Iceland (and some US)- Day 8: Reykjavik, Iceland to the Blue Lagoon and back- June 24,2021

As a relative thing, I slept rather well during the night, even though I never could get the duvet to be neither too warm nor too cold. But, that's normal for me in Europe. I did notice the light around the edges of the curtain every time I woke up. My husband K slept soundly.

We'd had the phone alarms set for 8:30. Evidently, our daughter J next door, got up at 8. She came over at 9:05 to go down to the basement for breakfast with us. The breakfast room had a large seating area and the food was in a room next to it. I was happy to see the cold cuts and to find the Skyr, the Icelandic yogurt. I put the cold cuts and cheese on some hearty bread with raisins and I mixed a bit of jam into my Skyr. I'd actually had a bit of a mix up and mistook the cream pitcher for Skyr. So, I also had a bit of muesli with cream. I took another piece of the bread and buttered it and added jelly. They had orange juice, but this juice box had an interesting mix and turned out to taste good. The melon was great.

As we sat there eating, I realized that the music we were hearing was the first American music we'd heard. All the shops and whatnot yesterday were playing Icelandic music.

After breakfast, we explored the basement, finding both the bar and a game room. K went in to shoot some pool, while J and I used the selfie spot to take our photo in front of the Northern Lights. We noticed this weird hexagonal shape around and realized it was their symbol for the hotel's name, which means "rock" in English.

                          

When J and I headed upstairs, we stopped at the hotel desk to confirm our outing for tomorrow and where we'd be picked up. (We'd confirmed today's yesterday.)

I was glad that we were having a relaxing morning, because my right knee was just plain throbbing.

We headed downstairs to wait for the bus at 12:10 pm for the first of two excursions that were included in our trip package. We'd been told to be waiting by 12:30 and we didn't want to miss our pick up. It was fairly overcast, with a temperature of  51, which felt like 49.

The bus finally arrived at 12:50. We were the last pick up and arrived at the bus station at 12:55. We were told to transfer to a smaller bus, which soon departed.

We had the chance to see more of the countryside as we went along. We could also see the Atlantic at times. It was all so interesting!

 

After about 45 minutes, we started to see the steam from geothermal activity.

At 1:46, the bus delivered us to the famous Blue Lagoon and the driver finally spoke. We'd been told we could come back when we wanted, but he said that everyone had to be waiting for the bus by 6 pm.

When we got out, I found these helpful, informative signs that will save me a lot of typing.

I should probably state for the record, that we are not spa people. It's just not something that we usually go for. But, the chance to be in the geothermal seawater was just too good to pass up.

As we went toward the entrance, I was very excited to be this close to lava rock. I recognized that it had been dug up and dumped here to make the lagoon, but, it was still lava rock and I find that fascinating.

Just before the entrance, there was a path that led to the left. We followed it for a few feet to get photos of the part of the lagoon that were outside of the main part. Such a color! And the fact that it went right up to the wall of the building really surprised me.

   

Evidently, you can walk around this path. Unfortunately, we never had the time to do so. 

We joined the line waiting to go inside. While we stood there, I noticed the wall. I'm fairly certain that it was made from the lava rock.

Our visit included the use of a towel, but with the temperature being what it was, we all knew we had to pay and get robes, which would come with a free pair of flip flops. So, there's that. We were given wristbands, when we showed our reservations. These, we'd been told, would open the lockers that would hold our things, while we were in the water. Then, we got in line to get the robes. J had someone else helping her, who wound up not charging her! K and I were not so lucky and I got a 4,000 kr charge on my MasterCard, which, at least, has a good exchange rate and no fees. K and I got different wristbands now in recognition of our upgrade. J did not, which meant that she would not be eligible for the two extra masks that were part of our upgrade. We'd take care of that, though.

K went off to the men's changing room and J and I found the ladies. It was quite large, with many sections of lockers. Each of these sections had a restroom and/or a changing room. Along the wall opposite these sections were mirrored areas with counters and hair dryers. J and I went down to a less busy section of lockers. She figured out how to make them work faster than I did. We each claimed one and hung our coats and put our purses inside. Then, we found a changing room to put on our bathing suits. While we were going to have to take a shower without the suits, we would be more comfortable going to the showers with the suits on.

