Float in the Blue Lagoon, Iceland

About twenty minutes from the international airport near Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, the Blue Lagoon is a milky blue geothermal pool in a black lava field. It began in 1976 as wastewater from a geothermal power plant, until silica sealed the rock and the water stayed, growing into a lagoon on its own. The water runs rich in silica and minerals, and bathers have soaked here since a psoriasis patient found it eased his psoriasis symptoms in the early 1980s. The dark months are the classic season, steam rising into cold air and on clear nights the northern lights overhead.