Geothermal areas

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We headed back to Reykjavik via the geothermal area on the Reykjanes peninsular. It is one of the most volatile areas in iceland. The temperature of the water is 200 degrees at 2m below the surface. There are loads of bubbling pools and mud holes. There is also a lake in a volcanic fissure with black laval beaches surrounding it.

We were supposed to be going to the Arctic in the evening - the island of Grimsey which is just to the north of Iceland is in the arctic circle. We had booked with the tour desk in the hotel in Reykjavik the week before, but when we turned up at the airport to catch the flight up there, they had no record of us. The poor airport information man made lots of phone calls for us and eventually had to tell us that they hadn't made the booking, and that as the flight was full, he couldn't even put us on it to get us there to meet the tour. Not happy. Went and sent Al to shout at the woman on the tour desk, but she was useless and everyone was blaming everyone else for it. Definately a good few complaint letters in the post.

Instead we made a booking at one of the restaraunts in one of the other local hotels - supposed to be nice with good views. Turned up there, and the restaraunt was shut for the summer.... was turning out to be one of those days. So in the cold and rain we walked (me not wearing enough for the weather as thought I'd only have to walk from the taxi to the hotel door..!) into town and found another resataraunt that I had read about that was supposed to be good - apotek - a fusion of icelandinc and asian food. Got looked at a bit funny by the waitress as we were a little on the soggy side, but the food was excellent and a couple of bottles of nice wine later and all was well! Turned out to be a lovel evening for our last in Iceland.

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