When our clothes and glasses, which we didn't want damaged by the silica, were safely locked in the lockers, we went down to the showers. Besides the complete shower, we'd been told to put cream rinse in our hair and leave it in. This would protect the hair from the silica in the water. The shower water came from directly overhead and was a bit of a surprise.

We finally went outside expecting to see K waiting for us, as we'd planned. However, he was already in the water. We hung our robes on one of the hooks on the long rack, put our towels above and flip flops below, and braved the temperature. The water was 100 degrees, which quickly made up for the air temperature. Not only that, but my knees positively loved it. They haven't felt that good in ages!

The lagoon ranges from 2.6 to 4.7 feet in depth. Since the air was so chilly, it seemed prudent to try to keep the water to at least the shoulders.  So, that meant that moving along in the seahorse fashion that we do in water aerobics worked rather well. The legs are in front sort of in a seated position and you kick down with both legs with the knees bent. The hands scoop the water backwards. 

While waiting for us, K had done some exploring. He led us to a side arm of the lagoon, where he'd discovered a mound with an opening at either end. Inside, it was like being in a cavern. There were even sort of seats built into the sides.

After exploring and getting used to the water, we headed over to a small building with large windows at one side of the lagoon. Our wrist bands let us try three masks, while J's would allow her one. So, K and I started with the lava scrub. However, the woman had scooped so much into our hands, that we were each able to share with J, when we'd moved away from the window. We rubbed the mask on our faces, avoiding the eyes, and necks and let it work a bit, before rinsing it off  some of the water from the nearby running spigot. Then, the three of us went over and got the silica mud mask. That was a truly huge scoop. We left that on for about 10 minutes, which we were able to time by virtue of a huge clock over near the boardwalk where the robes were. After rinsing that off, K and I went back for the algae mask. Once again, we had enough to share with J. The lava was to scrub, obviously. The silica is what they are most famous for and it is to make your skin feel tighter and more refreshed. The algae, which is actually patented, is supposed to reduce lines and wrinkles. Whatever the claims, my skin did feel good afterwards.

When we'd finished the masks, we headed across the lagoon to what seemed to be the bar to our myopic eyes. We were correct. Our visit included a beverage. K got an alcoholic cider. J got lemonade. I chose a sparkling strawberry wine. We took our drinks over to the side and it felt truly decadent to be soaking in this water and drinking. I could get used to that. 

We knew that we still had to eat before we left and we hoped to eat in the restaurant next to the lagoon. So, we got out and were happy to have robes there. I wanted to take photos. So, I went back to my locker to grab my phone. It would let me take a panoramic, like the one above. I also wanted to show how quickly the water became opaque. I stood on the ramp and photographed my feet in the water.

There were more people arriving, when we got inside. We actually lent some assistance on figuring out the lockers. There were attendants around, but we were handy. 

We showered again and grabbed dry towels. I did put the blow dryer on my hair for a few minutes after I was dressed. I didn't want to freeze because of wet hair.

In order to exit the spa area, we had to put our wristbands up to a screen to check out. My screen claimed I owed money for K's cider. I had to get one of the workers to come clear the bill. Then, the band got scanned at the exit and dropped into an opening. I later found out that K had had trouble exiting, too. He'd had to get someone to come clear the bill, too.

J and I found K was at the cafeteria area at 4:45. He'd looked at the restaurant prices and said they were just too outrageous. That was disappointing, as this was to be my early birthday dinner. J and I left him at the table with his food and went around to get food. Weirdly, you could see the restaurant through a thin black curtain just beyond the food counter area. 

There wasn't much of a choice. We both picked out ham and cheese sandwiches for 1690 kr each and let the woman at the cash register warm them. A bottle of water cost 450 kr. J got a Pepsi and paid for it herself. We got Nacho Cheese Doritos and Lays Salted Chips for 400 kr each. A chocolate cookie to split cost 480 kr.

