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Bronson and Sharon at Kerið
Kerið, a 55-meter deep explosion crater. The blue water at the bottom is simply stunning.Knowing that this was possibly our last year in the UK, we decided to make a few trips to places we have always wanted to go. Seeing the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis for you boffins) has been a dream of mine since I first heard about them.
Northern Lights don't occur very often, as they require very specific weather conditions: very cold and very still and very clear. Typically visible between December and March, I was crossing my fingers that we'd be lucky enough to see some. Of course, I didn't realise that they coincide with periods of solar activity, which is in an 11-year cycle, and we were there at the least active period (it peaks in 2011, with the next predicted Aurora starting in 2008!) Whoops, talk about bad timing!
Besides which, the weather was unseasonably warm, and very,very foggy. We went on a Super Jeep tour (this has special wide tyres which means it can drive on glaciers, not that we got onto any glaciers, what with the heatwave!) which got better as the day went on. The first 2 hours consisted of the guide saying "If there wasn't fog, then you'd see ".
View from the oldest Parliament in the world
Þingvellir National Park. Near here is the place where the North American and European techtonic plates meet. I thought the scenery was beautiful, but Bronson thought it was desolate and depressing. So we almost saw lakes, mountains, and power plants. Oh and waterfalls. (Apparently Iceland has the most waterfalls in the world or someting like that. Don't know if they worked it out by square kilometre, or per capita or what, but it sounded good!
The geysirs were amazing, as was the explosion crater Kerið. Bronson got a bit bored of the scenery, as it was very bleak there (the tour guide told us that the first trees were only planted on Iceland in 1940. Until then there were only rocks and lichen. Seriously!).
We decided to go to a World-Class Gym then next day, as it sounded really cool. When we arrived we thought we'd been duped because it was actually called "World Class Gym" making us think it would be terrible. (Kind of like the "Best Fried Chicken" shops you see dotted around London). Thankfully, it was awesome. It is one of the biggest gyms in Europe, very modern with floor to ceiling windows. And there were loads of pools (7 Jacuzzis, a full-size outside pool with slides, and Olympic-sized Indoor pool, a thermal pool, etc etc). We spent 3 hours there, which in retrospect wasn't nearly
Where's my wetsuit?
People throw load of change into here, and it glitters and sparkles like treasure. No one ever collects it as the water is freezing the whole year round. enough to see everything. They had iris recognition technology which was fun, except that I'd worn coloured contact lenses and hence couldn't operate any of the doors!
The most impressive bit was the unisex spa. There were six different saunas and steam rooms - each one unique with its own theme. There we could experience birdsong, sunrise, or a starry night sky and inhale different aromas.
The relaxation room which had a huge central fireplace and loads of lazy-boy style armchairs was the ultimate in vegging out. If Reyjavik weren't so damn expensive I'd consider going back for the spa alone!
On our last day we went to the airport via the Blue Lagoon. The geothermal pools were at about 36 degrees and the silica makes the water a lovely blue colour. It was very surreal, floating around with about 300 people from loads of different countries. A hint to any girls who go there... Use a bathing cap or drench your hair in conditioner before you go in, as the silica turns your hair to straw if you get it wet!
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