Day 69-Bill and Jean leave

   March 13-A rain storm blew through Reykjavík during the night, but the day was mostly sunny again.  I guess Iceland was still feeling sorry for the way it had treated Bill and Jean weather-wise and was trying to make nice at the end of their visit.  We breakfasted in the hotel apartment on various yummy bread products that Sally picked up the day before at the Akranes bakery on her way down to Reykjavík.  Then, we checked out of the hotel and hiked up the hill to the Hallgríms church.  It is a major landmark in town and one of the easiest points to pick out on the Reykjavík skyline.  It was designed in the 1930s and 1940s in the contemporary art deco style and building began in the 1940s.  Construction was not completed until the 1970s.  The statue of Leifur Eirickson out front was a gift from the United States to Iceland in 1930 in celebration of 1000 (not quite continuous) years of representative government in the form of the Alþingi, or parliament.  The interior was austere.  Even the usual stained glass windows were mostly missing.  We took the elevator to the top of the watchtower/steeple and got beautiful views of the city and the surrounding country as well. 

 

Downtown Reykjavík-the old part of town.

The Perlan and the newer suburbs of Reykjavík.

   The Blue Lagoon is included near the top of almost every list of "must-do" Icelandic tourist activities, so it was a location that Jean had heard about previously.  Its location near the Keflavík airport made it an easy destination and the kids are always up to visiting a swimming pool, so we headed over there as the final stop before sending Bill and Jean back to the U.S.  The Blue Lagoon is an interesting phenomenon.  It is located on the Reykjanes peninsula, which is the southernmost Icelandic extension of the mid-Atlantic ridge.  Consequently, the peninsula is geologically very active and was an obvious spot to drill in the 1970s for super-heated water, which is run first through turbines to generate electricity and then through heat exchangers to heat domestic water.  The wells were dug in relatively remote lava fields, so the associated power plant would not be an eyesore.  The "waste" water was simply released into the lavafields, where it pooled before slowly seeping out.  People started bathing in the silica-rich, hot water and began to notice that it was therapeutic for psoriasis.  Bathing facilities and a marketing campaign soon followed.
   Bathing in the Blue Lagoon certainly was a different experience from bathing in the ordinary Icelandic hot pools.  Silica precipitates out of the cooling water and mixes with small bits of lava rock to form a gooey, grainy mud that collects on the bottom of the pool.  This mud is a major component of the soaking experience, because people smear it on their skin to exfoliates the skin and to enhance the therapeutic effects of the soak.  Incidentally, it is also a lot fun just to scoop it up and toss it around!  

   The extent to which the pool
caters to foreigners was striking.
We have grown used to seeing most public signs written in Icelandic and English, but at the Blue Lagoon, many of the signs were only in English!  While guests were expected to prepare for the pool in the usual Icelandic manner, the facilities were designed to make the showering and changing process more private for modest foreigners.  The
rules of the pool were also more strict than is usual over here.  At the Blue Lagoon, all children under the age of nine are required to wear floatation devices and no children are allowed to roam freely.  Since Icelandic
children are taught to swim at an early age, children rarely stay with their parents at public pools.  It is probably not coincidental that the entrance price for the Blue Lagoon was significantly greater than that for the public pools.  The $40 price tag for adults at the Blue
Lagoon was a bit of a shock to us.  I think that also may be the reason that we saw very few Icelanders in the pool.  

   After soaking for a couple of hours, we showered and dried off, although we could not get rid of the silica powder on our skin and swimming suits completely.  We made the 15 minute drive to the Keflavík airport and Bill and Jean checked in for their flight.  While standing in line with them, Sally noticed a crowd of people standing off to one side and realized a moment later that it was the band members of "Of Monsters and Men."  We had read in the paper that this Icelandic band was about to set off on their first North American tour, beginning at South By Southwest in Austin.  It was neat coincidence to see them heading out of the country.  We saw them perform live a couple months ago at an American embassy party and found ourselves enjoying their music.  We hope to catch one of their concerts here before we leave or to see them back in the States on a future tour.  We ate a late dinner before Bill and Jean headed off through security.  Their flight to New York left on-time and the trip back home was uneventful for them.  They arrived back at their house about the time we were waking up the next morning.  Since the U.S. had switched to daylight savings time while they were over here, their internal clocks were only six hours off, instead of the seven hours they dealt with when they flew over here.  I don't imagine that difference probably helped them out much, though.  



Traditional turf-covererd shed.

 We decided to use the remaining daylight to explore the Reykjanes peninsula, since Keflavík sits out near the end of it.  We drove out to the northwest corner of the peninsula and got to see another lighthouse and to watch some more angry seas pounding on the shore.  We cruised down the western coast of the peninsula, mostly checking out houses, churches, ruins of rock walls and buildings, and the waves crashing against the shoreline.  The land itself was pretty bleak: just an unending stretch of lava fields that are new enough that no plant life had been able to take hold yet.  I can see why this area has always relied primarily on the sea for its food and economic livelihood

   We did not make it all the way around the peninsula, but took a shortcut back to the town of Keflavík for supper.  Then, we headed for home.  One of the things that Bill and Jean had really wanted to see while visiting us was the northern lights.  The Sun certainly did everything it could to fulfill this desire.  Some of the strongest solar flares of the past decade were blasted off the face of the Sun this past week.  However, many of them interacted with the Earth while it was daylight in Iceland.  When it was dark, it was often cloudy.  And, on the nights that there were stars to be seen, we could find no northern lights.  I would check the weather and northern light forecasts every evening and set my alarm to go off when I thought the timing would be best to see them, but to no avail.  So, what did we see as we were driving home?  Northern lights, of course!  This display was one of the weakest we have seen over here, but it still would have been nice if Sally's folks could have seen them.  I guess that they will have to make another winter trip to the great white North some time to see them.  Of course, they might also be able to see them from Colorado if they look for them far on the northern horizon when the really big coronal mass ejections slam into the Earth over the next couple of years.