Saturday, March 2, 2019

DAY 39 – SATURDAY 12TH JANUARY 2019


An early morning start today…  Our last day in Iceland… We were up well before sunrise this morning as we wanted to be on the road by 9.30am.  We had decided to travel back to the airport in Keflavik via the coastal road.  It was still dark when we first set off, but what a treat we were in for…. Iceland really turned the weather on for us as we were about to leave.   When we got to Selfoss, we turned onto Route 34 which headed us south towards the coast, by the time we got to the coast we turned right and crossed over a bridge and causeway over Ölfusá, a big estuary.  This turned out to be a very pretty drive.  It wasn’t long before we skirted around a pretty lagoon and then climbed over a headland where we were passing through lava fields.  By now it had started snowing quite heavily, and suddenly this harsh landscape of rubble and stones, turned into a winter wonderland. 
Driving through the Lava Fields.  A winter wonderland
 As we got closer to  Grindavik, we crossed some pretty steep headlands but the view down into Grindavik was pretty special.  Grindavik is a bustling harbour town with pretty good facilities and is situated not far from Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon. 
Coming into Grindavik

Large Lava flows dusted in snow..

As we had made good time here, we decided to go check it out.  I To get there we had to pass through the geothermal area with its boiling mud pools.  The Blue Lagoon is one of Icelands most popular attractions.  The Blue Lagoon is a large lake that has the perfect temperature to bathe in, on average it's 39°C/102°F.  These days the Blue Lagoon is so popular that in order to get there you need to book your entry days or even weeks in advance.  At over 90 Euro to go for a swim there, we decided to give it a miss, also especially since the weather was no good at all.  
Blue Lagoon in Iceland... 90 Euro each if you want to go swim in it...

The Blue Lagoon history dates back to 1976 when it formed next to the geothermal power plant, Svartsengi. Contrary to many people's belief, the lagoon is therefore not a natural occurrence but caused by a man-made structure. It is, in fact, excess water from the power plant, that is drilling for steam and hot water.


Some people go as far as saying that the lagoon itself is an environmental disaster, but mostly it is considered to be a fortunate environmental accident. The water is completely clean and does not contain any chemicals, only natural minerals that have proven to be very good for people's skin.
Since the water is continually streaming into the lagoon, all the water is renewed in 48 hours, making sure it stays clean.  The Blue Lagoon is constantly getting larger and larger and was recently enlarged from 5,000 square metres to 8,700 square metres.

It was snowing quietly heavily when we arrived here, so we didn’t end up getting out of the car, but we were still able to see a lot of the famous aqua water of the Blue Lagoon as we drove around the facility as we headed back out and off to the Keflavik International airport. 

Our last stop before reaching the airport was in Keflavik where we wanted to fill up with fuel before delivering our car back to the Hire company. Keflavik is a small town on Reykjanes, a volcanic peninsula in South Iceland.   It was founded in the 16th century when it developed as a fishing port and fish processing center. During the 2nd World War and the Cold War the Keflavík Iceland Naval Air Station played a critical role in many operations. An important NATO military base was situated here until September 2006. However, the Americans left something very important in their wake – Keflavík International Airport!

Refueling the car before dropping it back to the rental company
 We arrived back at the airport with plenty of time to spare.  The boys decided to drop Maria, Theo and I off at the airport itself with all the luggage before they returned the car to the hire company.  We managed to get all the luggage inside and headed for some seats so that Maria could feed Theo whilst we waited.  I was quite happy to just sit and admire the snow falling outside.  It really was quite magical.  
Catching snow

 By the time the boys joined us,  the snow was quite heavy, so Pete Steve and I went outside to stand in it and enjoy it.  Of course we took quite a few photos.  Iceland was in for a pretty cold week, and this snow was the start of it.  The forecast was for snow everyday.  It would have been nice to have had a few more days in Iceland to enjoy it.  Still I am very thankful for the weather we have experienced whilst in Iceland,  we have had all kinds of weather,  sunshine, snow, hail, rain but it really hasn’t stopped us to much from getting out and enjoying and seeing this beautiful country…  We even managed to see the northern lights which is something we can now cross off on our bucket list.  
Keflavik International Airport is not as big as the other airports we have been through on this trip, so it didn’t take us long to check our luggage in and go through security.   By the time we had done this we were feeling a little hungry, so headed off to find somewhere to have a nice hot drink and a quite bite to eat. 

To get into the food and shop area of the airport we passed this rather large troll, which was all set up for tourists to take photos with, so of course we had a little fun with it and got the typical tourist photos as we were leaving Iceland.
 
Before leaving, our plane was hosed down with warm water to get rid of all the ice....
Snow as far as the eye can see
Once we got above the snow clouds, it was beautiful blue sky
No snow... just lots of clouds below.... beautiful


We are very sad to be leaving this beautiful island.  We have had a fantastic nine days here, especially so in that we were able to enjoy it with Pete, Maria and Theo.  We will always hold these special family memories of our time together here…
This flight, both Steve and I were seated together with Pete, Maria and Theo just in front of us.  It was a much better flight home and way more comfortable.  We watched a movie and arrived back in Copenhagen late afternoon.  It was already dark by the time we got home.   
Our beautiful baby boy..
We had a light dinner.  We were all pretty tired from our big day.  We have one full day left in Copenhagen before heading home to Australia.    Very sad, we had looked forward to this time away for such a long time, and now it was almost over….

2 comments:

Barb March 4, 2019 at 9:21 AM  

Have really enjoyed reading your blog, Karen. Some of the Iceland photos are quite spectacular!! So glad you had such a wonderful time with Pete, Maria and Theo.

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