We decided to sleep in until 10am. We missed breakfast at the hotel so we ran into the corner market and picked up some bananas and muffins.
We walked to pick up our rental car that was parked at city hall. To access by foot, I can only describe as a straight stairwell to Pennywise. I’m not kidding. It didn’t look anything except uneasy but took us straight to the car.
Today we went to Sky Lagoon. It was a quick drive from our hotel. We opted for the spa package with private changing rooms. There is so much hype here about tourists not wanting to shower naked before getting into the lagoon. With the spa package you get a private changing room with shower and a locker. On rinsed and in your suit, you walk out to what I call the loading dock. It didn’t resemble one at all. It was stairs that submerged into the lagoon. The water was around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take a few. You could see the steam coming off of the water and lava rocks. Now technically this was man made. Well the “container” we swam in was but the water was still geothermal water.
The spa package was 7 steps but I don’t remember them all. There was the geothermal pool, plunge pool, cool water mist, steam room, sauna room, sea scrub and shower, and back in pool. It was a very nice experience-comparable to other spas. I did like the changing rooms already having a wet bag for swimsuits, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, towels and a hair dryer. We also had a sampler platter for a snack which had reindeer and duck pate, some breads, and fancy cheeses.
We drove back to the city centre and wanted to hit the phallogical museum. We walked in down a long hallway adorned with phallic artwork and came into the gift shop. Of course, all genitalia influenced. I mean, don’t we all need a pair of earrings in the shape of…? For the price, what I saw in the front hall, and the lack of cool stuff in the gift shop we decided not to pay to walk the entire museum.
The weather was just below 40 degrees Fahrenheit but that wind. Ohhh that wind. We hiked up about 5 blocks until we came upon The Big Lebowski Bar. Inspired from the movie, this was a charming little diner. We had milk shakes and talked to some Floridians. Caramel was pretty good!
I should mention that pedestrian traffic here is not a concern. Drivers yield to pedestrians and pedestrians don’t really jaywalk. Plus, they give you extra time to cross: 30 seconds. When it’s not your turn to walk, there’s a steady tick…tick…tick…but when it’s your time to walk the pace quickens like you’re playing a game of Perfection. Tickticktickticktick. I guess they use stress to get you to cross quicker.
From there we made our way to Rainbow Street (Skolavordustigur Street) for Reykjavik pride. This pedestrian only street houses shops and bars. It’s not very long (like a city block with a slight incline) but great for snapping that picture. It’s also worth noting there is a big church up in this part of town. Ed snapped a picture. I didn’t walk that far. It was Hallgrimskirkja church; the largest Lutheran church in Iceland with very neat architecture.
We slowly were making our way back towards the hotel and came up on the food hall. Stopped in for dinner: pasta and tacos. The food halls in Iceland, aka mall food courts, offer something for everyone.
We ended up coming back to the room after dinner. Being sick had taken most of my energy. Ed did get his handmade wool sweater made from Iceland. Apparently it never wears out so it’s a multigenerational sweater.
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