Located downtown, The Culture House opened in 2000 and features themed exhibit halls that share the history of Iceland, such as rooms dedicated to the Vikings and ancient maps.

After a day soaking in Icelandic history, a trip to the Blue Lagoon is a fun and social place to join the locals in their daily ritual. The outdoor pool of mineral-rich geothermal water, located about 40 minutes from Reykjavik in the town of Grindavik, is a great way to spend a few hours or even most of the day. There is a restaurant, cafe, spa and shop. Whether the sun is shining at midnight in June, or it is snowing on a February afternoon, the Blue Lagoon experience is a must for any visitor to Iceland.

The lagoon is a large silica-filled pool with purported healing powers. Everyone rubs these salts over their face and body as an exfoliant. It's the only time you'll see men in public exfoliating! The water is very warm, but not uncomfortably so. We stayed in for quite a while. The facilities are incredibly modern, with electronic passes to open your locker, very clean, and very well organized. There is a boutique gift store that sell a lot of spa type stuff. There is also an expensive restaurant where you can sit and enjoy a view of the lagoon.

Even on a rainy overcast day, this was a great thing to do, as it so warm.

One last tip: even on a very short layover in Reykjavik (less then one day) it may be possible to visit the Blue Lagoon. It is located very close to the airport, and there are a few direct buses from the airport.

I had been wary of going to the Blue Lagoon. It sounded like a tourist trap to me; plus, I don't really care for hot springs. The lagoon was a pleasant surprise. It was created accidentally when a nearby plant that pumped from a geothermal spring allowed excess water to spill onto the lava. Over time, the minerals in the water sealed the lava and created a pool, and the story goes that a worker at the plant bathed in the pool one day and found that it helped his eczema. Since then, it's become a renowned spa.

The water is actually bath-water warm, not boiling, and the sulfur smell is minimal. We were the first people there, so we had the whole lagoon to ourselves. The water is an ethereal blue and so opaque that you can't see more than an inch or so into it. As you move around the lagoon, you find vents where hotter water is flowing in. Parts of the bottom are sand, parts are mud, and most is mineral-coated lava (meaning that you frequently get large rocks jutting up unexpectedly). It was very cool to be in such a natural setting; the buildings around the lagoon are small and unobtrusive, and the pool is ringed by rugged, moss-covered lava rocks. Beyond the pool you can see the industrial plant that provides the water, which definitely gives the experience an offbeat vibe. The day I was there, the wind was blowing so strongly that it created choppy waves in the lagoon and sent the copious steam skimming across the surface. The lagoon is very shallow, meaning that to keep your entire body submerged -- and believe me, with the icy wind and the below-freezing temperatures, you will want to -- you have to scuttle along like a crab.

After the Blue Lagoon, we drove down the peninsula, which is completely flat and consists entirely of lava, some of which is covered with moss, much of which is bare. NASA trained its moon-bound astronauts in this area, and it's easy to see why. It's desolate, rugged, mostly devoid of vegetation, and has nothing to stop the wind that howls in from the North Atlantic. The weather grew noticeably harsher on the peninsula; it got cloudy, colder, and much windier than Reykjavík.

My favorite stop of the day was at the very tip of the peninsula, where the ocean crashed against lava cliffs. Looking straight ahead, the next piece of land you'd come to is Antarctica. I love that kind of landscape, and the barren rocks seemed especially fitting here against the sea. The guide told me that they had just finished filming a movie called "Monster" here, directed by Hal Hartley.