2/23/15 - 7:30 am.  While the rest of our Wayland world was going back to school and work later today, the Moore family was still in vacation mode.  We finished packing our rooms and were out of the hotel by 8:30, where we dragged/wheeled our gear across the street to the Hammersmith Station to join the  District Line for Victoria Station.  Within a half-dozen stops, we transferred across Victoria Station to the Gatwick Express for a 30-minute train ride through south London to its secondary airport.  The train put us off at the South Terminal, so we took a short tram to the North Terminal, and breezed through an almost vacant Iceland Air checkin desk.  Bags checked, we cleared security (but not immigration) and spent a delightful 45 minutes in the No. 1 Lounge at GTW, thanks to my Icelandair status.  Everyone loaded up on  breakfast and caffeine (the three adults anyway), and then walked to our gate where we were the first ones to board.

The flight to Iceland was a pleasant, uneventful, three-hour trek over the length of England and Scotland and across the Norwegian Sea.  We landed at 3:23pm and had our bags loaded into our new Toyota Land Cruiser rental from Hertz, and set off for the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal “hot tub” the size of small golf course.  Imagine, walking out of the main building, snow on the ground, wind howling, and temperatures well-below freezing, while only wearing a bathing suit, and stepping into the 109-degree, blue-tinted water.  To be certain, the relief from the cold, and instant warmth of the water made for a delightful experience.  We floated, bobbed, mudded our faces, drank a few beers (again adults) and had the best time watching the late afternoon turn into sunset, and then, darkness.  The lagoon is surrounded by snow-covered mountains and a distant geothermal power plant, constantly belching a volcano’s volume of white steam.  The area around the lagoon is undoubtedly one of the most unique places on earth, combining perfectly hot water which cancels out the frigid, numbing cold above the surface, and waves of steam, carried by the constant, fierce wind.  We could have stayed all night, but had to pull our water-wrinkled bodies out of the pool by 7:30.  The drive to Reykjavik took about 45 minutes; we quickly checked into our hotel, The Marina Reykjavik, and drove over to the Fiskmarkaðurinn (The Fish Market) for the best (and most expensive) meal of the trip.  As the name suggests, everything was fresh, local fish, expertly prepared.  While we were hopeful we would see the aurora borealis, a thick cloud cover prevented any view of the night sky.  Tired from our long soak in the lagoon and a great meal, we were lights out by 11pm. 

Tuesday, 2/24/15  7:00am.  Our last day of vacation in Europe would begin early, well before Icelandic dawn.  We packed and departed the hotel by 8:00 and set out in search of a breakfast spot before heading northeast to the “Golden Circle” route of central-western Iceland.  Taking a wild guess, we exited Highway 49 and found a small shopping mall which would provide a decent breakfast, some supermarket provisions for the day and flight home, and a sporting goods store where Peter scored an Iceland National Team soccer jersey that he’d been keen to acquire.  An hour later we were again on the road, heading into the heart of the island, with intended stops at Þingvellir and Geysir.

The landscape was breathtaking, as we were immediately in deep mountain valleys, surrounded by high, snow-capped mountains on all sides.  The landscape was quite eerie, consisting of treeless lava fields leading up to the mountains.  Our first stop was the literal and quite visible fault line that separates the North American and European tectonic plates.  The vista point provided a spectacular view of the local geological features and Þingvallavatn Lake in the middle distance and snow capped mountains beyond.  Another :50 minutes down the road, we arrived Geysir, a natural hot spring that erupts with precise frequency, every few minutes.  We braved the half-mile walk in bitterly cold temperatures to witness two blasts.  The walkway was covered with ice, so we had to tread carefully.  We saw one unlucky tourist bite the dust in a very bad way when, so we remained ever-mindful to walk at a slow speed. Peter was wearing his OU hoodie and was stopped by a camera-toting tourist (from OKC) who asked to take his picture.  We shivered our way back to the car and by 1pm, were eastbound, headed for Reykjavik.  At 3pm, I filled the gas tank, the family picked up a Subway for the flight home and we returned the car to the airport.  By 4pm, we were at the Saga Lounge, happy to have a nibble, cocktail and some free WiFi to refresh our social media, and by 5pm, on the plane, leaving on Icelandair 631 for Boston.  Strong headwinds slowed our pace enough to delay our arrival by 45 minutes.