Wednesday, 7 June 2006
We woke up leisurely and I dressed for my first ever run in Iceland. Although I was upset coming into town on the bus the previous day, I wasn't so upset as to not notice that there was a paved path running along the "seawall" where the north Atlantic washed up against Reykjavik, and this is where I planned on running. But first, I looped around Tjörnin, a--for lack of a better word--lake, just a couple of blocks from the hotel. Maybe it would be considered a large pond? Whichever, it was very nice, with a few ducks and swans paddling about in it. At one end was a fountain. After looping the lake, I made my way to the seawall path for an out and back. Like our Tuesday arrival, Wednesday was cool and gray, with a light rain.
At this hotel, a breakfast buffet *is* included with the room so that's where we would breakfast each morning. It wasn't as big, or quite as good as the Sheraton's, but it was just fine...especially since it was included. We had some time before the bus picked us up for our Blue Lagoon trip, so we walked down to a bank and cashed in a $50US traveler cheque for Icelandic Kronors. The exchange rate was ~75 IKr : $1US. This exchange rate made prices very interesting :-)
Soon, a small van from the excursion company picked us up and took us to a kind of central terminal. From there, we transferred to a larger bus for the 30-minute trip to the Blue Lagoon.
It didn't really matter that it was lightly raining since we were going into the water and going to get wet anyway. But it would have been nice for clearer weather just to see the area better. I suppose, however, that you could argue that there wasn't much *to* see. The Blue Lagoon is surrounded by lava and nothing else. But it was again, that rugged beauty and very interesting geology.
The Blue Lagoon water was wonderful! Naturally, geothermally heated water that had been piped up from below ground was then sent through the adjacent power plant to produce steam to produce electricity. The lagoon was the overflow of the water that had been pumped up. Much of Iceland is powered by geothermal heat. This water was 3-4' deep in a "lagoon" maybe an acre in size. The temps were probably ~95-100°F but as we "walked" or "swam" around in the water, we would hit warmer spots. Those felt really good! The bottom was mostly a sandy silt but close to the edge of the lagoon, it was rock. Sprinkled around the edges, they had built smooth benches where you could sit and relax. They also provided buckets of a silica mud mask that you could spread on your face. It was interesting to wander around the lagoon and see the many faces smeared white. Of course, the water and the silica is supposed to be really good for your skin. Afterwards, there are showers and hair dryers provided in the locker rooms (yes, separate men's and women's!).
For this visit, we stayed in the water about 30 minutes, got cleaned and dried off, and caught the 1:15 pm bus back into town. The next returning bus after this one was 3:15 and we really didn't want to stay that long.
If you ever go to Reykjavik, take the time to relax in the Blue Lagoon. It's very relaxing. We even wondered what it would be like to be here on a clear January night when it's really cold out but warm in the water and perhaps the northern lights dancing in the sky. I imagine it would be awesome.
Back in town, we found lunch at one of the many little restaurants, then walked around. We actually had a specific store we were looking for: 66° North. This is an outdoor clothing store something like Patagonia, or Columbia, that Bil had come across on the web a few years ago, so we knew it existed and that it was in Iceland. We found the closest store just a short walk up the hill from the hotel. Bil was hoping to find a new jacket. I just browsed, half looking for a rain shell to protect me from the current weather. Finding nothing at this store, we were told that the store in Reykjavik's mall, Kringlan, had a larger selection. So with help from the tourist center, we caught the city bus out to the mall. As malls go, I guess this one wasn't too bad, though we didn't stay long. Bil did find himself a very nice jacket. I found a reasonably priced (3,999 IKr :-)...~$55US) rain shell at a store called Hagkaup. This was a big store with groceries on the first floor, and clothing, housewares, etc., on the upper floor.
We left the mall and although we caught the correct bus, we caught the correct bus going in the wrong direction. We ended up taking the longer way back toward our hotel, but we did see more of Reykjavik than we might otherwise have. :-)
Dinner was at another local restaurant and as we ate, we noticed that the sky had lightened, the rain had eased, and there were even hints of blue sky. We had decided to take our longest excursion on Thursday and thought maybe we'd get lucky with the weather. Again, we had the hotel call in our reservations for us. For this trip, we were to be picked up outside the hotel between 9 and 9:30 next morning.
