Hot Spring and Halliburtons

Yesterday we woke up in Grindavik to howling winds, confirming that we are in Iceland.

I caught a ride with Brian and Sheryl to the Blue Lagoon thermal spa. Steve wasn’t interested so he stayed back with Sage. The rest of us enjoyed relaxing in the hot water.

Blue Lagoon is one of the top tourist attractions of Reykjavik. It’s a thermal hot spring in the middle of a lava field. It’s a bright blue color from the silica. You shower and enter the warm water, where you can get a facial mask of mud (I think they get it from behind one of the rocks) and a drink. I remember from 2018 that the smoothies are good… I remembered correctly, yum. After floating a bit in the hot springs I met Melissa and Jason and their son Jack, who had just arrived from the airport. We enjoyed the hot springs some more, took pictures and had a delicious lunch overlooking the blue pool. The bread and butter were delicious.

Then they went back to their hotel and I called Steve who had spent the day feeding and visiting local sights with Sage.

We drove into Reykjavík, met up with Brian and Sheryl and found a spot at the campground there before wandering around looking for dinner. The weather was also better and almost warm. It is the longest day, and it seemed extra light and gorgeous.

After a few misses at dinner, we finally found a restaurant that was open, and it was delicious. Steve said it was his favorite meal of Iceland so far.

Melissa and Jason and Jack met us, so we were 8 total. Melissa gave Sage a birthday gift, which she loved opening. A little stretchy unicorn and a real working camera. She loves to pretend to take pictures with anything she can find… So a real camera blew her mind. She immediately was saying “cheese” and snapping away.

After dinner we walked back to the campsite. Sage was great at getting to sleep.

Today we picked up Jason and Melissa and Jack at their hotel with the plan of making our own Golden Circle tour.

First to Thingvellar National Park, where we stopped for a short walk to see the fissure and Oxarafoss waterfall. Then a quick lookout over the lake and fissure of the park.

Stop three was for lunch. Melissa and Jason found a really cool restaurant on a farm, with lots of horses, dogs, cows, chicken, old farm equipment and a playground. The restaurant was upstairs overlooking the cow barn and all of the cows chomping on hay. Sage loved it. The food was delicious.

Stop 4 was at Geysir, home of the original Geysir that others are named after. While still active, it hasn’t erupted since 2016, but it’s neighbor Strokkur erupts every 5-10 minutes. We saw it erupt a handful of times and walked around the boiling hot pots and springs.

Then on to Gulfoss, stop 5 on the JaNette Lefkowitz Golden Circle tour. Gulfoss means golden waterfall. It’s a big powerful waterfall. It’s a short walk to view it from two different levels. The Benners caught up with us here, making our tour into a caravan.

Our 6th stop was at the Secret Lagoon, a much more low key hot spring in the countryside on the way home. Jason and Jack stayed and entertained Sage while the rest of us enjoyed the hot springs and it started to rain. It was a great end to a nice day.

From here we were 90 minutes from Reykjavik. We stopped in Selfoss for dinner, about halfway and then headed back, tired, in the rain.

Tomorrow is a food tour of Reykjavik, then we say goodbye to Brian, Sheryl, Jason, Melissa and Jack.