After eating, we had time to go to the shop. Of course, they sold all the masks we'd had plus other skin care products, all of which was very expensive. They had some cold weather clothing items. I did manage to find some postcards.

The bus was actually out there early and we boarded at 5:55. Once again, the driver was rather taciturn. We did not understand, when he announced our hotel was the next stop and we missed it. However, we got out at the next one at 6:53, which put us near our lunch stop from yesterday.

We thought that this was fortuitous, as it gave us a chance to see if the gelato place was open. It was! K didn't want any, which was not a surprise. J got a small with lemon and vanilla. I got chocolate and strawberry. It was very good. We'd thought we'd be eating this in Italy this summer on the last iteration of our cruise that was canceled. 

 

We hiked up the hills (two, I've decided, since you go up one way and turn and go up another way) and got there at 7:20. J hung out with us until 8:30. 

K was in bed by 11:30, but I was up until 12. This photo at 11:53 is significantly darker than yesterday, but that is just the clouds and coming rain.

My phone claimed 3,551 steps for 1.1 miles today. That sounds right.

Iceland (and some US)- Day 7: Reykjavik, Iceland- June 23,2021

What an incredibly lousy night! The women 2 rows in front of us just never shut up and they were loud. It was also a bumpy ride. I don't know if it was because of the very strong tailwind that we had or what.

As we'd been warned, no food was served in economy. I don't know whether or not they served in first class. This is all due to Covid-19, of course. We didn't plan to eat on the plane anyway. The flight was to be around 6 hours and eating would have cut into sleeping. Of course, thanks to the noisy group ahead of us, I hardly slept.

That tailwind got us into Keflavik International Airport at 5:37 am GMT (1:37 am EDT), about an hour earlier than expected. It was a very hard landing. Just 4 minutes later, the plane was parked, but not at the terminal. Rather, at 5:50, we had to climb down steps to a bus. My knees were not happy about that after all that sitting. I don't know what they would do with a person on crutches.

In five minutes, the bus delivered us to the terminal, which had a very long line for non-Schengen arrivals. The line started downstairs and went up stairs past a timeline of Icelandic history. There were multiple lines upstairs for immigration and I made sure that we were not in the line with the people from the rows ahead of us. 

At 6:20, my husband K, older daughter J, and I were finished with the immigration line and had our passports stamped. We now had a long walk through the terminal to get to baggage claim.

As you can see, English is the first language on signs. I'd seen something a while back that said Icelanders get offended, if you mispronounce things in their language. So, they make sure that they can speak English.

When we got down to baggage claim, there was a duty free shop right there. Normally, those are between security and your flight. Not here. K had seen a program that recommended buying alcohol that you want to try during your stay at the duty free shop, because it is cheaper. So, he went in, while J and I headed for the baggage carousel. I loved the fun puffin in the ceiling and I really hoped to see one on the trip.

I saw a guy go by with a case of cans. I suggested to J that she go back to the shop and see if that was soda, that would be cheaper to get now. I stayed with the bags. K came back with Icelandic alcohol, but also Jack Daniels, which seemed bizarre to me. I let him stay with the bags and went to join J.

She found that the cans were alcohol. So, that was unhelpful, but they did have chocolate. We decided to buy a couple of bars, as well as a box of Lava candy, thinking that if they were good, we might buy more in town.

When we got back to K, it was 6:53 and time to go into the Covid line. I'd watched enough people struggling to register-which they should have done back home- or trying to find their registration receipt to know that we had to pull ours up on our phones before getting in line. This let us sail past the guy checking for that. The benefits of following directions. 

We followed a corridor to another large room right by the exit doors. Here, we were sent into a line to get our Covid test. Some folks had to go outside to do it, but ours was right there. There were two nurses handling it in that spot and they confirmed our names and did the tests. We were finished at 7:08 and headed outside.

