Day 7

(Current Time & Place: 1/5/17, 10:00pm, day 2 of back to real life and work...  Still working on laundry)

Day 7 - 1/2/17

Mike:
We got up early this morning since we requested a 9am
geothermal plant tour.  After inhaling some fried eggs I was ready to roll, but Jon wasn't feeling well.  I think he caught what Bryan had on New Years Eve (note from Jon, Mike also gave me his sore throat he'd had earlier, sharing is caring after all, so it was a double-wamy).  Jon went back to bed and the rest of us left, albeit a little later then intended.


At the Geothermal Energy Exhibition, we opted for the self tour since there wasn't a tour group running when we arrived. Also, we found out the tour was just of the exhibition area, and we could manage that on our own, especially considering all of us are currently or were previously employed in the power industry.  I have to say they did an excellent job on the exhibits; information was presented clearly, with lots of hands on and interactive displays.



 I especially liked the time table of Iceland's adoption of renewable energy.  Until 1970, Iceland was being primarily powered and heated by fossil fuels.  Between 1900 to 1950 some small scale hydro dams and geothermal heating systems were built, but world war 2 brought high economic growth which allowed for more development of hydro and geothermal systems.   It looks like the 1970 oil crisis was the final end of importing fossil fuels.

A couple hours later and we were back at the apartment to pick up Jon and eat a quick lunch.  We had a 1 pm appointment to make at the Blue Lagoon, the luxury hot spring of Iceland.  It's promoted (national geographic did an article naming it in the top 25 a few years back) as one of the world's natural wonders.  The water is actually a beautiful light blue, crystalline color; and actually originated 2000 meters below the surface. Freshwater from the underground spring and seawater combine and are heated from all of the geothermal energy in the area, which is actually where Iceland gets almost all of its hot water from (for both heating and bathing).  As the hot water rises to the surface it picks up silica and minerals, resulting in this beautiful blue color.

We brought our underwater cameras, but visibility under the water was nonexistent.   Still I made sure to take lots of pictures above the water.  They have a sauna that looks like a hobbit home, and lava rocks line much of the perimeter of the pools.

Bridges cross over the pools, and I imagine in the summer, people might actually be out of the water lounging around, but certainly not today.  A silica mud mask in included in the package so we certainly took advantage....  The silica made us all look like zombies!!

The lagoon contains 9 million liters of water, so it's quite large, but after a couple hours of exploring I felt like a wet noodle...  A completely relax wet noodle, but still, it was time to get out.

We made a detour on our way back home to investigate a liquor store and then I gladly handed off the dinner cooking duties and took a nap.  Lauren and Bryan did a great job, and the Cajun chicken pasta and butternut squash were excellent!  We wrapped up the evening with some Icelandic vodka, and cards against humanity.