From one rainy city to another, the best part of the day was toward the end when our good friends met us at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

On a wet, breezy morning, we were picked up by the guide for the day, Halldor. He took us everywhere we wanted to go! The main objective was a hike to see the recent volcanic flows. The way Halldor explained the seven eruptions made me visualize a string of three beads, widely spaced, with most of the lava flowing from the beads, but a little from the strings. These new flows are evidence of a new, unique series of events, as we saw at the Geopark exhibit previously. The compositions are different from older flows in the area.

A little way further along the road were thermal features, a hot spring and fumarole.

We were driving along the south shore along lava flows 2.5 – 5 million years old.

Another stop along the road showed us intricately mixed black and white coarse sand. Halldor said the white pieces were sea shells.

Even in the rain, golfers must play!

At the start of our hike, we examined the map. We went up the west side of the recent lava flow toward the source of the lava.

The hike was in places easy, steep, cobbled and slippery. Quite the adventure for us old folks. We walked adjacent to the lava flow.

Up a bit higher, we could see into the valley covered in recent lavas.

Icelanders are astonishingly talented engineers, by necessity. They piled up crushed volcanic rock in high berms to protect cities and roads where possible. These berms protected the town of Grindavik.

This is a very small, unpopulated town! The hotel was fairly modern, though. Our room was more like a townhouse, bedroom upstairs, bathroom and sitting area downstairs.

We wandered around, trying to stay awake. Lots of fun things to see, all within easy walking range.

Just a little further along the edge of the bay is a lighthouse, built in 1922.

We continued along the edge of the sea. Displays of murals and sculptures were often labeled Art Land in Iceland.

A huge museum contained information about the International Geopark and lots of other displays, which we explored with glee.

Geoparks exhibit.

In the attic, there was a huge collection of boat models.

The United States established a base in Keflavik during WWII, primarily for refueling. Although some civilian passenger use began in 1949, the airport transitioned to a large commercial hub when the base was turned over to Iceland in 2006. Today, almost 10 million passengers connect at KEF annually.

Finally, we went back to the hotel to organize this blog. Staying awake was difficult, of course, first day in a new time zone.

Brian and Clare left Denver on an IcelandAir 757 late afternoon Thursday, arriving in Keflavik at dawn. EU immigration was easy at that early hour. Briefly talked with an agent and had our pictures taken and fingerprints recorded.

After getting a few hours of sleep, the sunrise woke us up just prior to the announcement that we would be landing in 30 minutes.

After croissants at the airport, we hired a taxi to get us to our hotel in Keflavik. We had to pay extra for early check-in, but it was good to relax and shower!