The Blue Lagoon, Iceland (and a Visit to Two Continents!)

 The Blue Lagoon!!!

No, this isn't the Brooke Shields version, this is the real thing in Iceland!  Grant was really excited to swim in the ultra warm waters of the Blue Lagoon.  He does not like being cold AT ALL.

He was so excited, that he took off running up the walkway to the entrance.

There's no need to play around with a filter... that's the natural color of the silica filled waters.

When you first arrive and check in, you are told to go to the locker rooms to change and shower. And you MUST shower!  Obviously no one had masks on in the locker room (those were left in the lockers) so you just wanted to shower and get out of there as fast as you could.  But once you emerge from the locker rooms... look at the view!

Thinking ahead, we brought plastic bags to put our phones in because you can really damage your phone if you get any of the silica filled water on it.  Of course, when you take a picture with your phone in a plastic bag, this is what it winds up looking like. I actually have one of the real waterproof pouches for my phone but I totally forgot it at home!  They also sell them there, but I'm sure they're a million dollars.

So I walked around snapping a few pictures with my good phone before sending it back to the locker room.  Look at this water!

Ok boys, smile for me... this is the last picture I'm taking!

Because there is a very high amount of silica in the Blue Lagoon, you're encouraged to leave your phone inside.  We didn't bring our cell phones into the pool, but we DID bring two disposable waterproof cameras!  The kids were like whaaaat....

Of course, this is the quality you will get with two disposable waterproof cameras!!!  At least the subjects were cute - even if their eyes are closed (I swear they are doing this on purpose!)

Todd was hilarious - he said, "These look like a bunch of pictures from the 70s!"  True!  In defense of some of these pictures, one camera got a bit of moisture under the plastic near the lens and the other didn't. So one set of pictures came out better than the other.

Well, it's as good as it's gonna get - me with my babies in the Blue Lagoon!

Well that's a little better. Look at my cute family!

We swam around the entire lagoon for a bit which hovers somewhere around 38 degree C (or about 100F) although it fluctuates a bit in different parts of the pool (some areas are 36C and some are up to 40C).   Grant gives the warm waters a thumbs up! (That other guy though, is gonna have some problems with his phone!)

We swam under the bridge with a brief pause for a cute picture.  No one had any problem standing in any part of the lagoon.  And as you can see here, it was fairly easy to avoid close contact with other humans.

This picture actually turned out pretty decent - you can very easily see the white silica from the water staining the side of the old volcanic rock, likely a biproduct of a fairly recent (!!) eruption around these parts in 1226.

The Blue Lagoon is 70% sea water and 30% fresh water.  She is 100% blue raspberry slushie!

And a yummy cherry slushie for Grant!

I have to post two Bailey family selfies at happy hour in the Blue Lagoon because Grant is halfway hidden by Natalie here.

And then we can only see half of Natalie's face here in this picture!  It's hard to take a selfie with a disposable camera!

Todd is holding me up by my locked arms here.  Look, I'm taller than him!

We spent most of the day in this little nook, not too far from the swim up bar.  It was quiet and free from other people, and we had a great time relaxing in the warm water.

A sibling selfie was the last picture taken on one of the cameras.

After a few hours, we finally agreed we were all getting pretty water logged and hungry, so once we showered and got back into regular clothes, we went to the little cafe inside the Blue Lagoon that sold sandwiches and such.  It was also a chance to get back to the higher quality iPhone!

The Blue Lagoon water is known as geothermal water - meaning it's the earth that heats it up naturally.  There's fresh water being pumped in about every 48 hours, so it doesn't feel gross!  However, it's still essentially (ha) a waste water dump for the nearby Svartsengi power plant.  The water is not usable by the plant due to the mineral content, so they send it over here.  There's nothing wrong with it at all, but they can't use it as heating water because the minerals cause problems in the pipelines.

Time for $100 ham sandwiches!  There is also a couple of restaurants here, but those were way more expensive and fancier. Plus, with increasing Covid numbers in Iceland, we would rather sit outside.  Besides, look how pretty the weather was!

We had a nice lunch view of the swim up bar where people were waiting to buy drinks!

Alas, it was finally time to leave.  I would do this again in a heartbeat - it was so warm and beautiful!

The man-made lagoon extends beyond the limits of the spa and it feels like you are truly in another world.

Bailey family selfie outside of the Blue Lagoon!

The silica is fascinating to me. It's very slimy if too much is built up!

What planet have I gone to?

