Iceland (Part 3)

We explored the fjord to the north of Reykjavik on Thursday morning ( the cement works didn’t look too bad covered in snow) and then spent the afternoon wallowing in the warmth of the Blue Lagoon – an incredible experience, swimming in sunshine but zero degrees, surrounded by steam. The water was as warm as a comfortable bath and the pumice gravel did wonders for your feet. It is about the most expensive swimming pool in the world but the changing rooms are superbly clean and equipped with vanity units and hairdryers. You are provided with shower gels and shampoos and given a sachet of special moisturising lotion. We left as snow started to fall again and drove round the peninsular to Keflavik, stopping to stand on the footbridge over the rift between the tectonic plates. Here the plates are slowly moving apart. It is a very arid, black landscape and we hardly saw a soul in the area. There are small communities dotted around but they must be very isolated and bleak when the weather closes in for the winter. Keflavik was home to the Nato air base but is now a major commercial airport. It also has the “First Baptist Church,” housed in a corrugated tin hall.

We returned to the hostel and shared take away pizza with Spaniards, in exchange for Catalan sausage. The extra snow meant that the Youth hostel got the gift of more snow angels and snowmen, courtesy of Sarah and Keith!

Sadly we packed our bags and returned to the airport on Friday morning, determined to revisit again – when we’ve saved up! There was a lot of synchronised snow ploughing on the runways and our plane had to be de-iced before we left (after a frantic head count as we were a passenger short – it was a bit like school trips, counting children on coaches.)

Rosemary Monk