Bathing with the Vikings

The fishing town of Siglufjordur in Northern Iceland

Small fishing boat in Eyjafjordur

A fumarole at the mid-Atlantic Ridge

Here in Iceland the winter weather is lingering into spring making most of the hiking undesirable. Luckily our plans are flexible and we have a car. Our tour of the "ring road" is quickly turning into sight-seeing from the car intermixed with bathing at the numerous hot pools. Just about every town in Iceland has a pool. Today we soaked our bodies at a more resort-like pool that is situated pretty much on top of the the mid-Atlantic ridge that splits Iceland into two spreading tectonic plates. Here, excess hot water from a geothermal power plant is pumped into a large pool and also used to heat the sauna. The minerals in the water give it an amazing blue color, similar to the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik. The pool is fairly natural with a sandy bottom and slimy basalt. For anyone who has bathed in Chena Hot Springs outside of Fairbanks, Alaska it had very much the same feeling with the cold air and snow cover slopes.