The Blue Lagoon, Iceland

I love Iceland and what better a way to start a trip the land of fire ice than a trip to the blue lagoon. Its beautiful warm blue waters in the open air of Iceland, theres nothing quite so refreshing.

Last September we arrived in Iceland in the snow and then got told that our first trip would be to an outside swimming pool, doesn't sound so great so far but believe me it is fantastic.

The blue lagoon is a lake created by the waste water from a geothermal power plant, doesn't sound very clean, but its actually a perfectly renewable and clean form of energy. The blue colour is perfectly natural, i believe it is something to do with algae which changes the colour of the water but not entirely sure. seeing as the water has been deep down in the ground for thousands of years being heated by magma, as a result it is very warm (roughly 40oC), as it would have to be to intice you in in temperatures of -4oC.

Its a short walk (or run) from the changing rooms to the lagoon, a very nice little walk because the coldness makes the water even nicer.

The other benefit of the lagoon is that apparantly the salt deposits on the floor of the lagoon have healing powers and are supposed to be good for your skin (at least thats what they tell you, although it didn't help my eczema). So you can go swimming and put white stuff all of yourself, you'll look well cool!.

As well as the lagoon there is also a restaurant and natural treatments and massages available. didn't use any of these so can't comment on them

All this isn't all that cheap however, entrance for an adult is Isk 1400, that is 1400 icelandic Krona to you and me. There is currently about 135Krona to the pound, so a quick calculation tells me that it will cost you about £10.40 for an adult, actually on second thoughts that isn't that bad, considering this is much better than any normal swimming pool.

One disadvantage is that its out in the middle of nowhere so not all that easy to find, although as there is only one road in the entire area getting lost os unlikely.

I thorougly recommend a trip to the blue lagoon, if just to look at the crazy out of this world nature of it. Its a big blue swimming pool plopped in the middle of a grey dessert (thats the grey of an old lava flow, there are very few trees in Iceland, its most disconcerting). However if you do go to iceland you do have to go to more than just the blue lagoon, i recommend you go and see the geysirs at Geysir at least.

For more infomation check out the web address below (now how do i add pictures on to here?)

http://www.bluelagoon.com/