Iceland has been on our travel wish list for some time now
but 2015 was the year to make the travel plans a reality. This small country
situated in the North Atlantic has only recently promoted tourism as a boon to
its economy. Direct flights with Icelandair have certainly helped in making the
country a more viable option for tourists. However, we found in our travels
that accessibility for the average tourist still has a way to go. The country
is not yet set up with the conveniences that the North American traveller has
come to expect and take for granted.
We flew to Iceland with Icelandair and didn’t enjoy the
flight experience. The service of the cabin crew was poor. I was ready to make a
judgment of the whole airline based on this experience, but then on our return
flight the crew couldn’t have been more helpful. They were totally aware of the
significance of my white cane and were also supportive and considerate of the several
young families who were on board.
We arrived in Keflavik on a beautiful sunny day and Lyle
drove the short distance from the airport to the Blue Lagoon. The Lagoon is one
of the country’s major tourist attractions. It is a huge pool of thermally
heated water and we knew from our guidebook that in order to keep the water as
clean as possible there were strict regulations about showering before entering
the pool. I was quite concerned about finding my way in an unfamiliar change
and locker room. In the end we were shown to a family/handicapped room which we
had to ourselves. I was so concerned about the process of all this that I
didn’t realize until later that we had received a disability discount on the
entry fee. The normal admission prices for the Blue Lagoon are quite high.
We enjoyed the water and the sulphur smell wasn’t too
overwhelming. I stayed close to Lyle
because the rising steam made it difficult to see. There were a couple of spots
in the pool where the water was intensely hot enough to burn the skin. I enjoyed
it all but Lyle found that the water was very drying for his skin.
Once we were back in our warm clothes, we followed some of
the gravel paths around the area. I found this even more interesting than the
pool. The ground was covered with black lava rocks. It was a strange landscape
– the barren area of rock with the modern pool complex and also a thermal power
station close by.
There are two pictures accompanying this post. The first
shows me standing in front of some very large lava rocks. These rocks line both
sides of a pathway leading from the parking lot to the Lagoon.
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| Sue in front of some lava rocks |
It was impractical to take our camera into the pool itself
but the second picture shows me standing on a little bridge between some of the
nearby minor pools. The thermal power plant is in the background and there is a
huge cloud of steam rising upwards.
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| Sue in front of thermal pools |
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