Thursday, 8 June
After another run incorporating the seawall, I could tell I was starting to recover from the marathon. And, on this run, I had mostly blue sky above me. It was very nice! With breakfast done, we were ready to go and since we had some time before we got picked up, we walked over to the lake, Tjörnin, to take a few pictures. While there, a black cloud came overhead and dumped some rain on us. I was glad I had my new rainshell! After a few minutes of rain, the cloud moved on and the sun came back. As we looked about us, we realized that the weather could be like that all day.
At about 9:15, a van from the Laxnes Horse Farm arrived to pick us up. We had signed up for an all-day excursion that started with a 1.5-hour ride on Icelandic horses. For our group, there would only be 7 or 8 of us total. I asked the driver (the husband-owner of the farm) what the maximum size group they could handle. He told us that he's had as many as 40 in a group before. Oh my! I'm very glad there weren't that many in our group.
Laxnes was about a 20-minute drive east-northeast of Reykjavik. We drove toward green, open foothills. Off in the distance, we could see the obvious sheets of rain falling. However, the rain never did get to us during the horseback ride.
After doing their best to match up horse with rider, based on experience, we were lead out by the wife-owner of the farm, and there was another guide following behind us. This guy was obviously experienced as he did not use a saddle, just a blanket. Bil was on "Dondor" and I was on "Flokey". Dondor wanted to always be in front so Bil was forever holding him back; Flokey preferred to walk and had to be coaxed into a trot by the guide in back of us to try and catch up. In the end, neither of us fell off :-). Although the trot was rather uncomfortable, bouncing us up and down until I thought my insides might get churned into butter.
We followed a wide, well-traveled dirt trail through the countryside, making several shallow stream crossings. For the most part, Flokey did very well in the water; he didn't kick up too much water onto my feet. At the far end of the ride, we stopped in a small meadow, near a short waterfall and let the horses eat the fresh, spring grass. After a few minutes, we mounted back up and headed back to the farm. All the way on this 6-8 mile trip, a dog accompanied us. We found out later that it was the neighbor's dog and it follows every tour ridden out of Laxnes!
After we finished, all the other riders got in the van to be returned to Reykjavik. Bil and I had about an hour's wait for the tour bus to pick us up for the remainder of our excursion. We ate our lunch, talked with the owners, pet the farm cat, and generally relaxed on the "front porch" just taking in the scenery. Soon, the bus turned into the lane and came up to pick us up.
One disadvantage to this tour arrangement was that we did not have any choice of seats since we were the last onboard. The only two seats together were in the 2nd to last row and across from the rear door. At first I was concerned because I've had bad experiences, nausea-wise, riding in the back of buses; but this turned out to not be a problem. Maybe bus design has improved? Besides, sitting right next to the door meant we were often the first ones off.
Next stop on the tour: Þingvallir (pronounced kind of like "Thingvallir"). This is a rift valley in the green hills outside Reykjavik where the old "chieftains" of Iceland would meet once each year to review current laws and add, change, or remove laws; and hold court if necessary for law breakers, etc. It's beautiful and a geologist's dream. The smooth curve of a shield volcano was visible off in the distance and black fault lines were visible on the hills across the valley. The area had basalt columns and basalt walls and clear, clean streams flowing around them, across the valley. It was so beautiful. This "express" tour only spent maybe 30 minutes here. Bil and I could have spent all day!
We reboarded the bus and continued on to Gullfoss ("Golden Waterfall"), a large, wide waterfall. This too was beautiful. It wasn't extraordinarily tall, but it fell in 2 wide steps. There was a massive amount of water. The tour guide warned everyone to use common sense and everyone would be fine. Bil and I thought what he wanted to say was "Don't go stupid."
