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15.08.2019

Reykjavik – Blue Lagoon – Reykjavik   96 km

Long had we contemplated if we should visit the Blue Lagoon or not. Before actually going on this Road Trip there was no question about it – of course we would go! But then we were here and we had bathed in so many geothermal pools already and shelling out the exorbitant entrance fee for the Lagoon seemed a waste … In the end we decided to go anyway … It seems to be a must for anyone travelling to Iceland. It is the most visually spectacular lagoon in the country, no doubt about it.

Having had a short rest in our hotel, we took the car and headed out at approx 14:00. I had made an online booking at the Blue Lagoon for 15:00. We expected the drive to take approx 45 min. From the hotel it was pretty straight forward following the roads # 40 and # 41 out of the city. It was the main road to Keflavik Airport and therefore traffic was heavy all along. But we did arrive well in time.

In fact, we left the sunny city and blue sky behind and the closer we came to the Blue Lagoon, the more clouds appeared and just as we parked the car it was pouring down with rain. Oh well … We had bathed at Mývatn Nature Baths in the cold and rain … we could do it here too … The Blue Lagoon was located along a side road still secluded behind huge lava formations.

Waiting only a few minutes in the car before getting out with our hoods pulled up, we quickly walked through the lava field to the entrance. We had seen the steamy clouds hanging above the geothermal pools already from afar.

There were many people there. Bookings could only be made online ahead of a visit. A lot of visitor apparently came during their stop-over at the airport or directly before or after a flight. Therefore, there was a left-luggage facility right by the car park. There were a lot of people! We had to queue up to get in, but check-in was anyway rather quick, because tickets are timed. I had booked 2x Comfort Package for € 85 each including towel, silica mask and 1 drink each. That was the least expensive package. Mid-afternoon is also a busy time, there were tickets early in the morning or very late in the evening for only € 48 per person … Demand determines the price … Mid-afternoon is a busy time.

I had our ticket on the mobile phone and in no time we had our wristbands and were through the turnstile. The wristband – more a smart bracelet – did it all – It let us in and out of the spa, got us drinks and – somehow – it controled the lockers in the locker rooms. This is a brilliant way of paying for items without having to carry money into the Lagoon. While at the Krauma Geothermal Baths & Spa at Deildartunguhver we just had to say our name to order drinks to the pool and then pay at reception before leaving – here being in a larger scale spa – one of the most visited attractions in Iceland – they obviously played it safe and everything was registered on that electronic wristband.

There were several huge locker rooms and visitors were channeled to available lockers. The locker system, however, totally outwitted me … In all the other baths they had plain and simple regular keys on an elastic band to keep on the wrist or ankle. Here that wristband was used to open and close the lockers – but I do not know how … It looked easy – just touch it to the sensor in the middle of a section of lockers … How did it know which locker to close, though? But it did … It opened the correct one as well afterwards. But it took me several tries to get our lockers closed in the first place … and then I forgot to take my glasses off … open again … close again … oops, better take the plastic bag for the camera as well … open again … close again … And the same with Mom’s locker … How in the end it worked escaped me, though. My only consolution was that it was not just me … not many in that room had a clue how to use the things.

We had brought our slippers and received the towels at check-in. Quickly we were changed and showered – by now we knew the hot pool etiquette in Iceland – not many other visitor seemed to have heard about it … or even noticed the many signs everywhere.

While we had waited for check-in I had read a sign about putting conditioner in the hair before going in. Of course, also here there was plenty free shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in the shower stalls. Apparently the water at the Blue Lagoon is not good for the hair – especially curled or color-treated hair. The alternative was to not wet the hair in the lagoon water … that seemed a really complicated method, though …

And then we came out to the lagoon … it was blue! While we had gotten ready the rain had stopped and the sun was out again with blue sky.

The pool was packed. We had not expected otherwise. Hanging our uni-white towels amongst all the other uni-white towels on the racks provided, we marked the spot with our slippers and the bag I had brought for my camera. I had decided to take my cheap no-name action cam in today to at least get some photos.

The Bláa Lónið – Blue Lagoon – is located in a lava field near Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula. It is the best known lagoon and the most hyped therefore the most touristy in Iceland, but still very special. Sunk into black lava rubble, the opaque aquamarine water makes it feel like floating in a giant cocktail. The pools are huge.

The Iceland Blue Lagoon is not a natural spring. Even though Iceland is brimming with natural hot springs the Blue Lagoon is not one of them. Natural lava shaped the pool, but the water is in fact the byproduct from the Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant next door, where superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After going through the turbines, the steam and hot water pass through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal water heating system. Then the water is fed into the lagoon.

