Iceland – One Long Day
Today begins another travel adventure. This time we are headed to Iceland with
friends from work, Brandon and Kristin. Tom and I have been talking about going to
Iceland since we saw it on an episode of “The Bachelor” and then subsequently saw an
article on cheap airfare to Iceland. That lit the spark over two years ago to put
Iceland on our bucket list.
We had absolutley no problems with getting to O’Hare, checking in, going through
security and boarding for our direct flight to Reykjavik. It was super stress-free .
. .just the way we like it! Upon landing we took the suggestion of past bloggers and
stopped in duty free to buy some beer and alchohol for the trip. Our pre-booked
rental car company was waiting for us and took us to their very off-site location to
get our car. Kristin and I had research rental car places for over two hours back in
November and ultimately decided on IceRental 4×4 for a cheaper price. We got a
Subaru Forester (which is what I drive at home), but this was a much older and more
beat up model. We are hoping that it doesn’t break down along the way as it has
over 200,000 kilometers on it. Perhaps we should have taken the suggestion of past
bloggers and gone with a different company to get the benefit of a new car.
When I woke up on Wednesday morning (the day of our flight) I realized that we had
not booked our Blue Lagoon excursion. It is highly recommended to have the pre-
booking or your risk not being able to get in. I texted Kristin and we decided that
we should take one of the only available options of 9:00a.m. the day of our arrival.
Once we got the rental car and a short discussion of trying to figure out the GPS
and maps, we found our way and soon were at the Blue Lagoon. The water was super
warm and relaxing. We moved around the lagoon and found some hot spots and not so
crowded locations. Before we left on the trip a couple of people told me not to pick
up the mud from the bottom of the lagoonto rub it on your face as you would find
some disgusting matter (toe nails, hair, etc). I’m happy to report that they seem
to have cemented the bottom of the lagoon and did not find mud. We spent about 45
minutes in the lagoon and after getting sufficiently wrinkled, we decided it was
time to go.
On the way back to the parking lot, I pulled up my geocaching app and Brandon,
Kristin, and I set off to find our first geocache in Iceland. I was getting
frustrated when we couldn’t find it right away. Kristin found a piece of garbage
and asked it it was it. I said no, without picking it up. I was about to give up
when Brandon suggested we give it one more try. I followed by GPS to ground zero
and said to myself if I were placing a geocache I would put it right here. It was
right by the garbage. I picked it up and found the geocache inside! Kristin had
originally found it, but I never picked it up!
We left the Blue Lagoon and made our way to the Bridge Across the Continents. This is a place where the Eurasian and North American plates are separating. We took the opportunity to take pictures and move along. We are all surprised at how much colder it is than we thought it would be. The wind really is a doozy. I’m glad I packed hats and gloves!!
We made our way back to Reykjavik to check into our hotel. By this time it was around Noon. Nobody had really slept on the plane, so the whole car was falling asleep (except for me as I was driving). We were pleased to find that our hotel was located directly across from the famous church in Reykjavik. One of our two rooms was ready, so we put all the luggage in the one room and walked down the street to find something to eat. We didn’t go far before we found a quaint little place where
Kristin and I had rissotto and Brandon and Tom had cod. The food was very delicious. After lunch we went up to Hallgrimskirkja church and rode the elevator to the top. The views of the city were good, especially since it was a clear day, however it was quite cold and breezy. After this we decided that we would take a break for an hour and a half to catch up a nap.
We met back up at 4:00p.m. and headed to the Icelandic Phallological Museum. Kristin was disappointed to realize the museum contained different animal penisis, and not a wide range selection of homosapien penises. Having checked that off the Reykjavik bucket list we wanderd down to the Solfar (Sun Voyager) sculpture and scored another geocache and took some pictures. This time I’m happy to say I spotted the geocache walking up to ground zero. I couldn’t grab it right away because a bus load of Asian tourists gathered at the same time. As soon as the coast was clear, I snagged it!
We continued down the nice path by the ocean and scored an additional geocache and pictures. I was quite pleased to find that my selfie stick that Tom had gotten me last year, works much better and faster with my new phone than my previous phone. I may now be “addicted” to taking selfies.
We continued to wander around the city and ultimately ended up finding a bar with a 2 for 1 happy hour. Drinks (and food) are generally expensive in Reykjavik, so finding a happy hour was key. We stayed for a couple of rounds and moved on to find dinner. We found a nice place down the main drag that happened to have a bar attached with later happy hour hours. We strolled out of the bar at 10:45p.m. to
find it still completely light out. It felt like maybe it was 6:00p.m. So weird. After napping a couple additional pictures of the church we called it the end of a very long day.
