Land of Ice and Fire

Having trouble getting my head round that we are back from holiday, and that we were only away for 3 nights. It feels as if we've been away for at least a week, could it really have only been the weekend, we fitted so much into our time there.

I don't think I can give you a blow by blow account, as a lot is forgotten already, and I am tired (only got to bed after 1am this morning and was up at 4.15 - ouch!) but will give a general overview instead.

Friday
Friday was basically a travel day. It seemed to take an age to get there. Our flight left from Manchester, then went to Glasgow to drop off and pick up before arriving at Rekyavik or rather Keflavik airport which is 45 mins out of town (the international airport is located at the ex American military base). Tom was ok, he slept between Manchester and Glasgow after a huge screaming fit and then fell asleep on the coach transfer to the hotel. First thing we noticed about Iceland was the air. It was soooooo fresh and clean. It really does taste different. We booked two day trips at the airport with our Japanese yen and settled in at the hotel. The hotel were expecting us and a cot complete with toys, baby towel and jungle themed quilt and pillow set were in the room ready for us. (Very nice touches) Matt got dispensed to the nearest shop to buy some breakfast and packed lunch items for Saturday. To give you an idea of how expensive the country is: 4 sandwiches, a packet of crisps, a small bottle of coke and 2 breakfast bars cost over £30. Their currency may have collapsed, and yes it is less expensive than it used to be, but it was still pretty alarming working out the cost for everything - we were very glad that we were using Yen left over from Japan.

We were lucky in the fact that our bedroom was directly over the restaurant. I had had the brainwave of bringing the baby monitor with us and it worked. We were able to put Tom to bed and go to the restaurant and bar with the monitor and listen out for him, so we had 3 adult evenings in a row - very pleasant and very civilised.

Saturday
Saturday morning saw us up at our usual time in order to get the 'Golden Circle' tour. This was a dream tour for me - being an ex geographer. All those texts I read and regurgitated suddenly came to life. First stop was a geothermal power plant (the largest in the world when fully operational) just outside of Reykjavik (99.9% of Iceland's power needs are provided by either geothermal or hydroelectric power). A manager took us through a presentation explaining how it is all done - must say it was all rather eerie. The power plant was set in a lava field and there were bursts of steam coming up from the ground all around. It is quite strange to be in a power plant which is buzzing but where the air is really clean.

Next stop was the Gullfoss Waterfall, one of the most famous waterfalls in the country. It was perishingly cold there and the wind cut you in half - it was very fast and very cold. The spray from the waterfall didn't help either. Tom managed to be out in it for about 30 mins but then started to complain (I don't blame him) so we went to the lovely warm souvenir shop and left Matt to take photos.

Next stop was Geysir, a geothermal area containing a number of geysers (the word geysir is Icelandic which I didn't know, but I am still a little confused as to how to pronounce it, even the Icelandic guide pronounced it differently thorough out the day). One of the geysers here spouts water every 5-10 minutes which was fab. Once again the wind was ferocious and this time we had to walk across ice to get to the view point, so we decided to take it in turns to look so we could keep Tom in the warm. It was perishingly cold, but I saw two eruptions as did Matt so we were both happy.

On the way home we visited þingvellir National Park which is the location of the world's oldest government and also where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting apart, creating a rift valley. Iceland is getting 2.5cm wider each year because of this. The place was amazing, having never seen a real rift valley / fault line in the flesh before - it was very striking and because it was a valley we were able to get out of the wind meaning that Tom could enjoy it as well.

We got back to the hotel at 5pm tired after a really good day out. We went for a quick swim in the pool before giving Tom his dinner and some hai hai time in the hotel corridors and central staircase (he managed to go up a whole flight on his own). He then went to bed and we went to the restaurant for dinner.

The evening saw Tom and I in bed whilst Matt went off on his Northern Lights tour. (No luck for him)

Sunday
We decided to take it a little easier today. Tom had his nap in the hotel before we all got the bus to the Blue Lagoon (40 mins out of Reykjavik). We had lunch in the bar overlooking the lagoon before taking a dip ourselves. For a major tourist destination I was really surprised at the lack of thought to baby changing facilities (there were none). Tom wasn't the only baby there so you would think they would provide something especially as by law you have to shower naked and then put your swimming cossie on. You try doing that to yourself whilst keeping a curious crawling baby in check, and then put on a swim nappy and trucks on a squirming, wet baby - not fun and unfortunately a lot of tears!

We took Tom in with us, but once again it was windy and he didn't particularly enjoy it. We found a lovely heated relaxation area overlooking the lagoon, so we played tag team again - one of us playing with Tom in this area whilst the other played in the lagoon. The lagoon was massive, much bigger than I was expecting. It was lovely and relaxing though and both of us managed to enjoy ourselves. Tom went in again at the end and loved it - he was splashing and giggling all over the place which was lovely.

We got the coach back to the hotel (Tom was asleep in seconds - the tour company provided a baby seat for each excursion which was a god send and meant that Tom slept really well whilst on the tours), then hai hai, dinner, more hai hai, bottle and bed. Matt and I had another lovely meal and then Matt went to bed and I went on the Northern Lights Tour. I did actually get to see the lights, but unfortunately nothing too spectacular, I saw a very faint arch of green light over some mountains but that was it. I videoed it for prosperity, but it didn't come out - much too faint.

Monday
As you know we had to get up at silly o'clock to get our flight home. We landed at Manchester at 11.30. Had lunch at the airport and then came home. Tom was a diamond. He got up without a fuss, we didn't hear a squeak from him during the transfer even though he stayed awake. He slept for the first hour or so of the flight and then behaved well in the car on the way home. We put him to bed a little earlier today as he has lost quite a bit of sleep. We will see how it goes (might mean that he wakes up earlier tomorrow?)


Anyway, we all had a good trip and we fell in love with the place. We are already making plans to go back and explore some more.