We got outside just in time to see the bus leave. Ah, well, we now knew where to stand. It was now 7:10 and a woman told us that another bus would be here shortly. Soon, other people joined the line Disney-style, before asking if it was for the bus. It was so cold out there! I used the airport WiFi to check the Weather Channel App, which informed me that it was 45 and felt like 37, thanks to the brisk wind.

Tried to distract myself, by observing the surroundings. We saw people going to rental cars and to a parking lot. There were unusual sculptures. That second one, we decided, involved a talon coming out of an egg.

Behind us and toward the terminal were portables that we realized were used for Covid testing. We were glad that we'd been in the warm inside area.

At home, I'd printed out two copies of all of our vouchers for this trip, from this bus to the hotel to all excursions. I gave J a set of hers and of ours and I kept matching sets. This way, if one got lost, we still had them. When the bus came back a half hour later, they only sort of looked at the vouchers. K and J took care of getting our suitcases around the other side of the bus and into the underside of it. Then, we boarded and the woman was there at the top of the stairs and asked for our hotel. When we were seated, we saw all sorts of confusion with people who had not seemed to have booked the ride correctly. Shortly before the bus left at 7:57, the woman came to us and gave us red stubs. I still have no idea why.

When the bus pulled out, there were two buses waiting to take its place. Seriously not fair. I did get a shot of the airport in that desolate spot, as we drove down the road. It really doesn't look very big.

The landscape we passed seemed pretty much as desolate. Sometimes, there would be patches of purple flowers, but it was usually a moss-covered volcanic landscape. Speaking of volcanoes, we could see a smoke plume off behind a ridge as we motored along. We realized that that had to be Geldingadalir, Iceland's newest volcano, which began erupting on March 19. We'd watched a story about it on 60 Minutes and another on 60 Minutes+. We were glad that we'd at least seen the plume.

At 8:45 am, we stopped at the bus terminal for those who needed to transfer.  That took only 5 minutes. And at 8:55, the bus stopped in front of the Hotel Klettur, our home for the next week. We got our luggage and headed inside.

The clerk at the desk sounded very American. She sort of surprised us, when she gave us our keys right away. Check-in time was in the afternoon, after all, and we really hadn't expected our rooms to be ready this early. However, we'd also wondered what we'd be doing since we had to stay in the hotel until our test results came in. Of course, Iceland had not been open to tourists for terribly long, so, maybe, there was extra room. Regardless, she said that they tell their North American guests to go upstairs and take a nap. Usually, when you wake up, your results are in. If they aren't and you are hungry, she provided a list of places that delivered, including Domino's!

The elevator was just big enough for the three of us and our luggage. We'd been assigned room 502 and J was next door in 501. The hall was quiet, when we got up there at 9:10. After checking out each other's simple, but clean rooms, we all went to our beds for naps-after figuring out how to make the radiators work.

Normally, I try to take just a 20-minute nap upon arrival in Europe to just charge the battery. But, after last night's short, poor night, I was down for the count. When I awoke, it was 1:07 and K was already awake. When I looked at my phone, I saw that my all clear appeared on my phone at 12:17.

Since J had rented a personal WiFi hotspot for this trip, I was able to text her at no charge. It took us a bit longer to get our act together, but we finally left the hotel at 2:15 to get food. It had warmed up to 52, with wind chill of 48, but it was a beautiful day.

I don't think that any of us realized that we were on a hill until we walked around the corner. From here, we could see all the way down to the water and to the hills on the other side. Our rooms had given no hint of this. Our windows looked out to rooms on the other side of an narrow inner courtyard.

We were following a city map from the hotel, but it gave no indication of elevation. So, there was a surprise when we turned another corner onto Laugavegur and found that the street continued downhill. We saw some of the colorful buildings that we'd heard that Reykjavik had to brighten the long winter nights.

I've learned to look down at manhole covers. So many places now decorate them. The ones here had the shield of Reykjavik on them. heraldry-wiki.com explained the symbolism:

The arms show the throne pillars of Ingolfr Árnarson, the first permanent settler of Iceland. After his banishment form Norway, he decided to settle in Iceland. After reaching the coast he threw his throne pillars in the sea and swore to built [sic] his home on the spot where the pillars would drift ashore.

