Dollar Goes a Long Way on Winter Trip to Iceland

Iceland's Financial Trauma

One morning my wife and I ate breakfast in a tiny restaurant that looked liked a bookstore from the outside, with two men in the booth behind us. My curiosity got the best of me when one of the men went to the restroom and the other told someone on his cell phone that he was talking to a reporter.

Turned out it was The New Yorker magazine, in Reykjavik to do a story on how the country has been affected by the financial trauma.

There was a demonstration planned for a few hours later in front of the Parliament building down the street, they said. Check it out. The local scoffed at our intended destination, the Blue Lagoon geothermal pool outside of town. It's a tourist trap, he said. The water's not as warm as it used to be.

Yet we were tourists, and we disregarded the warning.

Maybe the idea of a steaming pool of therapeutic water carved out of volcanic rock and heated with underground energy was old hat to him, but not to us. It was an experience not to miss, swimming in a huge outdoor pool of salty, soothing water as occasional squalls of snow and sleet pelted our face and winter's slow dusk descended. The facilities around the Blue Lagoon are sleekly modern and designed with efficiency in mind.

We also tried one of the many "pools" of thermal-heated outdoor baths sprinkled around Reykjavik, those that the locals use. It's a luxury that should be experienced as much as possible. We never realized how important it was to pack multiple bathing suits for a winter's visit to Iceland.

Reykjavik was lovely for the holiday season, the store windows and streets festive. Half-finished construction projects dot the skyline, however, signifying work that started before the economy went sour and may or may not be completed.

The capital's reputation for a marathon nightlife is no myth, as we found out with a fourth-floor window overlooking pubs and clubs. Fun 'til 4 or 5 a.m. is routine on the weekends. Loud fun.

One of our drivers, even as he outlined how much money his family had lost in the financial tumult, said that Iceland's people had not surrendered to sullenness.

"People are realizing what is important," he said, and they're spending more time with their families.

He drove our party on a tour known as the Golden Circle. Starting before dawn (since dawn was 11 a.m., there was no choice), we left Reykjavik for the Pingvellir national park and one of Iceland's most historic spots. Landscape made jagged by the intersection of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates was the site of the world's first democratic parliament in 930.

It has a stream into which visitors pitch coins and make wishes, the site of a tale told by our guide of a husband and wife who leaned over to toss their coins. The woman lost her balance and tumbled into the water.

"You don't often see wishes come true that fast," the husband supposedly said.