My first thought when stepping off the plane at Keflavik Airport was, “What am I doing here instead of a nice warm beach?” The plane arrived around 6am after a very long flight and stopped on the tarmac, away from the terminal. Buses waited to drive us the rest of the way, and as people slowly filed out of the airplane door, there were audible gasps from stepping out of a warm, cozy aircraft into the cold, wet and windy late July morning of Iceland. After rushing to the bus and huddling together for warmth, we could see the tired look of surprise on many of the faces. The expression seemed clear indicator of who, like me, had never been to Iceland before.
As the days went by, I eventually became acclimated. I got used to walking outdoors in the cold air from various swimming pools to hot tubs and back. I also got used to wearing a light jacket, or two, just about everywhere I went. It became a welcome bit of routine to throw on that same jacket each day and head out into the cold, but comfortable, morning.
The plan for the day was to grab the car, grab the mobile wifi, then head to Reykjavik and rest. But, since the famous Blue Lagoon sits somewhere between Keflavik and Reykjavik, that became our first stop.
Keflavik To Blue Lagoon
We left the airport very early in the morning. The sky was cloudy and eventually a light rain formed. Our first stop was our early morning appointment at the Blue Lagoon.
Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon is the ideal place to rest after a long flight. And its proximity to the Keflavik Airport makes it a very popular first stop on the way to Reykjavik.
Our flight arrived at 6:40 am, so I booked us for 9am. After going through customs, collecting bags, grabbing our mobile wifi and rental car we managed to arrive by 8:30.
The Blue Lagoon will not let visitors into the pools until 15 minutes before their reservation. We arrived about 45 minutes early, which I thought was pretty good timing considering we had just hopped off a plane from the United States. So we sat in the cafe drinking skyr smoothies enjoying the view of the lagoon until our appointment time. On the plus side, once you get in the pools, you can stay as long as you want. After a few hours of soaking in the rich mineral water, we decided to make our way into Reykjavik to find lunch.
Blue Lagoon to Reykjavik
After relaxing in the spa for several hours we were ready to unwind in our hotel in Reykjavik, about 45 minutes away.
The Video – Day 1
The full video of this route can be seen below. Its just under an hour long and posted in HD. At 3 minutes the camera fell off and I decided to leave that in the video. This was the only time it fell off the entire trip and it turned out to have been my fault. Fortunately we recovered the camera and kept recording.
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