Our first order of business upon arrival was a bus ride that would take us to The Blue Lagoon. That meant sitting in the airport for a couple hours. There was nothing to do but wait. I was very tired because it was past my normal bedtime (and it was just morning in Iceland), and that didn't help me feel any better. Little by little the shops in the airport were closing. Cafe, money-exchange--all apparently only stay open to suit the time frame of the arriving flights. It was still dark outside and the wind was howling. Peeking out, all we could see were parked cars and snow blowing through the lights. At one point I went outside for a short walk to see if I could see anything. Anything. After all, we were here for a mini vacation--to take pictures--and here we were with this imaginary, slow-moving dollar-sign meter running like in the cartoons. Anyway, in the short walk that I took the cold numbed my face and made my forehead throb. It was kind of a claustrophobic feeling I was having I think. In all honesty, it reminded me of one of those sci-fi movies where they have a lonely outpost on a cold, foreboding planet.
When we finally got onto our bus and headed to the Blue Lagoon it was finally daylight. That meant we could study the terrain as it passed by. What we mostly saw though was snow and desolation. Iceland is a fairly barren place when you get out from the cities, and the airport was way out. As we drove, I snapped pictures through the bus windshield. I wanted to capture it all. As we neared the Blue Lagoon my bad feelings were forgotten. In the distance was a huge steam cloud rising from around a structure. As we got closer to the entrance, pools of robin-egg blue water appeared along the road, contrasting with the white snow. The excitement was stronger as I snapped away. We were still hauling our suitcases at this point and had still not been to a hotel. The bus/transport outfit that delivered us maintains a small, locked cabin near the bus parking area that was lined with shelving for luggage. They have an airport-style baggage claim setup that they use (they check as you leave) so everything is secure. Apparently they get a lot of visitors that go there directly from the airport. Actually, they weren't all that far from the airport--maybe that's why. We stowed our stuff and grabbed our suits and towels and headed up the icy, windy pathway toward the entrance.
In all honesty, the Blue Lagoon was one of the strangest and most beautiful places I have ever witnessed. The color, the temperature of the water, the quiet remoteness, the beautiful surroundings--it was surreal. The sun was shining weakly and did nothing to warm the air, but did add a lot beauty to the mountains and surrounding scenery, as well as lighting up the steam that was rising off the blue water. The contrast of the hot water and the frigid air was apparent when I found myself literally with ice in my hair. It was that cold out! We took a few forays in and out of the water taking pictures and setting up the tripod to take pictures of us, each time numbing the soles of our feet as we did so. The place was equipped with a hot sauna, waterfall, multiple pathways around the lagoon, restaurant, second floor viewing area full of chairs to relax in, and bracelet-activated locker locks so we didn't have to fumble with keys. It was truly a memorable place. It was nearing noon by the time we were finished there. The shuttle bus that was to take us to our hotel departed hourly, and we had just missed one, so we wandered around and took pictures. I'm glad we missed that bus because in our wandering we found we could get to a viewing deck on the rooftop of the adjoining restaurant, and we had a fantastic view of the whole lagoon and its surroundings from up there.
It was a fairly long ride to our hotel. The airport area and the city of Reykjavik are not very close to each other. In that drive we saw more snow and more desolation. It didn't matter much though because we were feeling better about things. The day was looking brighter, both figuratively and literally. Our hotel was in a sort of odd location--just far enough from the city to not be walking within convenient walking distance. It was a nice hotel--not too upscale but definitely not a "dive" either. I give it good marks. The people were very friendly, and the room was very comfortable. There were plenty of electrical outlets for our laptops and camera battery chargers, and we had plenty of adapter plugs along with us to convert our strange, American plugs to the wall sockets that the rest of the world uses. The included (at least it was in our package deal) buffet breakfast was, without exception, the biggest and most varied I have ever seen. There was food from every food group in multiple varieties.Our package included air fare, hotel (with breakfast as I said), and one tour out of a few they had to select from. Neither of us are "tour people" but because it was included how could we refuse? There's just that "herded" feeling you get with a tour that turns us both off. We're explorers. We like to turn down roads to see where they go and what treasures they might hold. Anyway, I've digressed. We opted for the Golden Circle tour even before we left home, so that was all set up, but the hotel had a kiosk in it and we were able to get a lot of information about other attractions, times, transportation, and all sorts of other things. In short, the hotel had everything we needed. Because our tour was scheduled for the next day, we were going to try to work some way of viewing the Northern Lights into our schedule for our first evening there. Alas, the weather didn't cooperate. The sky was not open for any viewing of celestial phenomenon of any kind. Instead we caught a shuttle to downtown. We wanted to take pictures! We wanted to see stuff!
When we got to the downtown area we really had no idea where to go so we wandered up and down streets--looking at shops, people, architecture, and anything else that caught our attention. After a while we starting getting tired, and the wind was also a little annoying. Oh wait--did I say annoying? I meant COLD. Our hunger was kicking in badly, and after a lot more wandering, looking for a place to eat, we settled on a cool spot that fit our needs to a tee. We had ourselves a pint of Viking beer and a great burger meal. By the time we came out of the eatery it was getting dark.It took us a while to find the right place to catch the bus back to our hotel, but by the time we got there we were more than ready to crash.
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