The rich mineral content is provided by the underground geological layers and pushed up to the surface by the hot water. Because of its mineral concentration, the water cannot be recycled and must be disposed of in the nearby landscape, a permeable lava field that varies in thickness from 50 cm to 1 m. After the minerals have formed a deposit, the water reinfiltrates the ground, but the deposits render the ground impermeable over time, so the plant needs to continuously dig new ponds in the nearby lava field.

Shortly after the opening of the power plant in 1976 the runoff water had formed the first pools. In 1981 a psoriasis patient bathed in the water and noted that the water alleviated his symptoms and the lagoon subsequently became quite popular. The first bathing facilities opened in 1987 and in 1992 the Blue Lagoon Company was established.

Studies confirmed that the lagoon had indeed a beneficial effect on the skin disease psoriasis. A psoriasis clinic was opened in 1994 and in 1995 the Blue Lagoon Company began marketing their skin products. Anually approx 1.3 mio visitor come to the Blue Lagoon.

The water renews every 2 days. Very few organisms live in the water apart from some blue-green algae. And despite the water not being artificially disinfected it contains no fecal bacteria, environmental bacteria, fungi or plants.

The Lagoon has an average depth of approx 1.40 m, I guessed. Near one side of the pool was a swim-up in-water bar right in the pool. We made our way half swimming half walking there and ordered 2 local Gull Beers. They beeped our wristbands for our included drinks. The beer came in not so fancy plastic cups. But it was cold and refreshing – just how the Vikings liked it, I suppose.

We found a spot to sit on an underwater ledge by the side of the pool near one of the hot water outlets and enjoyed the beer. Of course, we had to join in the selfie making frenzy. Almost everyone in the lagoon had a camera or mobile phone in waterproof casing. They even sold the waterproof mobile covers in the bar … believe it!

The water has this milky blue shade – due to its high silica content – and is rich in salts and algae. The silica forms soft white mud on the bottom of the lake. It feels the same kind of soapy like the water at the Mývatn Nature Baths had felt and it looked the same as well. The water temperature in the lagoon averages 37°- 39 °C.

We made our way across the Lagoon to the other side to claim our Silica Mask. It was one of the first things we noticed – how many people here had white gunk smeared on their faces. There was another of the in-water swim-up bars … only this one was for the mud treatments and facial masks.

It turned out the silica mud from the bottom of the lagoon helps exfoliate the skin, enhances the skin’s barrier function bringing strength, protection and radiance. Algae increases collagen production, nourishing the skin from within and reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The Silica Mask was included and we received a big dollop in the hand to smear it all over our faces. It is supposed to be let sit to dry for approx 10 min until it is dried.

Rinsing it off was done in the warm, heavily mineraled geothermal water of the Lagoon. After taking it off, our skin felt smooth and taut, kind of dry … This same silica mud was sold in the Blue Lagoon Gift Shops and elsewhere for € 85 a 100 ml tube … No we did not buy it to take home …

The Blue Lagoon is huge – we moved around a lot! Some areas of the Lagoon are hotter than others – of course we were constantly looking for the hottest spots and parked there for a while. Some areas were also deeper than others – some slimier or some steamier.

We found the waterfall – on one side there were smaller pools and a sheet of falling water that pounded down. I had to kind of line up to get under and have it pound on my shoulders and back for an almost-massage that felt fabulous. I was meditating a few minutes under the fall and when I opened my eyes probably 20 pairs of impatient eyes stared at me – people were waiting to get under as well … OK … OK .. I am moving!

Of course, somewhere in between we also went back to the bar for another drink. What the heck … who is to judge us? We splurged in a Prosecco and a Strawberry Prosecco. We planned on spending still enough time here to have the alcohol evaporate out of my system before we had to drive back to the city. Had we planned that properly, we would have ordered the Prosecos first and then paid for the beers … One the first drink was included and we should have made it the more expensive one … Oh well …

When I had talked to a friend of mine who pointed out that there are no things free and that free drink we paied for – I said – Well, yes! It is included! Not free.  Huge difference!

Comparing our various hot pool visits during our stay, in the end the Blue Lagoon was expensive, because there was no choice. In Mývatn Nature Baths for example there were no towels or drinks or masks included, but if they would have had it … and included or we would have paid for it, then we would have ended up with the approx the same bottom line. In Krauma Geothermal Baths & Spa the drink we ordered had a similar price like the drinks here.

