Ísland Diaries, Part 2

Note: Cat's text is in the normal color, Gregg's is in light blue.

Day 2: 27th July

Driving the Reykarnes Peninsula

Packed up and headed off to check out the Reykarnes peninsula and the Blue Lagoon. The Reykarnes is the most geologically active part of Iceland, and is slowly moving southwest away from Europe. The whole thing is covered by post-pleistocene (often from the last five thousand years) lava fields. We decided to follow some of the Reykarnes peninsula audio tour that we'd gotten with the rental car, so we went out and saw the president's house (it's behind the church) and the area around it and a bus of Japanese tourists who happened to come to see it too.

Then off to some scenic fish drying racks (stinky!). Here you can see the difficulties we had in getting good shots of both of us. There was no one around most places, so we were reduced to using the remote, and it took a lot of tries before we were satisfied we got one. First you had to find a mount of suitable height. Then we had to weigh the camera down, or tie it to something, so the wind wouldn't knock it over. Finally, we'd press the button, or use the timer, and hope we got it. Thank G-d for digital!

From this point on it was pretty much all gravel roads, quite well maintained, and the Yaris performed marvelously for a non-off-road type vehicle, so we decided to take some SUV-porn type pics of it. It was a great third companion. Then, mountains, lava fields, and a really beautiful, non-geothemal lake. The wind was, as usual, intense, but the spot was really romantic and desolate.

Next, our first look at some of the gazillions of hot springs stinking up the country (but keeping it in cheap power and heat and warm swimming pools year round).

Our first close up look at the cute Icelandic sheep

On one rise, there was a large grouping of cairns. Without illuvial erosion in most places (and basalt and other volcanics as the primary rock type), it's really hard to tell what's old and what's not, at least for an inexperience eye like mine. When are these cairns from? Who knows?

We drove on.

We neared the Blue Lagoon, you could see the steam of the hot water and the power plant that pulls it up from under the rocky surface rising above the lava fields before we saw the lagoon itself.

The Blue Lagoon

Then, the Blue Lagoon. This was a real highlight of the trip. A huge pool of unearthly blue water, hot year round, never deeper than about 5 feet. Surrounded by, yep, you guessed it, lava fields, it really did seem like a different planet. There's an endless supply of the special mud to put on your skin, which we dutifully did like everyone else there (tourists and Icelanders alike), and it really did feel good. The sun actually came out while we were there, it was super nice and relaxing. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves -

We headed back to Reykjavik after a few blissful hours at the lagoon. We found our hotel for that night - the Nordica, a nice place, pretty typical hotel. We checked out the main shopping street of Reykjavik - Laugavager - on which all of the shops of course close at 6. We bought some groceries at the "Bonus" grocery store.

    Table of Contents
  1. Days 0-1: The flight, and our first full day in Iceland.
  2. Day 2: Reykarnes Peninsula, the Blue Lagoon and pin-up pics.
  3. Day 3: Snæfellsnes, Brekkubær, Hellnar
  4. Day 4: Snæfellsjökull, Hvergerði, Skogafoss
  5. Day 5: The Golden Circle – Þhingvellir, Gulfoss, and Geysír
  6. Day 6: Reykjavik, Caving, Falafel, and Our Attempts to Party
  7. Day 7: More Reykjavik, The Harbor, Swimming, and the Return + Helpful links for travellers.

Last Updated: February 07, 2005 -- 17:18:59.
Time since the wedding: 2197 days 23 hours