In Which I Soak My Head

So after we finished our sightseeing I drove on back to Atak, which I have by now added to my

favorites on the GPS. We picked up a new van, one of those attractive Euro-style shuttle bus

types. I think Magnus was disappointed when I told him that stick shift wouldn’t be a problem.

We had a good night’s sleep at Egilsborg and packed up in the morning. I had planned to spend

that night closer to the airport, since we have an early flight tomorrow. On the way south we

stopped at one of Iceland’s main attractions: Blue Lagoon.

Blue Lagoon is really quite the amazing place. It’s out in the middle of a lava field, nothing but black rocks for miles. You walk down a path from the parking lot, black lava piled on all sides, come around a corner, and there’s this aqua-blue water coming out of the ground. They’ve got a serious spa set up. And are they charging serious spa prices! Me and my five kids paid $45 to get

in, and another $40 to RENT TOWELS. They were nice towels, I admit it. And you never know, maybe towels are really expensive to buy in Iceland. But really.

So we got changed and showered and headed out to check out the situation. WOW. You’ve got this huge outdoor pool, formed to look natural, rocks and sand along the edges. The water is all the same milky blue color from all the minerals. It’s also really, really salty. The rocks along the edges are white from mineral buildup. There’s pockets of naturally occurring mud which is supposed to have therapeutic properties, which everyone smears all over. There’s a swim- through bar at one end, massage table at another. Oh, and did I mention that the water is actually bubbling up out of a steam vent off to one side? There’s a cave and a waterfall and built-in benches and bridges. It took us a good hour to check the whole place out.

The little kids had swim fins and the water is very buoyant since it’s so salty. So it wasn’t as tough as I was picturing to keep track of my 3 youngest. And there wasn’t much of anything that was over 5 feet deep. Remember, the water varies from 95 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. So nobody’s really swimming laps. Most of the pool is actually closer to 2 ½ feet deep.

We brought sandwiches and fruit for lunch, which didn’t work out too well since tourist traps usually want to make maximum money off of the trapped tourists. They actually made us eat outside the building. But they did stop short of confiscating our food, I guess. We had a chilly, quick lunch!

Back at the lagoon, we found ourselves a corner with plenty of rocks to climb and room to splash. Drew and Rosalie figured out that they didn’t have to cling to me in the salt water and had the time of their lives. They were pretty sure that they had learned how to swim! I actually dozed off leaning against the edge of the pool. We stayed for about 6 hours and were total prunes by the time we left. I was impressed and recommend the experience, despite the price. But bring your own towel!

We drove south to Keflavik and found our motel, nice and clean and much more standard than our first lodging experience. We ate some drive-through hamburgers and hopped in bed. The alarm went off at 5 AM, possibly not what I would have chosen if the plane wasn’t leaving at 8. We ate a quick breakfast and headed to KEF.

I dropped the big boys and bags off in arrivals and drove the car to the rental drop-off. Magnus

was not happy to see me, and he didn’t have an invoice for me. Since I hadn’t filled the tank

before I came, I let him know and he charged me for the diesel. He also charged me for the diesel

a few days later, when he sent me an email saying that I had scratched the van and owed him

$600. Plus the diesel. I’m still not entirely sure what to do about that… We didn’t scratch his car,

of course, or I would have said so. I must have some kind of consumer protection or else rental

companies could do this all the time. We’ll have to see. In the meantime, he took my credit card

number and charged me the money. But I refuse to let him ruin my trip!

Keflavik International is a small airport, but they make up for it by having all their departures within a couple hours in the morning, so the lines are still long. We waited to check in for one hour. By that time the lady checking us in was so harried that she sent one of our bags off without a tag. We may see that bag again someday, but I don’t have high hopes. Fortunately, I packed all our necessities in our carry-ons. I somehow figured that with 12 bags we might not get all of them through three countries!

The flight to Sweden was uneventful. It was too cloudy to see the volcano, but we did get a glimpse of the Faeroe Islands on our way past. I will admit to wanting to break into “Du Gamla, Du Fria”, Sweden’s national anthem, at my first sight of Swedish soil. But I restrained myself. Maybe all that head-soaking in Iceland actually did some good!