We woke up on Friday morning ready for a full day! We had booked ourselves into the Blue Lagoon at 2 so we had a bit of time to kill in the morning. We decided to go for a walk around Reykjavik, and despite the freezing cold temps and rain, it was still gorgeous. We went up to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja church to enjoy the views of the city. On a really clear day, you would be able to see all the water and mountains. As it was pretty cloudy we weren't able to see much but it was still beautiful!
Afterwards, we had lunch at Lebowski Bar (delicious burgers!) and then we hopped in the car and made the short drive to the Blue Lagoons.
The Blue Lagoon is absolutely stunning - it was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. It's one the 25 wonders of the world and it's easy to see why. In the midst of snow and ice, there's a huge hot spring . Luckily you can stay in the lagoons for as long as you like and we all took full advantage of it. You MUST pre-book a ticket if you are going to the Blue Lagoon. It gets very busy and it is the #1 thing to do in Iceland.
That night we had dinner at the Lava Restaurant at the Blue Lagoon and it was lovely! We all really enjoyed our meals. We made out way back into town and decided we were up for a bit of dancing. Back to Lebowski Bar we went (which is becoming our favorite place in Reykjavik).
The next morning we were all feeling very lazy. Mark made us breakfast and the guys went out for coffees. Eventually we made our way out the door to do some exploring of Reykjavik (since we hadn't made it very far the day before before). It was easy to see the whole city in one day and we went to all the major spots - the pier, the flea market, the main street with all the restaurants and shopping. After all that walking we were ready for lunch. Luckily the guy who rented us the apartment (another Airbnb win!) suggested a few of his favorite places in the city. So for lunch we went to The Laundromat Cafe. It was delicious and they served American style chicken salad sandwiches - a rare treat! After our lunch, we did a bit more exploring and snuck into a walking tour group to hear about the famous statue of Ingolfur Arnarson who was one of the original vikings in Reykjavik.
That night we had dinner booked at Grillmarkaðurinn (The Grill Market). The restaurant is famous for serving proper Icelandic food; things like whale, horse, and lamb. The food was gorgeous and we were all really pleased with our dinners and the atmosphere!
On Sunday morning we were up bright and early for our tour of the Golden Circle. Luckily we had rented a car so we could take our time seeing the famous sites of Iceland. First stop was the Thingvellir National Park where the Vikings held their parliament for hundreds of years. Its unique as it is on the line of two tectonic plates. I won't bore you with all the history so if you are interested in reading more go here.
Our second stop was Geysir. This area of hot springs is also made up of several geysirs (and they are the originals of which all other geysirs are named after!). They were pretty cool and you were able to get really close to them (unlike Old Faithful in the US). We had a buffet lunch at the Geysir hotel and did a bit of shopping in the store where they sold all sorts of Icelandic goodies - jumpers, furs, hats etc.
Our last stop on the tour of the Golden Circle was the Gullfoss Waterfall. As it was freezing cold, some of the waterfall was active while some of it was frozen. It was really beautiful; pictures can't do it justice as it's so big.
After Gullfoss, we made our way back to Reykjavik and had sushi for dinner (we were all still stuffed from our buffet lunch!). It had been a really great day and a really great trip!
Adam and I were sad to wake up the next day (at 4 am!) and catch our flight back to London. But it was great to tick another beautiful country off of our travel bucket list!
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