The difference in other baths was that we had a choice on what we wanted. Here at Blue Lagoon the price is high and you pay for towels, drinks and masks even if you do not want to use it. It is included … take it or leave it … The difference between free and included …

We spend approx 2 hrs in the water of the Lagoon. It was wonderful. I could have stayed even longer … Since it actually started drizzling again – a big black rain cloud moved over part of the Lagoon making a great contrast with the sun over the other part – unfortunately my camera akku was dead and I could not take photos of it – we eventually got out. We noticed huge stacks of fresh towels just inside the main building and changed our soaked ones quickly. In the shower we made good use of the free shampoo and conditioner. There were also hair driers in the changing room. My hair felt a little brittle after the Lagoon – but nothing too concerning. I am not too fuzzy with my hair anyway. It is so used to the chlorine treated water on the ships. The exit was of course through the Boutique where all the fancy – and expensive – beauty products of the Blue Lagoon and other Iceland essentials for the tourist were sold.

On the way to the car we passed the lava field again – this time in the sun. There were 2 Earth Cache markers here and while taking photos we collected the necessary data to log them.

On the way back to the city I also attempted to find 2 other hidden boxes – one near the parking lot and one closer to the power plant along the road. But with both I was not successful. I photo logged them anyway … like many before me. I was here!

What I did find – without looking for it – was a bunch of Crowberries. First time I saw those knowingly. Empetrum nigrum – commonly known as Black Crowberries – are found in the Northern Hemisphere as well as in the Southern Hemisphere from temperate to subarctic climates and bear edible fruit. The typical habitat is on moorlands, tundra, muskeg, spruce forests. It is an evergreen mat forming shrub with small, light green needle-like.

Back in our hotel we quickly changed and off we went again to the Hlemmur Bus Station from where we took the bus to the Old Town once more. On our last night in Iceland we wanted to splurge on good food again and I had picked a few restaurants in the city center to choose from. Our first choice was The Lobsterhouse – a fancy restaurant that offers gourmet French cuisine with a Nordic touch.

Of course we had no reservation and after a once-over by one snooty waiter we got turned down and asked to leave. Oh well, no problem – there were more choices in town! Walking around the Old Town we found Fiskmarkaðurinn – The Fishmarket – which had a casual name but ended up being a pretty fancy establishment. They were fully booked when we rocked up and asked for a table. However, they offered we could eat in the bar area – they called it the Chef’s Table, because it was looking into the open sushi kitchen. It was sort of screened off from the main restaurant, giving us some peace and quiet and the opportunity to watch the various chefs create sushi and other starters.

Fish Market is housed in one of the central Reykjavík’s oldest buildings – the old Zimsen House, a former store that was built in the 19th century. Its interior is both glamorous and cozy, a centre of elegant cuisine to dine in Reykjavík. We ordered a beer each. The bread came in a bag made of washable paper with salted butter on a volcano stone slap.

As usually we each took different starters and main courses in order to get a wider taste. – Mom, you do not order the same as me! You can do that in our home zone when it does not matter! Here we want to try as many different dishes as possible! – I ordered the highly recommended Fish Market Lobster Soup which was absolutely delicious.

For Mom we ordered Robata Grilled Minke Whale which came with Icelandic wasabi roots and citrus miso & soy ginger vinaigrette. She did not like it, but I loved it. So we swapped plates.

Our main courses were equally delicious! I chose the Grilled Blue Ling. The Blue Ling – molva dypterygia – is a member of the cod family from the North Atlantic. It spawns in the spring at depths of 600-1000 m south of the Icelandic shelf and to the west of the Faroe Islands and Scotland.  The Blue Ling is quite distinct in taste and texture. It gets its name from its blue skin and it sometimes even has a blue tinge to its meat. This has no bearing on the taste and will disappear as soon as it is cooked. The taste of the lean and finely textured Blue Ling can vary in strength, but generally goes well with other strong flavours.  I had never heard of this fish before and had to try it. It came with roasted cauliflower and Sauce Hollandaise.

Mom’s Rack of Plaice was fantastic as well. It was grilled whole and came with parsnip puree and marinated fennel. The European plaice – leuronectes platessa – is a right-eyed flounder and a commercially important flatfish which lives on the sandy bottoms of the European shelf. They range geographically from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean. European plaice are characterized by their smooth brown skin. European plaice have been fished from the North Sea for hundreds of years.