 Evidently, it took three years for his slaves to find them in the small bay here in Reykjavik.

At the bottom of the street, we found this interesting sculpture called Klyfjahestur by Sigurjón Ólafsson.

Thanks to Google and Google translate, I was able to find out about it at https://safneign.listasafnreykjavikur.is/en/verk/H-030:

On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday in 1958, the City of Reykjavík commissioned Sigurjón to make a bronze statue of a packhorse. A potent symbol of Iceland’s past, when the horse was the Icelanders’ only means of overland transport, the piece was to be placed at Hlemmur: formerly a stopping-place for trains of pack horses to and from Reykjavík, in later years it became a centre of public transport. There were also plans to place at Hlemmur a replica of the drinking trough where horses had been watered in olden times. The piece depicts a heavily laden mare with her foal. On the left side she is carrying planks of wood (always in short supply, as Iceland had no large trees), while on the right she had been loaded with a wooden chest and bundles. The foal follows along close behind her. Sigurjón included the foal to emphasise the conditions of impoverished farmers: some were so poor that even a mare with a foal had to be used as a beast of burden.

Hlemmur is no longer a bus station, although buses do stop next to it. Now, it is a Mathöll or food hall with various small food places and a lot of tables, both inside and out.

I for one was a little trepidatious, not really knowing how this worked. We looked at a couple of the food purveyors and were looking at the menu for Fjárhúsid (The Sheephouse) on a counter/ bar at one, when the guy behind the counter offered us more and told us we could sit at the counter. It was well after 2:30 and the food sounded good, if pricey. So, we sat down and ordered. J and I agreed to share our meals. So, it turned out that both she and K ordered Brydja or Íslensk kjötsúpa (Icelandic lamb meat soup) for 2,200 kr. I ordered the cheese plate for 1,900 kr. J and I both drank water.  K went over to the shop marked Te & Kaffi, which sells exactly what it sounds like, and came back with a 545kr coffee. Our food was prepared within our eyesight.

I thought that the cheese plate was beautifully arranged. I loved the bread dipped in the blueberry sauce and enjoyed everything else, too, including the little sausages. J liked it, too. I thought the meat soup was amazing! It was full of root vegetables and flavor. K and J liked it, too. 

I noticed that the two guys working behind the counter spoke English to each other. I wondered if one was not originally from Iceland. Eventually, one of the guys left and we complimented the other on the food. We got to talking and discovered he was a student jazz musician from the nearby Iceland University of the Arts. I pointed out that K was a music professor and that led to a long discussion of what it had been like studying during the shut down, what the music scene is here, and more. For instance, we talked about names in Iceland. You search for a name by the first name, because the last name tells who the person is son of. So, your last name and your father's will not be the same. It was such a great opportunity to talk to a local and it came about so organically. Seriously cool!

We left at 3:45 and I soon saw some great pedestrian crossing lights. I saw other versions later, but I liked these.

We continued down Laugavegur, which seemed to be a fairly major shopping street, particularly for tourists. We stopped in a shop called Iceland Memories on the corner of Vitastigur, because it seemed to have prints that might be good on our travel wall. Prints turned out to be expensive, but I spent 3,490 kr on other stuff. (The exchange rate is about 122 kr =$1, but we ballparked all prices by dividing by 100). J wanted to come back later, because they had cute sheep that she might want to get as gifts.

On our walk, we admired wall murals and and signs like the one below.

We were on our way to see Reykjavik's iconic church, which turned out to be in that first picture I took, when we first turned onto Laugavegur. We continued along until we reached Frakkastígur, where we turned left, which I suppose was south. Once again, we faced a hill, but this time, we had to climb uphill. I noticed the both the sidewalk and the street were black. I decided it had to be from the volcanic rock that made up the island.

