Thursday 22 July 1999
Yesterday’s sun has disappeared. We slept to long and are busier than expected. Actually we have to run from the city bus to the long distance busses to reach the “Bláa Lónid” (Blue Lagoon) route in time. We have bought ourselves a 3-day pass that covers all city busses, the swimming pool and museums, but none of today’s planned activities.
“Bláa Lónid” is a spectacular lay out lake near “Svartsengi” steam watercraft. The waterworks generates electricity using boiling water from the subsurface and the 70 degrees Celsius cooled water is cooled even more while it is conducted to a big lake in the middle of the lava desert. The water is rather salty and could be regarded as chemical waste, even though really clean waste. The swimming visitors smear the volcano ashes from the lake bottom in their face as it is said to heal the skin. Børge tries it out without any visible improvement to observe.
Just a week before the Blue Lagoon center opened totally re-built with modern locker rooms, souvenir shops and restaurant. The lake has been expanded considerable to hold the many tourists that have learned about this unique place. It works very much like a normal swimming pool if one ignore the steaming water in the 10 degree Celsius cold, windy and raining overcast day. It is cold, heavy raindrops that splashes into the hot water as some sort of inversed Jacuzzi, but the water is so wonderful hot.
We have some funny hours in the imitated cave where we talk about the people who pass by and fool around in the water. Among others we discuss the fact that we have been speaking English on the entire trip as Hagen and the three German girls have been around all time. The Icelandic prefer to speak English as well despite that their learn Danish in school. The young Icelandic hate to learn Danish as Danes hate to learn German – not because of the Germans, but because we don’t find it particular useful to learn. Everybody speaks English in Western Europe. We do find a lot of middle-aged and elder Icelandic people who enjoys speaking Danish with us.
The rain is still falling as we leave the Blue Lagoon at 4pm. A lot of people are waiting for the bus to “Reykjavík” and fortunately an extra bus is driving the route. We persuade the driver to put us off at “Hafnarfirdi” south of “Reykjavík”. We are going to visit a Titanic exhibition arranged by the city council of Belfast where the ship was built.
During the bus ride I investigate my camera for damages. At the Blue Lagoon we were really impressed with the newly installed computer controlled locker system. My impression disappeared when I wiped my wrist-key over the computer. Suddenly my locker opened two meters behind my back and my camera bag felt out on the floor. The result is sad. My zoom is broken and cannot be mended. It turns out to be additional EUR 200 on top of the budget for this holiday. Damn. Also damn, that I am unable to take more photos on this trip. Lucky me that this happens the day before we are going home and quite ironic that my lens dies this way after surviving being well beaten on trips to Thailand, Norway, Sweden, UK, Faeroe Islands and now in “Bláa Lónid”.
The Titanic exhibition is both very interesting and disappointing considered the EUR 12,- fee. But we see a lot of photos from building the three sister ships Titanic, Olympic and Brittania. We really sense how big those ships were, the vast turbines and parts of incredible size. The 29 steam ovens generated 72,000 horsepower.
At the exhibition we find examples of the porcelain onboard as well as wineglass, whiskey glass and cutlery all with the well-known White Star logo. It feels amazing standing here with a red wine glass like those the passengers used 87 years ago. The entire disaster, the atmosphere and the fear become present by looking at this glass. People have enjoyed a nice wine when thinking of the Statue of Liberty, New York and all the dreams to come true.
Beside this the exhibition offered only very few gems such as an original souvenir booklet from the vessel, displayed in a showcase as well as newspapers from the day after and advanced computer simulations of the disaster. The film was actually shown on a small 14” TV in the restaurant without just a decent amplifier or even just stereo sound. That was too lousy for such a great movie.
We leave the exhibition and go shopping at the supermarket nearby. Once again we are chocked over the prices on fruit and vegetables. The price level is high, but also very diverse within same category. The ice cream and sandwiches produced here is priced like in the rest of Europe, like the well-known brand names like Mars, Snickers and Coca-Cola, whereas the Magnum ice cream is some EUR 3 and a cauliflower is close to EUR 10.
The rain stops as we arrive in “Reykjavík” and we make a fruit soup for dinner. The weather forecast for tomorrow indicates more rain so we decide to use the Friday in “Reykjavík” on museums, a walk in the city and maybe a visit to old open-land court in “Pingvillír” on Saturday if the weather allows to.