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Published: December 31st 2018
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What a day! I have truly loved Iceland, but the darkness is something that I would have to get used to. By the time I had packed my room, had a lovely breakfast and checked out, it was around 9:30. It was pitch black dark, cold and really windy. I headed out of town after refuelling and hoping that I wasn't going to have to cross the mountains... WRONG! The GPS took me left where I was hoping not to go... The wind had not stopped and as I started to climb the mountains the snow started; slowly at first and then heavier. By the time I was 10 klms into the journey, the road was already covered with snow. There were a few cars on the road so I tried to keep in their tyre marks but I'm having a little trouble with the right hand side of the car. I think it's because I'm not used to left-hand drive but I'm unsure where the right side of the car is and kept running into the slushy/icy snow on the right hand side of the road. Anyway, I took my time and eventually arrived safely on the other side of
the mountains. Big sigh of relief. I stopped at one point to connect the dash cam as I want to remember what it was like. I tried to push the little 'ball' thing into the dash mount and bent my thumb nail half-way back... owieeee. I hopped out of the car and stuck my bleeding finger into the snow for a bit. Of course I had no band aid. I found a town Bogarnes that had a food market and I bought a box of band aids. My thumb felt better straight away.
There is a 6klm tunnel that has a speed limit of 70. I was very careful to stay on that while others roared past me. As I came out of the tunnel, I thought the speed had increased to 90 but no... a speed camera flashed in my face... 79 in a 70. Will have to check that out tomorrow. Apparently speeding fines are as icy as the weather here... BLAST! I finally approached Reyjkavik at 1:30 and checked into my accommodations for the night. The lady was lovely. I so like how Icelanders speak great English. Makes me feel much more secure when I can
communicate. She told me that people had been warned to put off travel until tomorrow, particularly where I had just come from! Great! She advised me to go to the Perlan. This is the museum of Iceland. It was only a couple of klms from the hotel. I went and paid the eye-watering $50 to get in. I had a lovely afternoon. There was amazing technologies: an ice cave, a planetarium and heaps of really cool interactive displays. Not worth $50 but really good.
I then went to the Kringlan mall. So many people. I guess they were trying to get out of the weather! I found a pair of swimmers... mine are in the bag in London with Nug and Theo! and went to the local pool. It was raining and the pools are all outdoors. I couldn't take any photos because I had to lock my camera in the change rooms. There are 50 metre, 25 metre and play pools for the kids. Around the outside are lots of hot pools. The whole place is geothermally heated. The pools have steam pouring from the water. Looks rather ethereal! After a splash in the big pool I climbed
Planetarium lights
Wish I could have seen these for real into the smaller pool. It was delicious! The rain falling on my face and the rest of me in neck deep warm water. I can see why this is a very popular pastime for Icelandic people. I spent about 1 hour in the water, changed back into boots, jumpers and coats and drove back to the accommodation (only about 2 klms). I made myself a hot drink, had a cup of noodles, watched some TV and crashed out until 3am. An altogether lovely day: except for the speeding ticket!
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