy from Texas next to me, showering in his swimsuit, going on and on to his friend about these "weird European customs" blah blah blah... Damn idiot, grow the fuck up or stay home!
I pretended I was German.
Anyway you shower real good, suit up and walk out. Now, it is a summer day, but it's brisk. I found a good hook for my towel, and scurried over to get in. The water is warm, about waist deep. We walked out and it got deeper; we headed toward one of the vents where the water is coming out, and it got a lot warmer. So we just wandered around, exploring the whole lagoon, finding the hot steam cave, hot waterfall, steam room and sauna, and boxes of silica mud to smear on your face for that "just scrubbed" fresh silicized look. Four hours of soaking, saunas, steam and more soaking and I was almost asleep on my feet.
While we were in the lagoon, it started to rain, then it turned to hail. Not to worry, we sank lower in the smokey blue water.
I loved the sauna best of all. It was so hot that I went back into the lagoon to cool off.
After a long afternoon, we showered, dried off and drove a back road home. We stopped in a little, picturesque fishing village with a yellow, corrugated tin church and shaggy, wild Icelandic miniature horses just running around with a hyper little foal.
Further on we came on sheep and goats grazing in the puffy grass by a creek.
Then we came across a mini Yellowstone, hot springs and mud pools, steam rising up and over the wooden boardwalk, a hot grey creek babbling underneath. The wind was howling now, even without the rain it cut through my coat, and my camera hand went numb. On further, around a storm tossed lake with black sand beaches and whitecaps forming. Part way around the lake, the pavement ended. Well... carry on, then. So we slowed down and kept going, up over steep, blind hills and around narrow curves. The pavement decided to rejoin us, then left us once more.
We returned home, had a glass of wine, and walked up to a bookstore-slash-restaurant we saw yesterday. Gail had a healthy bun" which was like a sandwich with vegetables and cheese, and I had lobster pasta. It was good, but not great, but in all the marvels of today we had just forgotten to eat, so we really liked it.
After dinner we walked up to the imposing church, Hallgrímskirkja. It is by far the tallest structure in the skyline, and though more modern (built 1945-86) it has a certain grace to it.
So here we are, Summer vacation, the tenth of June. We have been pelted by hail, and on the ridges just above us (at what? 500 or perhaps a thousand feet above sea level?) there are still snow banks. This trip makes up for the heat of last summer.
Today's fun facts about Iceland:
In Icelandic, the name is Ísland.
Hot water deaths: back in the day when the hot springs were used for mundane tasks like washing clothes, it was not that unusual for someone, late in the evening after a long day of work, to stumble into one of the hot springs and permanently sterilize themselves, so to speak.