After an exciting 5 days of adventuring from Reykjavik to the Golden Circle and across the southern island of Iceland, we were all ready to head home. There is nothing worse than having to rush to the airport so we were delighted when Mike told us that he booked us an afternoon flight back home. We slept in, cleaned up the cabin, packed up the van, and said goodbye to our cute little cabin and treacherous snowy road we parked on the last few days. Before heading to the airport we made one last stop to the Blue Lagoon for some much needed relaxation time. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa located near Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula pretty close to the airport. We got on our swimming suits, rinsed our bodies and put on the required conditioner in our hair, and headed to the warm water blue lagoon. The story of how they discovered this silica based water is quite fascinating and dates back to 1976 when they were drilling down into the lava fields to find hot water to pump into their mills to produce electricity when they discovered this light blue like water. After realizing that the white in the water was coating their machines and ruining them, they quickly deposited the water in a nearby lava field. At the time no one dared touch the water except for one man who had bad psoriasis and noticed a change in his skin after working with the water and steam at the plant. After asking many times he was finally given permission to bathe in the waters and it was then that he discovered that they were truly healing waters. Many people on the island starting bathing in its waters. Still, it wasn't all that safe with the rough lava floors and nothing to control the heat. So in 1992 the Blue Lagoon company was formed. People from all over the world come here to soak in the healing waters. One of the fun parts about being here was that you were able to get a silica or algae mask for free. Mike and some of the kids enjoyed that. There was also an in-water bar where each of us got a free drink. The kids loved walking around the warm waters sipping on their fruit smoothies. There were definitely warmer parts of the lagoon than others. We explored as much of the lagoon as we could and even Madeline, who up to this point wouldn't get in a hot tub, enjoyed the warm soothing waters. After spending a good 2 hours in the water just relaxing, we got cleaned up and headed to the airport all rested up. I wish every end of a vacation could end with a trip to the Blue Lagoon.
itinerary
