Baby, It's Cold Outside. Welcome to Iceland

Rumour has it that Iceland is bankrupt. It certainly was not obvious to us as we departed the plane. The airport was bustling with tourists coming and going and we found prices at inheritance threatening highs. Bankrupt or not there were no fire sales to be had for tourists. That being said, pricing was not as bad as Moscow or Stockholm but Nonie and I are still suffering sticker shock as we continue to compare costs to Harbin and that really isn't fair. Hmm, or is it?

Our bus ride from the airport took almost an hour and give us a glimpse of what we were about to see. Iceland's landscape can be described as tundra with large scars of millennia old volcanic debris dotted with small scrubby trees. Much of Iceland is above the Arctic Circle. We were told that NASA used Iceland as a test track for their first luner lander and lunar buggy.

We were summarily dropped off on a street corner and told that our hotel was just around the corner. A walk around the corner and down a block but no hotel. Back to the beginning and try again. Down two blocks, thankfully they were short blocks and no hotel. Back to the beginning and dammit, I had to ask directions. The hotel turned out to be right on the corner where we were dropped off. On my behalf, the lobby was located in a basement and the only sign for the hotel was a small, small, small sign etched onto the glass door. What's wrong with a little neon for Pete's Sake? This lack of attention to detail could easily have cost us the Amazing Race.

Despite the miserly signage the hotel was awesome with the room right out of an IKEA catalogue. Multiple height ceilings and beams, 42" flat screen with BBC, free wireless and the fluffiest duvet we have ever sank into. The bathroom had a frosted glass wall and a shower with multiple shower heads at various discerning heights. This was all topped off by a decent and free breakfast buffet along with a very dedicated, all be it fastidious staff. The entrance from the street opened onto a black tiled landing then ten or so stairs down to the lobby. The adjacent wall from the landing and stairs was tiled in black as well, with water flowing down the wall into a 24" wide by 12" deep well/trough that ran along the edge of the landing and stairs to capture the water coming down the wall. Very cool looking but as we were to discover very dangerous. The wall had several carved features which esthetically broke up the water as it flowed down the wall. As we were leaving the hotel from the top landing for our first foray into Reykjavik, Nonie decided to take a closer look at these features. In her excitement, she missed the well/trough and stepped right into it. I immediately screamed for the life guard and dove in after her pulling her from the brink. Thankfully the only thing hurt was her pride and we had a much better topic of conversation everytime we left the hotel rather than the dreary one of my not being able to find the place. The hotel has since put up "no swimming' signs.

We finished the day exploring Reykjavik with three dry feet and one wet one. Last joke, I promise. Day 2, saw us boarding a bus for an eight hour tour of some if not all of what Iceland has to offer. With only one day to explore, we opted for the guided tour. Some of the hightlights included a power plant completely powered by the extremely hot ground water that is available all over the island. There are three other similar plants providing over 90 % of the electrical power requirements to the island. But for this little bankruptcy thing they may reach 100 % in the next two years with a little in reserve for growth. Next we visited an area with an "Old Faithful" like geyser and a schedule of eruptions to match. We have been to Yellowstone so it was hohum, okay. We then proceeded to a large rift zone where the European and North American tectonic plates meet and is marked by a large canyon where the two plates have slowly been separating for the last few million years. Very cool scrambling around. A visit to an interesting water fall (Hohum) and a late lunch. Next and last stop was a large greenhouse operation that was located over a hotspot, an area where the volcanic magma is located close to the surface keeping the ground above freezing 12 months a year. Plunk up a greenhouse and you are good to go. Our final experience was a island wide traffic jam heading out of Reykjavik for a three day long weekend so our eight hour tour became nine hours.

The next day before boarding the plane and our return to Canada, we spent our last few hours in Iceland at the Blue Lagoon where we spent a few hours lounging in a huge hot pool with the most dazzling colour of blue. It seemed like a nice way to relax before the long trip home. The lagoon is located near the ocean and the heated water along with the salt leaching in from the nearby sea water creates a very pale pastel blue colour in the water. What they failed to mention in the brochures is that the lagoon is really a retaining pond for the hot water effluent that is discharged from the local power plant. Better we did not know.

I developed this nasty itch all the way home. Oh, the first picture is a joke. Or is it? The place is called Iceland.