Voyage to the Center of the Earth

August 18th, 2015

This day promised to be a light day. Less than 250 kilometers to drive, and all the attractions we were interested in where in were close to the hotel. No need to hurry to get things done.

Our first stop was at the lava tube at Vaetner. You can only visit it with a guide and our guide was a funny young man who asked us to call him Gummy because his real name was just too hard to pronounce. He gave us helmets, flashlights and instructions on how to behave inside the caves and then led us down some circular metal stairs into the "center of the earth." We learned something about the region's connection to Jules Verne (Vaetner is where his Voyage to the Center of the Earth started), how lava tubes are formed, what total darkness looks like, what total silence sounds like, and that the guides stored their sodas down in the cave because its temperature was around 34 Farenheit all year round.

The visit to the cave was followed by a hike along the coast to look at some interesting rock formations and a stop at Amarstapi for some coffee and a visit to ????, the half man/half troll guardian of the peninsula. Then it was time to get into the car and head back to Reykjavik where we checked into our hotel.

We did do one more thing that day, which was go visit the Blue Lagoon. Our mission: simmer in a nice hot pool until they kicked us out of the place. Getting there was a little bit of a drive and a challenge, as our GPS did not have an entry for Blue Lagoon. Fiddling with it a little we took a guess that Bláa lónið is where we wanted to go. Turned out we were right.

They got the spa experience down to a science there. When you arrive they give you a wristband that serves as your id and wallet. You store your stuff in a locker (which you lock with the wristband), shower, put on your swimsuit and join the throngs in the lagoon. In this particular day, given it was rainy, windy and cold, the throngs where not as throngy and once you got in the water you did not want to leave. According to K., Blue Lagoon is a misnomer, it should be called Sea Foam Green Lagoon. Whatever its color, it was nice and warm and once I got in I refused to get out.  But apparently they kick you out around 9 pm.

And that was it for our Iceland experiences. The next day was spent with last minute shopping, and just relaxing, and the day after we got on a plane and came back home.