Iberia Business Class Between Chicago and Munich
The Kimpton DeWitt, Amsterdam
AIM: Our Time in Amsterdam
The Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
The Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
The Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part I
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part II
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part III
The aloft Munich
AIM: Our Time at Dachau
AIM: Our Time in Munich
The Hilton Munich Airport
One of the biggest tourist attractions in Iceland is The Blue Lagoon. This is an artificial lagoon created from water used in a nearby geothermal plant. Due to its high silica content, the water is a beautiful turquoise color and is quite milky as well. It turns out that this combination of minerals is actually really good for skin and, in particular, those suffering from psoriasis see great benefit. The Blue Lagoon now even markets their own line of skin care products. It's fairly pricey to spend time here and now that I've done it, I don't feel a need to go back. I don't have photos because the one photo I took from inside didn't turn out well as the windows were foggy and I have a long-standing policy of no people in swimsuits on my blog - to protect both the swimmer and the viewer.
On our last day in Iceland we did the Golden Circle tour. This is a popular route that follows a circular path among several tourist sites.
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| Map made with Google Maps |
Þingvellir National Park
Pronounced like "Thingvellir", this national park is in a rift valley on the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Rdige, which is the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. This region is where the Althing, the national parliament of Iceland, was established in 930 AD. The park was established to mark the 1000th anniversary of the Althing. It was designated a World Heritage Site in 2004.
Gullfoss
Another famous Icelandic waterfall is Gullfoss. It was raining on and off during our visit here but the falls were incredible. Some of the other members on our trip went down to the rock on the left where you can see people standing but I was cold and damp enough to stay further away.
Geysir
If you've ever seen Old Faithful or any other geyser and wondered where that term came from, wonder no more. This is Geysir and those others are all named after this geyser. It's the first one to ever be described in printed text. The Icelandic verb "geysa" means "to gush". Fortunately this one erupts more frequently than once an hour though it has gone as long as several months between spews. But while we were there it erupted every 3 to 5 minutes, giving us ample opportunity to get our photos.
Friðheimar Tomato and Horse Farm
Our final stop in Iceland was a farm that combined two very different activities: horses and tomatoes.Icelandic Horses
Though they're not very large, don't call these horses ponies! They are just over the size required to qualify as horses. Friðheimar has been a stud farm since 1995 and currently has four prize brood mares. Icelandic horses have five gaits rather than the typical four (walk, trot, canter, gallop). That fifth gait is called tölt which is a very smooth pace, somewhat similar to the gait that Tennessee Walkers can do. We were given a demonstration and allowed to interact with the horses in their stalls.
Tomato Greenhouse
The greenhouse is massive at over 1000 sq meters. It uses a complex lighting system which encourages the plants to grow even during the long, dark days of winter.
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| The tracks are for rolling benches, giving easier access to lower branches |
They import bees in artificial hives to help with the pollination.
There's even a café in the greenhouses and it has some of the typical items you'd expect: tomato juice, tomato soup and tomato-infused tortillas but there were several items you might not expect to find (I know I sure didn't!):
- ice cream
- cheesecake with jam of green-tomato, cinnamon and lime
- beer
- schnapps
Even the traditional Bloody Mary had several varieties that included:
- the Virgin Mary (a non-alcoholic beverage)
- the Healthy Mary (green tomato, lime, honey & ginger)
- the Happy Mary (one part gin, two parts Healthy Mary and a glass filled with bitter lemon)
You coffee drinkers weren't left out:
- Friðheimar Kaffi – Drambuie, coffee and tomato syrup
- Tómata Espresso Tonic – Espresso, Tonic, Green tomato drink (you can also have this drink with spirit. Then they add Hendrik´s gin to it)
- Friðheimar Latte – Coffee Latte with Piccolo and strawberry syrup
Wrap-Up
Iceland is a delightful country with all kinds of different sorts of natural beauty. It's nearly over-touristed now but one nice thing about going in the off-season is that we didn't see a whole lot of other tourists in general. The downside was that we didn't have great weather and while that could certainly be the case any time of year, there's a difference in being rained on when the temperature is in the 60s vs. when it's in the 40s.Still, I'd love to go back at a warmer time of year and revisit some of these places while it's sunny. I also wouldn't mind going back in the winter for just a few nights to get a view of the Northern Lights.
But our time was up and we enjoyed one last group dinner. We were at the airport before dawn to catch our flight to Munich for the last leg of our trip.
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