Postcard: Iceland

For Labor Day weekend 2008, my husband and decided to do a quick getaway to Iceland.  The year before, we'd visited Playa del Carmen over the holiday weekend and had loved it.  Although not at the very top of our list of places to visit, Reykjavik was only a 5 1/2 hour direct flight from NYC via Icelandair.   The country has numerous natural features, including glaciers, hot springs, geysers, active volcanoes, and lava deserts. We were intrigued and off we went that Friday on an overnight flight.

Reykjavik has a renowned nightlife.  Many Europeans fly in for their bachelor/bachelorette parties.  We would not know about this.  I had just passed the 12 week pregnancy mark and my stomach had settled down enough to enjoy the fresh seafood, but strong smells such as alcohol were still bothersome to my system.  And I was exhausted all the time.  We heard a lot of the wild night life from our hotel room, though!  We did visit the bar at our trendy boutique hotel - Hotel Borg.

Note, within weeks after we went, the banking crisis reached a furor in Iceland and the economy crashed.  It probably would have been 1/3 the cost to travel after that happened.  Alas...

The main shopping and walking area of Reykjavik was minutes from the hotel.  Below are two photos taken of the interior of the Reykjavik Cathedral  and of the city view from the top floor of the cathedral.

The most popular daytrip in Iceland is the Golden Circle, a collection of natural wonders and historical sites outside of Reykjavik.  We visited the Gulfoss waterfall, Geysir, and Thingvellir National Park.  The Gullfoss waterfall cascades down the white colored Hvítá River. Geysir is the home of the famous Geyser (from which the word originates) that rarely erupts and the Strokkur Geyser that erupts in 3 to 7 minute intervals. This hot springs spout boiling water to a height of 25 to 35 meters.  Thingvellir National Park is the home of Iceland´s ancient Viking parliament and listed as a UNESCO´s World Heritage site.

 

What I most wanted to see was the Blue Lagoon, of course.  The soothing, mineral-rich water is supposed to have medicinal powers. I enjoyed the contrast of the warm water with the slightly chilly air outside. Though the lagoon looks like natural landscape, it was created by run-off from the Svartsengi power plant, which pumps the geothermally heated water from a mile below the surface to generate both heat and electricity.  The excess (clean) water is ejected into the lagoon.