Iceland October 2014

A breakfast of pickled herring, cottage cheese and bacon! So good! Got in the bus by 9am. Went by the Hafdi House which is where Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev agreed and shook hands which was the beginning of ending the Cold War. Lots of history being told by Gulla but honestly wasn't paying attention. Went a the Perlan Museum, a glass dome shaped building with great views of the city below. There are mostly Lutheran churches here. Only one Catholic Church in all of Iceland. We visited a very pretty, although very plain, church on top of the hill. Went into the Reykjavik museum for just a bit, then off to lunch. The Grill Market. It was so pretty inside. Lava rock walls , soft lighting. We shared a lovely house garden and a grill combo plate . The presentation was lovely. The salad was in a little metal bucket. Colorful with mandarins, beet sprouts and a drizzle of lemon vinegarette dressing two grilled skewers. Monkfish and lamb and chicken wings. deep fried veggies served in a bowl All perfectly cooked. Curly fries and a Cobbette of corn served with a pat of butter and black lava salt, it was a great meal. All of this , including the slab of bread, served on a wood carving board. We took a shuttle to the bus station , transferred to a big bus and off to the blue lagoon. We walked through a path with lava walls on each side to enter the building. Received our electronic wristbands that would allow us to lock and unlock our cubby, order our drinks , sparkling strawberry wine & Asti Spumante , at the swim up bar. It was very cold outside which only made it soooo nice to step down into that wonderfully warm and soft water. We walked right over to the swim up bar and received our frozen little nugget of algae that we will dip into the warm water and rub on our faces that will look green and then turn white! Got our drinks,jwaded around, rubbed silica on our arms and chest, chatted with a couple of men from northern England that got married the day before. We stood under the pounding water of the waterfall to beat on our shoulders. It was really nice. Did not want to get out! Took the bus back to hotel. Was told to meet Gulla at 8pm for our second try of the northern lights chaser. Went up to the Sky Lounge for a quick bite. We had vodka cranberry drinks ,. While waiting for our food our server asked us if we would like some nuts, 'sure' we said. She brought us A very small bowl with about 15 nuts in it! Cristi and I looked at each other and didn't have to say a word! Hahahaha! We then got our and chicken nachos. Not impressed. Got bundled up and on the bus at 8pm. Traveled through a very long tunnel that was under the largest fjord, took 6 minutes to come out the other end. The first sighting of lights were exciting but minimal. The bus driver and Gulla were getting updates of sightings. We took a pit stop at a very nice mini market , snow flurries made the evening more exciting. At one point we tried to turn around in a residential driveway. It was a long road that lead up to the house. The driver could not make a three point turn in the area near the house. The owners came out wondering WTF! They were very kind. They told us that they were expecting guest the next day for a wedding, and thought we were the guests arriving early! Very funny! They moved one of their cars so we could finally turn around! So funny! We got another update, got to a pitch dark open field and finally witnessed several! It was great. It was also freezing outside! As we drove back we witnessed more a couple times. Got home at 1:30am. What a full and fantastic day it was!Lue lisää