Todd took a panorama of the area, as he always does.  We sadly did not get to do any of the mud treatments because we didn't feel comfortable with so many people putting their hands in the mud that is supplied by the spa.  There's a little swim up mud mask bar that you can sample the treatments, but eh.  Maybe in a non-Covid world, if that ever exists.

Swirling cooled lava and rocks.

Hey, how did you get here?  Hard to believe anything could grow in this harsh landscape!

Goodbye, Blue Lagoon!

We spotted this in the parking lot of the Blue Lagoon as we were leaving. We saw a few of these and we are still scratching our heads.  Did they ship their car here from Germany?  That's a German license plate!  We were happy to see something so familiar.

One last Bailey family selfie in front of the famous entrance sign.

The Blue Lagoon is surrounded by literally nothing but rocks and moss.  It looks like a mossy covered moon!

As I mentioned, the Reykjanes Peninsula had a series of six volcanoes blow up in 1226 and land was defined by it.

The Fagradalsfjall volcano isn't too far from the Blue Lagoon although we decided not to go because although you can hike to the active crater, it seemed like a very difficult hike for a couple of kids. Maybe next time because I'd love to see another active volcano!

We took the long way back to Reykjavik so that we could swing by the Bridge Between Continents or Brúin milli heimsálfa in Icelandic.

Hey look!  It's a big gap between the North American (to the right) and Eurasian (to the left) continental plates!

North America is moving west and away from Eurasia, hence the gap here.  Grant, is that you under all of that hair?

If you do it just right, you can take pictures that make it look like you're holding up the bridge!

Well.... close enough!

Meanwhile, these clowns were being silly wedged down there between North America and Eurasia.

Grant looked small compared to the continents.

That was some bright sunshine!  We got really lucky with the weather on our trip.

The continents are drifting apart at the rate of about 1 inch per year and it creates cracks in the surrounding terrain - one of which Natalie is standing in.

I walked to North America to take this picture.

Todd and Grant eventually rejoined us after their jaunt in the crevasse but not before snapping this pic of me and Natalie on the North American side.

One of the best things about Iceland is that you can see a million things because nothing takes very long to see. In under 30 minutes, we had read and seen all we could about the Bridge Between Continents, so we were on our merry (and desolate) way back to Reykjavik.

The Blue Lagoon is over there somewhere!  And so is the volcano!  It's flat for miles here.

Eventually we returned to the apartment where we noticed we had a visitor outside.  There were a bunch of (stray?) cats roaming around our neighborhood.

The wildlife will find a way to grow, even between the rocks.

Just outside of our neighborhood is the pretty Lutheran church Háteigskirkja.  Construction only began in the early 1950s and it was finally consecrated in 1965.

WHAT THE WHAT.  This is Yellow Loosestrife and it's native (!) to Central Europe and Asia Minor according to my plant identifier app.  I LOVE this pretty flower!

We were not directly in the center of the city (we prefer to be close, but not TOO close!) but even from out here, you can still see the spire of the Hallgrimskirkja.

We grabbed a SUPER yummy dinner from Potturinn og Pannan which was down the street from our apartment. I had the Tagliatelle Aglio E Olio and it was fantastic.  Probably the best cherry tomatoes I've ever had (I ate them right up, which is why you don't see any here!)  Meanwhile, Todd made the kids burgers on the stove.

Foreign currency is always funny to us, especially those who have high currency values.  This looks like we are super rich, but it's really only about $76 or so.

Until next time Blue Lagoon!  What a beautiful day!

Reykjavik, Iceland (Day 1)

EEEK!  We FINALLY were able to go on a big, summer family vacation!  I bought tickets for us to go to Iceland last November but when I purchased them, I had no idea what the Covid world would be like in August of 2021.  It wasn't the best timing, but three out of four of us were (are) vaccinated, and since about 95% of our trip was going to be outdoors in the middle of nowhere, we decided to go for it.

Mandatory masks on the plane!  You either wore an N95 (which I was struggling to breathe in) or you could double up on triple layer or filtered masks. I think we actually saw or encountered more people on the flights to and from Iceland than most of the rest of our trip!

Of course, you had to take your mask off when you had an adult beverage.

Todd fell asleep pretty quickly, and Grant was playing on the iPad. Natalie had just closed her eyes when I looked out the window and saw THIS.  I almost changed our trip to winter just to see these, but I'm glad I didn't.  All Northern Light photo's were taken by Natalie's iPhone which has a better camera!