Viewing Gullfoss took place on two different levels. From where the bus dropped us off, we followed a trail out to a large set of rocks close enough to the falls that if you slipped....goodbye. Then, you could climb a set of stairs up onto the plateau that the river cuts through and look out at the surrounding country and more down onto the waterfall. While up here, I looked down and saw the bus driving off...and panicked! I looked at my watch and knew we had at least 10 more minutes before we were supposed to leave. I hurried toward the coffee shop/souvenir store that was up on the plateau, and trying to think of what we should do if the bus had left us behind. I then recognized a couple of people from our bus. Perhaps the bus is just moving? Maybe it's coming up here and this is where we are supposed to catch it? Yes, that turned out to be the case. But we weren't the only ones who did not hear the guide mention that we would get back on the bus up here. After a few minutes, the adrenaline washed out of my system and my breathing returned to normal ;-) Whew!
Continuing on, the next stop was at the Geysir Thermal Springs area. Geysir is what geysers, like in Yellowstone, are named after. The formal name became the generic name. However, Geysir no longer erupts. But its close neighbor, Strokkur, does--every few minutes, but apparently not as high as Geysir used to. It was still interesting. The guide was very careful to point out that after we got off the bus, the bus was going to move and pointed out exactly where we were to get back on :-) In addition, he said to not stick our fingers in any of the hot springs and that we should simply trust them when they tell us that the water is very hot. We laughed. I had read somewhere that throughout the summer tourist season, tourists are treated on a regular basis for burns simply because they had to find out for themselves how hot the water was. No one in our group was that stupid.
We were getting kind of tired now. The bus stopped at another small falls, Faxi, that was not on the itinerary; long enough for the "shutter to open and close 2 or 3 times" we were told. No more than five minutes later, we were back on the road.
Next, we stopped at Kerið (like "Kerith"), an old volcanic crater with a blue-green lake in the bottom. According to our guide, they once floated a platform on the lake, on which was a band of some sort and the audience sat on the hillside and at the top of the crater to listen to the music.
The last stop was in a town built around a thermal area which they had tapped to build a greenhouse in which they grew exotic plants; well exotic since they came from Iceland, bananas, for example. We didn't do much here other than borrow the bathroom. Everyone was pretty tired by now and most everyone was waiting at the bus for the driver and guide to return!
We were finally dropped back off at our hotel at 7:30 pm. What a long and wonderful day. And it was only a brief taste of what we could have seen in Iceland if we had, oh 3 months instead of 3 days. Sigh.
We found dinner at yet another restaurant, then wandered down to the Kaffi Reykjavik. Bil had read that this restaurant had an Ice Bar. Well, that sounded unique so we stopped in. Sure enough, it was a small room, lined with blocks of ice and kept at -8 to -10°C (~14-18°F). The bar was made of ice; the standing tables were made of ice, and the two "chairs" were made of ice but they at least had some kind of fake fur throw on them. We were each given a warm cloak and let inside. It wasn't an open bar; they had a specific fruit and vodka drink that you got with your stay in the bar. I don't know if they had a limit as to how long you could stay in, but Bil and I lasted ~15 minutes. While in there, a small group of Japanese tourists were looking in the window at us, waving and smiling. The Ice Bar was definitely the "tourist thing to do" :-)
Friday, 9 June
We took our time getting up on Friday since we were kind of tired from the long tour. I still got in a good run, though. For Friday, we decided to just stay around town and take in whatever local sites we could get to on foot.
We also visited the 871 +/- 2 museum below our hotel, below ground level. They had come across the archeological remains of a Viking-era longhouse, left it in place and dug out around it and built it into the museum. It was a small but excellent museum with great interactive displays. Very interesting. And we were sleeping 3 floors above it! It was an odd feeling to try and picture our current surroundings looking like what the archeologists think it looked like when the longhouse was built and lived in, in the year 871 (thus the museum's name). The +/- 2 indicates the confidence they have in dating the find based on layers of volcanic ash and other geologic markers.
Finally, at dinner, we tried a local alcohol, Brennivin's, referred to as an Icelandic Schnaps. I had been told that I should try it since I was going to be in Iceland. So I did. Uhhhh, it can stay in Iceland ;-)
We really enjoyed Stockholm and of course we would love to go back to see more of Stockholm and, especially, more of Sweden. But, we *loved* Iceland. And, hands down, no contest, Iceland has the best tasting water we have ever had. Straight out of the tap, fresh and clean. We really need to come back here someday!
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