Mostly sunny. Only a little cloudy. Thanks, Iceland. That was a good way to start the last day.
We had our last Icelandic breakfast in the dining room at the Northern Light Inn. I don’t think Eric misses those at all, but I have now incorporated cheese on toast into my breakfast repertoire.
We checked out, stowed our stuff behind reception and began our walk down to the Blue Lagoon, arguably the most popular tourist attraction in Iceland.
The owner’s dog, Max, thought it would be great to take a walk with us, and when he wouldn’t come back into the hotel the owner tricked him by opening her car door. He jumped right in, as Max loves to go for a drive.
It’s probably not more than a kilometer or so to the lagoon. It was a really nice walk with all kinds of interesting stuff on the side of the road.
This is the geothermal power plant whose run-off water fills the Blue Lagoon. It gets completely replenished every two days.
As we got closer, we encountered the tributaries of the lagoon that met the road.
Some people walk to the Blue Lagoon, others drive or come in a tour bus. On this day, two guys arrived in this helicopter.
(photo from travelmodus.com)
This is what the actual lagoon looks like. There were a lot more people there during our visit. We didn’t take our cameras past the locker rooms because we just wanted to relax, and the environment around the lagoon can be very corrosive to camera equipment.
We spent two hours luxuriating in the water. We put the silica mud on our faces and bodies. We had drinks at the swim-up bar. We listened to English and German tourists squealing with delight and taking pictures with their waterproof digitals. It was really the perfect ending to a remarkable adventure.
The kind folks at the Northern Light Inn brought us our luggage and took us to the airport. Once we were through security and into the international terminal, we stocked up on Brennivín, the schnapps of Iceland, along with some licorice and some tiny bottles of gin for the plane ride. I got a coffee and found these lighting fixtures at one of the airport bars.
I also searched for the Millennium Trilogy DVD (the films based on Stieg Larsson’s books) but they only had it with Icelandic subtitles and of course, in Region 2 format.
The plane ride to Boston was infinitely better than the one to Iceland. We chased the sun the entire way and were on the right side of the plane, so Eric got some fantastic shots of the tip of Greenland. The in-flight entertainment system was working, so I got to watch two episodes of an Icelandic tv drama called Pressa, which I now want to watch all of.
Touchdown in Boston was at sunset and it was really beautiful. We cabbed it out to Doug and Stacy’s, since our flight to Austin didn’t leave until the next day. We went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, hung out for a while and then crashed. Stacy fixed us a hootenanny for breakfast. You will have to ask her what that means. The flights back to Austin were pretty uneventful. We arrive after sunset this time. We were very happy to be home.
All in all, I believe this is the most amazing trip I’ve ever taken. The weather was challenging at times, and in the moment quite frustrating, but upon reflection, what we were able to see and experience was once-in-a-lifetime kind of stuff.
I would go back in a heartbeat.
