Iceland! History and Blue Lagoon soakin'

On Wednesday, Scott and I fell into a little bit of jet lag/sleep-in time, but we were able to fill our day with some pretty memorable activities.

As some of you may know, I get pretty into history and one of the things I'm excited about on our trip is learning more about history in other countries.

So, we started the day at the Iceland National Museum.  I will try to spare you all of the knowledge I was able to soak up...but I can try to give a concise history of Iceland.  A long time ago (around 800 AD), people came to Iceland who were believed to be Norwegian, but it seems like it's not exactly clear.  No matter where they came from, they definitely included Christians and some pagans (who were eventually converted to Christianity).

Throughout Iceland's history, it seems that the locals just kind of kicked it and attempted to survive. All the while, various groups came and claimed Iceland as its own.  First the Norwegians, and then the Danish.  The Norwegian and Danish influence is still evident today. However, Icelanders are proud to point out that most of their (320,000) population can still trace their ancestry back to original settlers. This has made them great candidates for "pure DNA" testing.

Ok- back to the history-  there were some wild Middle Age times complete with plagues, famine, and grisly executions (mostly having to do with religion).  But also cool stories like knights slaying dragons, as depicted on this door from the era.

So then they were under Danish rule for a looooong time and converted to Protestantism. While moves were being made for independence starting in the 1800s, it wasn't until 1944 (Denmark was preoccupied with WW2) that Iceland officially gained independence.

One picture from the museum- this is a trawl wire cutter and as claimed by the placard at the museum is "the only weapon Iceland has ever invented".  They used it to cut the fishing lines of foreign ships that were invading their fishing zone.  Kind of a cool fact.

After we had had our fill of history, we set out for the tourist attraction (trap?) known as the Blue Lagoon.  After a long debate over this, we finally went with the "you'll only be here once" philosophy.  Worth it.  The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal pool that contains silica, which gives it a milky color and is supposed to be great for your skin.  They also have mud in pots that you can put on your face.  It was warm, it made my skin feel great, and I was sitting in a lava field in Iceland.  Also, they have a pool bar, so there's that.

Oh yeah, how could I forget Bean, our rental car.  We did the math and renting a car for the last 2 days was about the same price as all the buses we would have to take, so Scott got to enjoy driving our little car around Iceland. He loved it.  Maybe a little too much?  :)

It also gave us a little more freedom to stop and check out stuff, like this random lava tube we found!

We crammed so much into Iceland that we're going to do one more wrap-up post later!