The waitress tried to explain us how to filet the fish to not make a mess or eat too many of the bones, but as gifted fish eaters with years of experience in eating whole grilled fish, we knew exactly. Not so the guests next to us … Mom pointed out … Look, they do not know how to do it and made a mess …

So much good food needed to be chased with the traditional Icelandic Brennivín. The spirit was introduced in 1935, after prohibition ended in Iceland. The bottle contained a white skull on the black label in order to warn against consumption – later it was replaced by the map of Iceland – therefore, it was sometimes called “svarti dauði”  – black death …

With our bill we received a couple of very nice chocolate pralines. The check was somewhere around ISK 23000 … not cheap, but well worth it.

Leaving the restaurant we walked across the Old Town to the bus stop to take the bus back to Hlemmur Station and walked from there to our hotel. Again I sent Mom the last few hundred meters on her own and went for another walk – this time to have a look at Hallgrímskirkja – Iceland’s biggest church towering over downtown Reykjavík.

It was a pleasant walk up hill. I took a couple detours for secret boxes, but was not successful and abandoned  the  search soon enough.  I tried to catch the sunset from up there, but missed it.

The Hallgrímskirkja church stands as the largest and the tallest buildings in the country and is strategically built in Reykjavik. The Lutheran church has a facade inspired by basalt columns found in Icelandic nature and is a popular landmark. The church is named after 17th-century poet and minister Hallgrímur Pétursson, who is celebrated for writing the Passion Hymns, a collection of 50 hymns – one for each working day of the seven weeks of Lent. The singing of the hymns during lent is a time honoured tradition in Iceland. The church has Iceland’s biggest organ with 5275 pipes standing tall at 15m and weighing 25 t constructed by the German organ builder Johannes Klais. I did not go inside, it was probably closed already for the evening.

In front of the church is a statue of Leifur Eiríksson –  probably the best known hero of Viking age Iceland and regarded as the first European to arrive in North America. Leifur’s voyage to America in the year 1000 preceded the Christopher Columbus’ voyage by roughly half a millennia. Leifur Eiríksson’s statue was not erected in front of Hallgrímskirkja, but rather the other way around … While the statue was presented as a gift from the USA to Iceland to commemorate the 1000 year anniversary of Alþingi – the parliament of Iceland – in the year 1930 it was not until the summer of 1932 that it had been erected in its current location. At that time Hallgrímskirkja had not yet been built – Its construction only started in 1945. Which means the statue had been standing in its current location for 13 years when the construction of Hallgrímskirkja even began – It took 41 years to build – The church was completed in 1986! I walked around the church, took some photos and collected data for an Earth Cache located at the statue.

Back at the hotel I did some final packing and my usual routine of sorting and posting some photos. We finished our last bottle of wine and then slept.

16.08.2019

22 Hill Hotel Reykjavik – Keflavik International Airport   50 km

We got up early on our last morning in Iceland, packed the car and checked out even before breakfast started at 07:00. We did have breakfast, though, and by 07:30 we were on our way to the airport. It took approx 1 hr to reach it. It was the same way out of the city like we took yesterday to the Blue Lagoon, so we did not have any problems getting lost. At the last gas station before the airport we stopped and filled up the car for ISK 4800. Like all gas stations in Iceland it was a self service machine and I had the routine down pat now.

At the airport we found the rental car return quickly and it was busy. I parked the car in the middle of the chaos and went to find somebody to hand the keys to. A guy came out to check the car and … what can I say … he found a scratch that apparently had not been there before … It was a tiny scratch in the front and I did not even know where that came from …

I do remember a somewhat scratchy noise when leaving the parking lot yesterday in front of the hotel, though. But I did not think it had made an impact. Obviously it did, though … Well, I did not argue with the guy and went in the office with him to sign the papers. We had not taken the extra insurance cover, so they charged me some ISK 82000 for that little scratch … Oh well …  That did not make a difference after that vacation anymore, anyway … And had we taken out the extra insurance we would have paid the same in the end and probably not have scratched the car … The insurance would have been some € 10 or 12 a day and that by 10 days …

We took our suitcases and walked across the car park to the Terminal. It was cold this morning and I parked Mom and our luggage inside to go and find a couple more secret boxes. Both of them were located near prominent sculptures. First I looked for Took off to the Rainbow’s End – that was the name of the cache and it was hidden right there under the rainbows end.

