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Published: July 19th 2009
Last day on Iceland! We'll spend it in style: after killing ourselves cycling around the place for (almost) 2 weeks, today is going to make all of it worthwhile - especially yesterday's torture ride to get here.
In the morning, again we are woken by rain. So, again, we decide to do the reasonable thing: sleep in, and wait for the weather to come to its senses, and stop the rain. And it works! At 11am, we are, once again, the last people on the campsite, but the rain has stopped, and so we can have a nice dry breakfast, pack up, and hit the road.
The ride is easy: first of all, the Blue Lagoon is only 2km from Grindavík. Secondly, the wind is now truly on our side, blowing - as yesterday - from the South.
Approaching the Lagoon, all we see are lava rocks. No blue. Nothing. A sign points right, and there is a big parking lot, again surrounded by walls of lava rocks. We park the bikes, take only the necessary things (bathing suits), and head down to the entrance. On the way, we can see pools of bright blue water on either side of the
Blue...
...doesn't even begin to describe it!modern building. They create an eerie contrast to the pitch black lava.
The next 4 hours are heaven: the Blue Lagoon formed in the 80s, when the nearby geothermal powerplant started pumping its "waste" (i.e. hot water from deep below the surface that is being pumped through a heat exchange system to supply the entire Reykjanesbær peninsula with heating) into the surrounding lava fields. The minerals and algae in the water started creating a white coating on the sharp lava rocks, similar to the enamel in a bath tub. This water is now again being heated to 40 degrees, to make for out-of-this-world bathing! It's like the soft water hugs you. The combination of fresh and salt water, together with the minerals and algae make bathing in the Blue Lagoon an amazing treat! We spend hours just lying in the water, occasionally interrupted by a visit to the sauna or steam bath, or a bite in the cafeteria.
Around 5pm, we drag our completely relaxed bodies out of the blue soup, take another long shower, and slowly start heading back towards the main road. The same 10km that took us well over an hour now take us less than half
an hour, thanks to the persistent tail wind. And even on the 41, the main road to the airport, the wind is still coming slightly from behind, to make even that part of the trip pleasant. Thus, we arrive at the airport 5 hours before departure: plenty of time to disassemble the bikes, pack up the panniers, check everything in, and still have plenty of time to review the last 2 amazing weeks, before boarding our plane back to reality.
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Kristal
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I have a 3 hour stopover in Iceland in a few days. Do you think there would be enough time to drop by the lagoon before take off?