Mark Palmer
Seldom is the prospect of an extra-long layover in a connecting airport a good thing – but then there’s Reykjavik, Iceland.
We had heard good things about Icelandair and opted to fly with them on a trip to Belgium, Holland and Germany. We knew we’d be tired after our whirlwind trip reconnecting with family and we were a little dismayed to see every return flight had a layover of at least 10 hours in Reykjavik. We booked regardless because the fare and word of mouth with Icelandair was good.
And when we told a friend who had recently been to Iceland of the excessive layover, her emphatic response was ‘sweet’ and launched into a veritable infomercial for the Blue Lagoon spa.
Little did we know, we had just secured ourselves a good three to four hours of hot spring bliss in arguably one of the most stunning, out-of-this-world locales on Earth.
The flight, food and folly of our little Iceland excursion was fantastic.
Icelandair was a unique, great experience – between the Icelandic lullaby pillows, distinct on-air meals, Icelandic movies and friendly service, we were not disappointed with the short jaunt to Reykjavik.
And upon landing, we were immersed in promotion for Blue Lagoon and easily found that frequent buses carried travelers to the spa in as little as 30 minutes.
Given all the advertising and promotion, we half expected a Disneyworld waterpark atmosphere, but that was far from the case. Huge, turquoise pools in every direction dotted sporadically with bobbing, happy travellers was the scene, and we dove right in.
The waters were magical and being early May with a little nip still in the air, the lagoon was very welcoming.
Temperatures varied depending on what part of the lagoon you ventured to in the chest-deep water.
And in many nooks sat vats of white, pore-tightening, emulsifying, cleansing creme that made you feel and look at least a few years younger.
We stayed in the lagoon about three hours, our pruned fingers the only things that appeared to age in that time.
After, we poured ourselves into the bus back to the airport for our connecting flight to Toronto, content, warm, and completely satisfied on the longest layover we ever had…if only it were longer.