At about 4:23, we were standing across the street from the enormous Hallgrímskirkja. In photos, it always looks like it is on flat ground, but it is at the top of a hill. We'd crossed the street, because that was the best place to get a photo of the whole thing with the Leif Erikson statue in front of it. It turns out that the statue was a gift from the US back in 1930 in honor of the 1000th anniversary of the Althing (Icelandic Parliament), the oldest in the world.

The church belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. It is meant to evoke the rocks, glaciers, and mountains of the country. It does indeed look like basalt columns. It was designed by the first Icelander to get an architecture degree. He had designed the Catholic cathedral, which was consecrated in 1929. The Lutherans came to him in 1937, but the church wasn't started until 1945 and took 41 years to complete. The church was not supposed to be as tall as it is, but the Lutherans wanted the spire to be taller than the Catholic one. Seems rather petty.

We went inside, where it was quite simple and modern. There was no stained glass.  It was pretty. The organist was practicing, which was a treat. The pews are built with backs that can flip, so that you can watch the organist. Quite clever.

 

They shooed everyone out about 4:55. Outside, we discovered that another spot we'd wanted to visit was just across the street- Café Loki. K and I had been watching a video on food and Iceland and the couple raved about Café Loki and its rye bread ice cream. We knew we just had to try it.

There were a couple of people sitting outside, but we didn't think that it was quite warm enough for that. We were directed to a table inside and found what we wanted on the menu. K and I shared a 450kr Coke Zero. I ordered Loki's Rye Bread Ice Cream with cream and rhubarb syrup for 850 kr. K ordered Pancake with Skyr and Caramel Sauce for 700 kr. J ordered a Coke for 450 kr and the same ice cream as me. While we waited, we had time to look around at the photos on the wall of what seemed to be Reykjavik way back in the day. 

The ice cream was absolutely delicious. It really does look like bread in there, and, as the woman on the video had said, it is a bit like cookies and cream ice cream. K's pancake was quite tasty, too.

At 5:42, we left and it was still lovely outside. We saw a really nice view of a mountain with a glacier on top that was across the bay, as well as more colorful buildings, some of which had corrugated metal sides.

We headed down Skólavördustígur and turned right onto Tysgata, which became Klapparstígur.  When we crossed Laugavegur, we saw this, which is literally street art.

We continued down the hill, so that we could see the water a bit better. There was a highway down there. So, we went as far as the photo shows.

As we came back up the hill to Laugavegur again, I took the time to photograph this mural. It shows up on Google maps as Viking Mural, but I also found that it was called "Ode to Mother" by Caratoes. It is quite something.

On our way back down Laugavegur around 7:30, we came upon a grocery store called 10-11 at Laugavegur 116, which was close to where we'd had lunch. We love checking out grocery stores. We like to see which of our products they have and what kinds of food they eat. Here we found Del Monte cans of fruit and Dr. Oetker frozen pizza, which we get at home, but they had flavors here like Hawaiian. When we entered, we found baked goods, some of which were from Germany. J started filling a basket with some of these for snacks. She also wanted a soda for herself and got me a smoothie bottle. We saw Lay's potato chips and Cheerios. A 16.9 ounce bottle of Coke was 449 kr or $3.56. A 2-liter bottle was 649 kr or $5.15. A dozen eggs was 579 kr or $4.60. Being a Maryland native, I was very excited to see McCormick spices, but a peppercorn medley grinder was 749 kr or $5.94. 

At 8, we were in the hotel and J came to our room for a while to snack on what we'd bought.  She left the rest in our room and retired to hers. We all felt we'd had a really good day.

My phone said I'd walked 9,025 steps for a total of 3.6 miles. It also said that in the hotel, we were at 120 feet of elevation at 64 degrees 8 minutes 31 seconds North and 21 degrees 54 minutes 37 seconds West.

Sunset was to be at 12:03 am, with sunrise coming at 2:56 am. So, it was never going to get dark. K clipped the curtains together in the center to keep them closed a bit more. He was still up, when I took this photo at 11:32.

He went to bed, but as usual, I wasn't tired enough. I played some games on my iPad. At 12:48, I went to the corner of the window to take this photo before I went to bed at 1.