Day 6: Morning narrated by Alaina

We truly enjoyed exploring Reykjavik, but with us getting in later in the day, we didn’t do much of the “landmark” exploring. Unfortunately Mike starting to not feel great so in order for him to get additional rest, I told him to sleep in and I would go check of the two things on my list.

While we loved our AirBnb, the issue was that it was on the first floor of an apartment building and outside was a parking garage. With the noise, I was up by 7:30. I kindly gave Mike ear plugs to ensure he slept.

On my way by 8:30, I headed up to the Hallgrímskirkja Church which is one of the highest structures in Iceland and has a great overlook of the city:

It was fun to go up and see the city and all its fun colors. I then began my walk to Harpa Concert Hall (on my way I stopped in at a local bakery which had cinnamon buns made out of croissant dough – bringing that recipe back to Boulangerie!) which is a modern structure on the bay. Harpa has always been at the top of my list because it’s like a huge mirrorball that you can walk through. It didn’t disappoint and I had so much fun playing with the light and seeing the sun peek out from the clouds on occasion to paint the cement floor in color.

Wanting to get back to Mike, I pulled myself away from all the architectural goodness and headed back to the apartment.

Handing the narration over to Mike for the second half of the day 🙂

After Alaina returned from her solo-exploration we packed up our stuff & began a decent stroll through Reykjavik on our way to pick up our rental car. It really is a cool city & we both agreed we’ll need to come back again some day to explore it more. For now we got to wander through the happening downtown & not-so-happening outskirts as we got a little lost trying to find the rental car agency. Incorrect placement from Google Maps + a tiny sign in front of the building had us circling around our destination for a bit before figuring it out. But a little while later we were proud temporary owners of Alby – short for “Albino Ladybug” as she is the same car we had in the Faroes but this time in white.

First stop with Alby was the Blue Lagoon – one of the most popular tourist spots in Iceland. It is an enormous geothermal spa with crazy milky blue water and hot enough water that we didn’t mind being in bathing suits on a super cold & windy day. The day was super foggy so at times we could only see a few feet around us which was nice considering how many people were sharing the bath with us! We made our way around the Lagoon, making sure to stop at the swim-up bar for some beer & prosecco to enhance the experience. Although we struggled to keep the Lagoon water out of our beverages since the wind was so strong that there were literally waves crashing into us as we moved around.

Next stop was the Silica Mud Bar to get a delightful mud mask for our faces. We’re so fancy. I thought it was just a silly photo opp but I’ll admit my face did feel nice & soft as a baby afterwards – but don’t tell anyone I said that.

We washed our masks off in time for the most highly anticipated part of the visit – the in-water massages! This was a last minute booking based on a coworkers recommendation that it will “change your life.” And ohhh man were we happy we did it. They put you on a raft & place a wet towel over you, submerging you every few minutes to make sure the towel stays full of warm water. Then for 60 minutes they rub ya up from your feet to your legs to your arms to your back to your head. It was exactly what the doctor ordered, especially since I still wasn’t feeling 100%.

After the massages we putzed around the Lagoon for a bit more, got the second phase of our face masks, this one an algae that nourished our skin from within to give it a youthful appearance – ooh la la, then headed back to the lockerrooms to get dressed before heading out to our next AirBnB house a few hours away.

As we drove, I began regretting being in the water on such a cold day as I was really starting to feel under the weather. We found a very cool church right on the beach that we wanted to grab some pictures of and as I walked outside the cold cut right through me. So I bundled up back in the car and passed out as Alaina drove the rest of the way.

When we pulled up to the house around 9 or 10pm we were really excited about it.

It was perfectly located a few minutes away from 2 different waterfalls that we wanted to check out & next door to a farm with Icelandic Horses (like normal horses but a little smaller – and as our in-flight magazine on the way here said “don’t call them ponies or you’ll piss people off” – duly noted). Most importantly it was nice, comfy, & WARM. Although it did come with a noisy, uninvited visitor:

 

I was feeling worse by the minute so we had a quick dinner, vegged out for a bit and then turned in for the night hoping I’d wake up feeling like a new man.