Iceland

The morning of May 5th we packed up our bags and took the 2 1/2 hour flight over on Iceland Air to Keflavik, Iceland where we were going to stay for only twenty four hours.  Let me tell you... we made the most of our twenty four hours!

Upon checking in to the Courtyard where we were going to overnight we encountered a sweet girl named Tonka who checked us in.  She was from Croatia and had a cute sense of humor.  She suggested that we go to the Blue Lagoon that night because it wasn't very far, and the pools didn't close until 11PM.

She was very nice and got our tickets for us right there at the front desk.

Before going to the Blue Lagoon we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, named Langbest, with the whole group.

The food was really good and we enjoyed a good dinner together!

After dinner Trent, Kathy, Darla, and Rick and I packed up our swimsuits and towels and drove the twenty minutes to the Blue Lagoon.  As we drove in past the geothermal plant we saw these beautiful pools of ice blue surrounded by lava rock.  My goodness the color was so vivid!  Pictures just cannot show the beauty of it...

We went in and got dressed in our suits and got into the nice warm waters.  Trent decided not to get in and just watched from inside.  

The waters are kept at 99 degrees, but there were even warmer pockets in some areas.  

It felt just right to me!

Kath and Rick

Our ticket purchase came with a special face mask experience.  After being in the water for a few minutes we decided to give it a try.  Kinda silly but fun.  It is supposed to be good for your skin.

We had fun with it anyways...

There was a sauna that Darla and Rick went into, but I find it hard to even breathe in saunas, so I just enjoyed the great outdoors while they were inside.  After not too long a voice on the overhead speaker said that the lagoon was going to be closing in fifteen minutes.  What?  We were told it closed at eleven!

Kind of a bummer but we got to spend a little over an hour in that lovely place.  We hadn't received our drinks that were included, and the drink shack at the pool was closed down already.   They said we could get our drinks inside before we left.  So after getting our clothes back on we went to the little snack shack inside.

Rick got a carrot cupcake to go with his drink.  Something kind of funny that happened was that Kathy picked up an apple juice from the cafe and drank most of it down not realizing that it was an alcoholic cider.  She offered the last bit of it to Rick and he took a swig and recognized that it was boozy.  He brought it to me and I smelled it and could tell right away that it was.  We had a good laugh at that but I think she was embarrassed.  

So pretty.  

Also, because we were so far north, the sun didn't set until until about 11 PM and then came back up at 4 AM.  Kinda different and fun.  Luckily we had blackout shades in our room and slept well.

The next morning we drove into Reykjavik.  Darla had gotten tickets for something called FlyOver Iceland and we really enjoyed it.  We were strapped in a chair and brought out over a huge movie screen like an IMAX and then given a tour of beautiful Iceland as if we were flying out in the open.  It gave us an overview of how beautiful Iceland really is.  It really is a diverse country from volcanic areas to beautiful fields to waterfalls to the beautiful ocean surrounding it.  The ride had different smells and even mists of water as we were "flying" for those twenty minutes. 

As we came out of the ride Rick took my face in his hands and said, "I want you to bring me back here for my birthday!"  Haha!  He wants to see the whole kit and caboodle of Iceland.  There is the famous 800 mile 'ring' that you can drive around.  It takes several days, but they say it's pretty amazing.  

We'll see if we make it back.

Of course, we had to stop and get a souvenir or two.

I didn't know that Iceland has a legend of trolls inhabiting the area.

We saw a few of these around...

We then took some time driving around and walking the streets of Reykjavik.

I thought this boat was so cool looking!

More sights...

We stopped at a little cafe called Icelandic to get a bite to eat.

They were serving soup.  Rick and Trent got the Lamb stew.  I do not like lamb so I opted for the tomato soup.  It was good, but we had eaten a pretty big breakfast at the hotel so I could not finish it.

Of course I made room to have a few bites of this fun waffle treat.

There were a few of them set out just out for the customers to come and get for free.  

Rick put jam on his.

Good times!

What a fun twenty four hours!

This afternoon our group loaded up our bags that were bursting at the seams and flew back to the States.

We landed in Boston for a few more days of fun....