Reykjavik and the Blue Lagoon: Our final day in Iceland
We woke up in the dark on Monday morning for our final day in Iceland. Since we ran out of time to go to the Settlement Exhibition on Friday, we decided to take the 1.5 mile walk down and back up the main shopping street, Laugavegur, to visit the museum.
We didn’t take any photos in the exhibition, but it’s really fascinating. They’ve unearthed and preserved the footprint and some of the walls of one of the oldest buildings in Iceland, built around 821. It’s a really cool museum that made use of technology in creative ways, from holograms to interactive touch screens, etc.
We then walked back up Laugavegur and did a little shopping for our families before heading back to the hotel to check out and load up the car. On our way out of town we stopped at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsu for a world-famous Icelandic hotdog.
I’m not particularly adventuresome, so I ate two with just ketchup (which they put in the bun and THEN put in the hotdog, so at least it was still different than home!) Charlie ordered one “Bill Clinton” (only brown mustard) and one with “everything”: minced onion, remoulade made of mayo and herbs, “pylsusinnep” which is a sweet mustard, ketchup, and topped with fried onions. I had one bite, it was pretty good! Charlie gave it two thumbs up. The meat is a mixture of lamb, pork and beef, which makes it even more unique compared to our standard American fare.
We said goodbye to Reykjavik for good and headed on the 45 minute drive to the Blue Lagoon. Finally, for the first time all weekend, we got a peek of blue sky on the way!
We very much enjoyed our experience at the Lagoon. At first arrival, we were shocked by the length of the line. When I first visited in 2010, my friend Harpa and I arrived to no line, bought tickets there, and spent an hour or so in a relatively empty thermal bath. However, now you have to buy tickets in advance for a particular entry time (though you can stay as long as you wish) and there are a number of amenities packages available.
We decided to go with the “Comfort” package, which included a rental towel, one beverage from the swim-up bar, a silica mud mask and an algae mud mask.
While we didn’t want to shell out money for the robes in the next “level” up, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you didn’t want to freeze on your way into the water. We figured the mad dash (10meters at most!) was part of the experience.
We enjoyed our masks and beverages and soaked in the lagoon for an hour before heading into the very well-equipped locker room to shower and get ready to head to the airport. One thing of note in the Lagoon is that the silica mud, which is so good for the skin, is also in the water and can make hair extremely stiff. The trick is to wet your hair in the shower and put in conditioner before getting in the Lagoon- and LEAVING it in there while you’re there, then rinsing it out after and washing your hair again. Major help!
We headed to the airport via rental car return, had a quick early dinner at the airport, and started an incredibly chaotic and arduous journey home. Customs was crazy both in Iceland and in Boston, USA. One tip for future travelers, the passport control to LEAVE Iceland is deceptively far back in the airport, past all of the restaurants. We made the mistake of stopping to eat without leaving extra time to get through control. We didn’t miss our flight, but it was a stressful few minutes!
Now that we’re home, we’re looking forward to our next trip to Iceland. While I certainly prefer the summer over the winter, and we’ve both agreed we’d like to go back, there were many experiences we wouldn’t have otherwise had in the summertime. One thing we didn’t get to do that I wish we had another day to accomplish would have been a glacier tour, but we’ll just have to come back again!