It's funny because they didn't actually look like this.  You can very easily see them, but they aren't as green as they appear here.

Todd was sleeping but I had to wake him up to see this!  Not only did we get to see the Northern Lights, but it was also the peak night for the Perseid meteor shower and I saw NINE shooting stars!

Eventually, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise on approach to Keflavik airport.  You can see Snæfellsjökull National Park peaking through the clouds.

We landed on the tarmac and took the bus to the terminal just as the sun was rising.

Who here is tired?!?  Let's go get our luggage.

There were a ton of quirky little statues and signs between the airport and our apartment in Reykjavik. I appreciate that.

All I know is that I did one of the smartest things I've ever done when traveling. I noticed that our apartment was available on AirBnB the night before we arrived, so I asked the host if I could book it.  But I couldn't book it through AirBnB because it was going to try to charge me the cleaning and service fees again (for one night!)  So she agreed and only charged me $40!  Best decision ever, because we got to the apartment around 9ish and CRASHED.

But after a 2.5 hour nap, Todd ran out to the Bonus and grabbed us a feast of bread, salami, cheese, strawberries and paprika chips, which we ate for lunch before heading out to see the city. We all missed Lays paprika chips a LOT. We used to buy those at the Edeka all the time.  Todd reminded us that it was the first snack we ever ate when we moved to Germany. Sniff sniff.

We finally ventured out into the city!  Can you believe this weather?

Reykjavik isn't a huge city but it actually does have some really good street art. 

Our first stop was probably the most famous stop in all of Reykjavik, the Hallgrímskirkja!  

In front of Hallgrímskirkja sits a statue of Iceland's most famous explorer, Leif Eriksson (or, errr... Leifr Eirícsson if I was Icelandic!)  These three are pretty decent explorers, too.

Leif Eriksson is known for being the first European to set foot in North America (although admittedly... half of Iceland sits on the North American tectonic plate, so maybe someone else was the first?)  But Leif first landed in North America (he called it Vinland) around 1000 AD.  Interestingly, no one quite knows where he landed. Some say it was Newfoundland, and some even say it was around Boston!  It's likely that it was in the Newfoundland/Labrador area though. Leif was, of course, the actual first European to land in North America as he did so about 500 years before Columbus. 

The statue of our pal Leif was actually a gift from America in 1930 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary (what?) of Iceland's first parliament at Thingvellir in 930!  In Icelandic, that is spelled Þingvellir - and we will have more about this cool national park in another post!

I will probably mention it a few times, but this trip was not like ANY other we have done before, and hopefully not like any other we will take in the future.  See that tower?  You can go to the top for a fee. In an elevator.  Nope. Not right now.  We missed out on the best views in all of Reykjavik because of stupid Covid.  Oh well.  Moving on.

Let's take a family selfie in front of Hallgrímskirkja before we go inside, shall we?  After all, it IS the largest church in Iceland! Superlative, check!  It's not the tallest building, however.  That superlative belongs to Smáratorg 3, which is in the southern part of the city.  It's just a 20 story office building!

This church took 41 years to build, and this pipe organ was built in Germany.

Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran church, and a modern one at that, so you will not find a lot of ornate decorations like you might in an old Catholic cathedral.  We spent about 3-4 minutes in here, even though you can see it wasn't crowded.  Our goal was not to spend a lot of time indoors, anywhere.

These three are goofing off in front of the Hallgrímskirkja, as usual.  Grant is wearing a Bruins shirt (ahem... go Bolts!) and some guy stopped him and said with a thick accent, "Go Bruins!"

Just across the street from the church is a restaurant with a traditional grass covered roof on it. This is known as a turf house. During and after the Settlement days, turf was used to insulate the homes - although today it's used mostly for nostalgia since Iceland has an incredible heating system (known as geothermal heating!)  Turf homes were popular in Iceland for over a thousand years, though!

Although not as spectacular as some of the others, it's important to always take note of the manhole covers in Europe, because you know I love them so much!  This symbol is all over Reykjavik since it is the Reykjavik Coat of Arms.  It was only designed in 1951 but it shows the throne pillars of Ingolfr Árnarson, the first permanent settler of Iceland.  More on him in another post, of course!

In Reykjavik, a lot of the buildings have corrugated metal covering the actual structure.  This acts as a protective cover over the wood that's beneath it (if the building is old enough - wood is not used in construction anymore).  Otherwise it's just a way to beat the harsh Icelandic winters. It's also low maintenance and it's useful because they don't have a lot of natural resources to use in construction anyway.

