Iceland part 2

Iceland travel story part 2

I had an appointment at 13:00 at the famous Blue Lagoon. I had already drive quite a while and it wasn't even noon yet! I decided to find a Viking place I had found online. There was a couple of times I pulled off the road to pull it up on the internet. 

Not the right place pulled up. Instead I drove nearly into Reykjavik to what was a hotel. Still cool to see the old Viking style building.

I then drove over to the hotel, checked in and got my swim trunks from the suitcase. It was time to check into the Blue Lagoon!

The weather was chilly so it left good to slip into the warm waters of the pools. I found there were warm currents running through the water and I liked finding the warmer spots. 

I went over to get some white silica mud for a facial. Put it on and then ran to the lockerroom to get my phone/camera. I got some pictures of the pools before I returned the phone to my locker so I could go back to wash the mud off my face.  

 It got a bit crowded and while in the pools you could hear all kinds of accents and languages being spoken. Some nice looking people too!

 I had a nice dinner and finally showered. What a great relaxing day!
Did I mention that I had been awake since before 6am? On the drive back to the hotel I finally found the Viking museum. But the building housing the ship was closed. But I still walked around the grounds.

 The old houses are very interesting. This is a great example of a typical sod house. I imagine during a cold winter the sod would help keep the warmth of the fire inside the home.

I headed back to the hotel and to bed early since I hadn't slept much on the flight in. I closed the shades and found my sleep mask... you see, at this time of year, the sun comes up about 4:30am and doesn't set until 23! (11pm)! Thus... I didn't see any darkness while I was there. I got up early (5am) for an early flight into Copenhagen and the sun was up already! 

Leg 1 of the journey was now complete!

No darkness in Iceland

My flight landed in Iceland at about 6:30am. The sun had already been up for a couple of hours.

I was glad I had reserved a car since my flight to Copenhagen didn't leave for 25 hours. It was way to early to go check into the hotel so I drove south of the airport.

I had already been in Iceland where I celebrated by birthday last August. My niece and some friends had joined me then and we realized that having a car in Iceland is very necessary!

I just started driving to see what I could find. I hadn't explored south of the airport before so I was excited to see what I would find. I made a few stops to walk along the coast and take a few pictures. Iceland has some beautiful and rugged scenery. I took a side road not knowing what was at the end of the road, I figured it would at least take me back to the coast. 

A little further drive down the road this lighthouse came into view. I stopped and read that this is the oldest lighthouse in Iceland. Then I continued down the road towards the coast. I found some stunning scenery!

  water o

This is an area called Reykjanesbaer. The white dots on the rock cliff are Auks, a rare bird of the northern Atlantic. It was awesome to see them flying overhead and nesting. I did a hike up to where I could see the birds closer. I took at ton of pictures.

The next stop was a geothermal area called Gunnuhver. The picture above shows boiling mud that was loud as it spewed boiling water into the air. Its important to stay on the designated paths in this area because I could see small holes in the ground with steam coming from them near the path. I couldn't imagine walking on the ground and having your foot break open a hole with boiling or mud below! 

The next stop was the small town of Grindavik. Here is a typical style of an Icelandic church. I stopped for coffee and some pastries for breakfast. Remember, this was still fairly early in the day... I knew I should've gotten food at the airport!

I was headed back up towards Keflavik where my hotel was. I stopped to get a picture of the stark landscape. It is very surreal to not see any trees! The ground was covered with lichen. It's very thick and actually spongey to walk on! I thought it would be a hard lichen attached to the rock. 

Next post will be about some Viking sites and my visit to the Blue Lagoon. 

I'm back! But with a theme now...

Hi! I'm Jim...

I used to blog, years ago... but I got bored with it. I have found a new passion in life and I want to share my travel experiences.

I traveled a bit in my 20s and then was bitten again by the travel bug. I always love new adventures and I want to share some of them with those who want to read and follow along.

I just returned from a recent trip and want to write down some of my memories. So this may only end up being a journal of my trips and more details than what you'll get on other social media sites.

So, to start off the blog I'll start with my most recent adventure. This was a record for me... I visited 5 different countries! First stop was Iceland for a day. Then I made my 4th trip to Denmark. My base city for a few days was Odense. Next flight was to Helsinki, Finland. And the next morning I took the ferry over to Tallin, Estonia! I explored more of Helsinki before heading back to Denmark. I drove from Copenhagen across the country to Ribe and then up to Aalborg, my base for the final few days of my trip. The afternoon before I flew back to the states I finally spent some time in Copenhagen. I love that city! But I couldn't find an AirBnB flat for one night so I stayed in Malmo, Sweden.

Those were the 5 countries I visited and now I'm home and want to write down some of the things from this trip.

I also may break out with some Danish or Norwegian.. I've been studying for about 3 years now and it's finally making sense.

So... follow along if you'd like. I know I only have a very small corner of the world wide web... so if you find my blog and want to follow along, I say "Welcome!"