Matthew Chester's Outpost

The last couple of days of the vacation were spent exploring Reykjavik. It was raining on Saturday, but we went to the City farm/zoo regardless. This was quite a cool place with heaps to do, including seeing some seals. Despite the rain there were a few folks about, all donned in water proofs - the Nordic mantra holds: no such thing as bad weather, just bad choice of clothing!

Sunday morning we went to the hotpot at the end of the street again for a soak. I will definitely miss the hotpots. We then headed in to the City again for a spot of sightseeing, a hot dog (the quintessential Icelandic snack), and a visit to the famous flea market.

Being the last day meant using up the leftover food. We had also been recommended to try the local smoked fish, so I knocked up a kinda-hash with salmon and halibut and a side salad. Yum.

Today we embarked on a road trip around the Reykjanes Peninsula, a landscape of lava fields. The first stop was at the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa. It was pretty incredible. The blue water (I'm guessing blue from the silica..) is heated from the volcanic activity in the region and creates this eerie atmosphere as the steam dissipates into the cooler surroundings. But we had a blast and Rosie loved it - we could have stayed all day, but we had some other sites to see.

Next up was lunch at a rustic dockside cafe in Grindavik, that boasted homemade lobster soup on the menu. This soup was unbelievably good - thank you Lonely Planet! More lava field madness ensued as we drove out to a rocky outcrop at Reykjanesviti Lighthouse. This place was just bonkers - it looked like the edge of the coast had been jacked up at an acute angle. I concur with the location of the lighthouse.

Our next stop was the Bridge between continents. Quite literally a bridge that spanned...  a shallow ravine located where the Eurasian and North America plates are drifting apart. No surprise then that there is a lot of volcanic activity and an abundance of geothermal energy in Iceland. I'm being deliberately blasé because some books that I have read refer to a 'Ring of Fire' to describe where tectonic plates interface and present an image that we are perilously close to a Pompii-esque apocalypse. Yet a quaint little bridge that is subtle and understated sums up Iceland to me.

Our final stop was near another lighthouse at Gardur, northeast of the peninsula. We stopped for a brew at this local museum with a cafe above it with a terrace outside. The views were magnificent. The weather had been good too, so we could see for miles out to sea and watched as trawlers headed home, plagued by a squabble of seagulls. This was another brilliant place to have wiled away the day, but alas a fish and chip supper in Reykjavik was calling.

So there are hot vents all over the place, some of which are cool enough to bathe in. Locally called hotpots, there is one very close to the apartment. So on a miserable, rainy morning what better than to paddle in a hotpot!

So today we drove the Golden Circle - a popular route that tourists take to experience Iceland's rich cultural and natural heritage. First stop was the site of the first parliament, coincidentally located on the interface between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. A UNESCO world heritage site.

We then headed to Geysir, home of a geyser or two (apparently the root of the word geyser...). The landscape en route was shaped from volcanic activity below a glacier. As the glacier receded it revealed the peaks, troughs, and rivers and lakes that make up the region.

Then onto Gullfoss (golden falls), a 31 metre waterfall of glacial melt water. I love waterfalls, I think it is the noise - coupled with the fact that it is constantly carving away rock. Awesome.

Final stop of the day was at a geothermal park. The steam makes the place feel pretty eerie, but it smelt like a used match box - that'd be the sulphur, then! An attraction here is the ability to boil an egg in a hot stream, in a sort of fishing net, then take it to the cafe and eat it with bread baked using the geothermal energy.

Made it to Iceland. Flight was great - Rosie is a star, it was difficult to believe that she'd not flown before. So why was I filled with trepidation?

Perhaps the whole point of the pre-flight nonsense of endless queueing and being treated like a criminal is that it raises the stress levels and lowers expectations so much that even if your kid screams the entire flight it is still less annoying that getting to the flight ever is.

Every time I'm at an airport I often wonder what an alien would make of it. I wonder how it is the same race that can design and build the aircraft and supporting infrastructure are the same 'intelligent' race that form endless queues, have to drag ridiculously small (or large) cases on stupidly small castors  behind them, all the while proclaiming their innocence about their reason for travel and promising that they have packed their own bags.

"Separately pack liquids and gels in a clear plastic bag. Oh and your iPad, yeah we need to scan that separately, and your coat, separately". It's an X-ray machine!! (If only Lex Luther would have known these limitations - he could have outwitted Superman with several layers of thick clothing).

But that said, despite how ridiculous I find these shenanigans it is still less ridiculous than not flying on account of said shenanigans. Just.

More about Iceland and its natural wonders tomorrow...