Christmas Market Trip with Mary 2022: Taking Off November 26-27

Mary and I left on our long awaited trip to Europe on November 26. We flew to Reykjavik and enjoyed a 9 hour layover there.

Our destination was The Blue Lagoon. Mary rented a car (a very nice Peugeot) and we drove the short 10 miles through dark and empty roads to our destination. By 8 am the parking lot was filling up, so we walked through the dark up a lighted path to a large modern building and checked in. Showered, and shedding our bathrobes, we inched down a sloped chute into the steamy water. The lagoon is huge! Once a natural sort of lake, it’s now cemented in, rimmed with large volcanic boulders. Silica made the footing a bit slick as we decided to walk around the pool. It was about 4 feet deep, some areas hotter than others, a milky aqua color. This took a couple of hours: we enjoyed the sunrise, various mud packs for our faces and a visit to the poolside bar for a cider.

What a great way to break up the long flight from Seattle to Europe! On our way back to the airport we got a taste of the landscape: rolling hills, lots of mossy lava rocks, and plain but nicely designed low buildings. The temperature was above freezing but the wind made it very cold.

A word about Iceland Air. We were very comfortable and especially enjoyed an amenity called the”Gin Library.” We sampled many during the 10 hours of flying.