The Rainbow sculpture is at the edge of one of the long term parking areas. It was constructed by Icelandic artist Rúri in 1991 and reaches 24 m into the sky. It is made of stainless steel and stained glass. Unlike a natural rainbow which materializes out of the blue, lasts for a few moments and then disappears, this sculpture is made to last. In Icelandic folklore the rainbow has a symbolic meaning in connection with good fortune or wishes. The story tells that if one can stand “under the rainbow” one may have a wish, that will be fulfilled.

I did not make a wish, but I found the box quickly and place one Travel Bug in it. I had picked it up in Seyðisfjörður, but it only wanted to travel to Denmark. So this cache was a good hop off to catch a lift to Denmark. P.s. When I checked online a few weeks later somebody had taken it to Nevada … pretty close to Denmark that is …

Closer to the Terminal entrance was the even more impressive sculpture called The Jet Nest. Showing a big steel egg where a jet wing – or Concorde-like nose – is peeking out like a little bird breaking out of its egg, the artwork was designed by Magnús Tómasson. This symbolic piece stands on a pile of Icelandic rocks in a floodlight pond.

The secret box there was supposed to be hidden under one of the rocks surrounding the pond … in plain sight of everybody in and walking to the Terminal … and I never really like it to search for secret boxes out in the open … so I skipped it and I did not log it either … just took some photos …

Check-in was chaos. I think, this time of the morning was rush hour for flights anywhere … I did not expect that many people here, but I guess with the intercontinental connection this is normal. I had checked us in online, but we needed to drop our bags. There were machines for that as well. Luckily there was somebody to point us there and then it was not too complicated to print the bag tags. More complicated it was to find the correct desk to drop the bag off after that … Being pointed around and around and around we eventually found the right spot … self drop-off as well … OK, no problem … at least we finally got rid of our suitcases and could go about to spend the last Icelandic cash!

Passing security was no problem. No unpacking or such … In the Duty Free I was determined to spend most of the cash we had left. No point in exchanging it. Icelandic alcohol was the choice of the day for us. There were 5 miniature bottles of Icelandic specialties for the price of 6  … We bought 12 … and I did need a bottle of Reyka Vodka for my collection … and Brennivín … of course!

Yes, I have a collection of alcohol from all over the world. A long time ago I stopped buying souvenirs that collect dust … Well, not entirely … I still buy special handcrafted local things sometimes … but mostly alcohol … I know, bottles of booze collect dust as well … but at least I have a stash for the future …

Since we were quite early and had some time to kill before our flight, we settled in a Café for a second breakfast  of Mimosas. They had Happy Hour on Mimosas – 2 for 1 – it was an opportunity not to be missed. Mom took an alibi cappucino as well … I stuck to Mimosas … In the end we had 3 each …

While I watched our stuff and our Mimosas Mom went to the souvenir shop to check out what they had and later we went and spent some more of our last cash there on fridge magnets and small things to give away. But still we had cash left … and on the airplane they would not accept cash for drinks, only cards … So I spent the very last Icelandic cash we had on a couple of bottles of water and a couple of miniature wines to take on the plane … Bingo! All Icelandic cash gone!

Our return fligth was however not direct to Berlin, we had to stop over in Amsterdam. And it also was no IcelandAir plane, but some noname … whatever … substitute … it had something to do with the grounding of the Boing 737 Max … but the flight was on time and we had a nice last look over Reykjavik when taking off. The glaciers were not visible today, though.

Coming closer to the coast of the Netherlands there were many wind turbines in the sea and we also saw the Noordzeekanal entrance in Ijmuiden.

Landing at Schiphol International Airport was as always amazing, because some of the planes had to pass over the bridge crossing the highway, which I think is totally amazing.

We had a 2.5 hrs lay-over and it was well after lunch, so time to have some food. First we found the right gate for our connecting flight to Berlin and then went to the closest food place, which happened to be a Burger & Fries joint. They had a special of Burger, Fries & a Heineken for € 13.50 – which was totally cheap for us … we were still used to Icelandic prices …

The food was OK and the beer cold and we had killed the time to our next flight. Our Berlin connection was with KLM and on time as well. When approaching Berlin we had a spectacular view over the city and our beloved Fernsehturm before landing in Berlin Tegel.

Our luggage came quickly and also our parking transfer was already waiting and before we knew it we were on the Autobahn speeding home. It was great to step on the gas again! But it was quickly dark and we reached home around 22:30 that night.

What a cool Roadtrip it was!
We drove 2459 km around Iceland, found 123 geocaches, bathed in plenty geothermal pools, endured all kinds of weathers,
ate plenty good food and had an overall totally fab time!