Iceland Part 2
Looking for part one of this series on Reykjavik? Click here!
Our tour of Iceland through Groupon included not only our stay at Skuggi hotel, and airfare, but also, for a fee, a trip to the Blue Lagoon. Day two was Blue Lagoon day. Except we didn’t end up going to the Blue Lagoon, it was closed for the entire month we were there. Instead, we went to Laugarvatn Fontana. We left fairly early, in pre-dawn deep blue light, on a big bus. Our tour guide surprised us with an extra stop first! A visit to the Fakasel Horsepark. Icelandic horses are a unique breed that is kept stringently pure. Great lengths are taken to keep them healthy too. Any Icelandic horse that leaves the island cannot be brought back. We got to see a wonderful show with the horses and then we were allowed to pet them. They’re so cute. As a lifetime horse lover, I was, of course, thrilled by this auspicious start.
We continued on to the spa and arrived at about 11:00. Visually, the experience was stunning, but overall, not always entirely comfortable. Once we’d changed into swimsuits and showered you must shower before entering the geothermal pools, to keep them free of bacteria), we made a freezing sprint to a steam bath, mostly because it was closest to the door. However, really wanting to experience the blue pools, we soon darted to the nearest one. The pools are kept at different temperatures and range in depth. All of them have a spectacular view of the lake that the spa sits beside. It was an incredible juxtaposition to be warmly soaking in steaming water and look out at windswept, icy water. However, if you go to Iceland in the winter, and visit a spa, try not to get your hair wet…it makes it very hard to truly relax when the wind turns your head frosty. We watched the sun come up from the various pools, then retired inside for a buffet lunch with some wonderful rye bread baked in the ground there at Laugarvatn Fontana! The heat from the sand around the geothermal pools is actually warm enough to bake the bread. So hot.
After lunch our bus tour returned us to Reykjavik and our hotel, we had enough time to do a bit more wandering while there was some light out. We decided to check our Harpa. Harpa is a concert hall in Reykjavik and it is an incredible piece of architecture, with strong lines and geometric windows in different colors. The windows reflect the water and the sunlight and the mountains in the distance. It’s a very lovely place to visit and I would definitely recommend it.
Post our seaside walk to Harpa and back, Mr. C and I headed to one of Reykjavik’s best-known restaurants, and incidentally also the Wonders of Iceland museum, Perlan. While we did not visit the museum, instead choosing to fill our days with seeing the actual geography of Ireland, if we had had more time, it would’be been an interesting trip either before our day trips abroad to deepen our knowledge of what we were to see. Perlan’s restaurant, which I only recently learned is actually called Ut i Blainn, was a delicious spot to survey the lights of Reykjavik and enjoy our dinner. I had duck with potatoes, brussel sprout, and cranberries, in a mushroom sauce. Oh, my it was good. Mr. C. and I also got to pretend we knew what we were doing when selecting wine, which is always a fun game for us.
After dinner, we returned to our hotel for a nightcap of something we’re much better at selecting, beer. Iceland has some pretty good breweries as it turns out, and we had a couple bottles of Einstock before heading to bed.