This is another example of the corrugated sheet metal that covers many structures in Reykjavik.

Rainbow Road hasn't always been a permanent feature in Reykjavik. It's been painted this way for Reykjavik Pride, a celebration held for the LGBTQ community since 1999 - but in 2019, they permanently painted this section of Skólavörðustígur Street and it's been here ever since. The residents - and even the mayor - participated in the painting of the road.

The kids loved the Rainbow Road and the (um) bustling Skólavörðustígur (which is the actual name of the road here) - and I gotta be honest, I have no idea how to pronounce that, and I'm not even going to try.

This is Hannes Hafstein in front of the Prime Minister's office.  He was the first actual Icelandic Minister under Home Rule - meaning he was the first Minister who actually was based in Iceland (rather than Denmark.)  More on this in another post, too!  Can we take a moment to appreciate the flora here though?

Hey, it's our little friend from Germany!

Austurstræti is also known as "East Street."  It's one of the oldest parts of the city.

They're super proud of this museum. Sounds about right. Naturally they bragged that it was the biggest in the world.  (Ok, ok... it's the ONLY one in the world!)

Austurstræti 16 is one of the most well known buildings in the old town area.  It's currently a hotel and restaurant.  The state architect of Iceland Guðjón Samúelsson designed this building in the early 1900s after the fire of 1915.  It's known as the Apotek, which of course is because it was once a pharmacy.  This building was one of the first of it's kind, and many buildings in the city were modeled after it.

Natalie and Grant in Austurvöllur - a public square in Reykjavik which faces the Parliament building (not shown here.)  I took another picture and Grant had his hand in front of his face, so eyes closed is the best that I could do here. This is why you take five pictures to get one good one, which I clearly didn't do!  Anyway, the flowers were SO pretty in this park!

Interestingly, while Hallgrímskirkja is the most well known or sought out church in Reykjavik, this is actually the Reykjavik Cathedral - also a Lutheran church, built in the 1780s-1790s.  We couldn't go inside because they were having a funeral (notice the hearse in the bottom right corner.)

And THIS unassuming building is just the Icelandic parliament!

I love how LGBTQ friendly Reykjavik and Iceland are. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland's first female prime minister (2009-2013) was the world's first openly LGBTQ head of government.  She and her wife Jónína Leósdóttir were joined in a civil union in 2002, and married in 2010 when same-sex marriage was legalized here.  This walkway leads to city hall, and crosses over Tjörnin lake.  Tjörnin means "lake or pond."

Ok I'm not even kidding... this is my FAVORITE STATUE OF ALL TIME.  This one is called, "Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat."  As a couple of faceless bureaucrats ourselves, we appreciate this wholeheartedly (well, I do anyway!)

After we were down at Tjörnin lake, we made our way back into the city.  This picture is pretty spectacular. Neither of my kids have their eyes open and who knows if mine are open because I have sunglasses on.  I'd like to say that this was accidental...and it absolutely was on Natalie's part.  However, Todd took three pictures and Grant's eyes were closed in all three pictures so he was obviously doing that on purpose.

Hallgrímskirkju with Rainbow Road leading to it. I feel like this is almost the yellow brick road, leading to Emerald City!

All right, all right... you can have some ice cream before dinner.  We really missed European ice cream shops that do not sell any type of peanut ice cream.

We finally started to make our way back to the apartment, heading up Laugavegar Street.  Natalie wanted to participate in the street art.  Hey that 3 is backwards!

Not to be outdone by his sister... although he's entirely in FRONT of the start line.

Eeek, I love this building!

Get out... this is a building that I need to color with a medium point Paper Mate flair pen.

Todd ran into a restaurant to grab us some Doner and pizza and I took this picture down the street toward the northern coast of Reykjavik.

Laugavegar Street is funny.  Nope.  No, I don't. 

THERE'S POLAR BEARS ATTACKING MY KIDS.  Oh wait.  There are no polar bears in Iceland.

This baby bottle of Makers is almost $85 USD.  I'm glad I bought mine for way less than half of that in the Logan Airport duty free shop.  Todd took this pic when he went to the state run liquor store - the only place you can get alcohol in Iceland.  You cannot buy it in the grocery stores (like the Bonus).  If you don't buy it at the state-run liquor store, you can buy it at the duty free before you leave America, or you can purchase it at the duty free at Keflavik airport.  There are only 54 state-run liquor stores in the entire country!

That's all we have for now... but stay tuned for another post on our final day in Reykjavik!