The last full day of our short jaunt to Iceland brought us to the new Sky Lagoon, only 15 minutes from downtown Reykjavik!
You know it's gonna be another weird day in Iceland when you leave the apartment only to find a man killing weeds with a fiery torch. Or as Grant said, "That guy is killing weeds with a flame thrower!"
Grant became incredibly obsessed with a pillow that was in our apartment that had the face of a goat on it. He named it "Goat Pillow" (super original!) and although we did find that pillow in one of the nearby shops, it was about $100, so sorry bud... you're just going to have to settle for the memories. And of this picture of you with a goat (or errr... a ram) on the side of a building!
OOOOO, me likey!
One of the teachers from Vilseck High School, Ms. Conners, was in Iceland just a few days before us and made a recommendation to visit Brauð & Co for their amazing cinnamon rolls. And yes, I still use the titles of all of the teachers at VHS!
YES. PLEASE. GET IN MY BELLY!
The cinnamon rolls were massive, dense and filling!
We had to fill our bellies because we had a FULL day ahead at the new Sky Lagoon! Built during the pandemic, this wooden, turf covered building is only about 15 minutes outside of downtown Reykjavik (much closer to the city than the Blue Lagoon.)
The Sky Lagoon isn't cheap but it was absolutely worth it! The cheapest package right now runs about $56 a person, but we splurged a bit and purchased the Pure Pass which included a visit to "the Ritual" (an absolute MUST - we are still taking about this in our house!)
One thing that makes this very different from the Blue Lagoon is that Blue Lagoon is a sea water spa that has silica and other minerals in it that give it the milky, light blue color. The Sky Lagoon is geothermally heated water that doesn't contain all of those minerals (so feel free to get your hair wet here.) The water in Sky Lagoon has a hint of chlorine to it, and gets filtered through the system with good frequency. Also, children under 12 are not allowed here, so that gives it a much different vibe.
I love the repurposing of the lava rocks!
The three of us were ready to take the plunge and do the seven step ritual. Step one is to relax in the main pool area, as you can see we are doing right here.
Step two is to take an ICY plunge into a small (maybe slightly larger than a hot tub) pool that's in the middle of the above picture (provided by Sky Lagoon) - hence the beer requirement because you know I wouldn't go in without some liquid courage! I actually only got in to about my knees. Todd went in up to his neck!
I also borrowed this picture from the Sky Lagoon website because I had not yet purchased a dry bag for my phone, so I did not get any photos of the three of us enjoying the Ritual. First, you will enter the little hut adjacent to the cold pool, and you will have to present a rubber bracelet that they give you when you check in (separate from the one you use to charge at the bar). Step 3 is to go into a sauna where you open up the pores and sweat out all of those toxins. And, this is Iceland's largest single window! It's okay to laugh. I did too! It is 2.5 tons and about 20 meters long (roughly 60 feet) and apparently putting in this window was the biggest challenge in the construction of Sky Lagoon. This room was HOT, as it should be. But after the cold plunge (or even just standing outside for 10 seconds), this room was nice at first. And then you really start sweating. I have never seen Grant sweat so much! They tell you to stay in here about 10 minutes, and I doubt if we even made it that long.
Next, we went into the cold, fog-mist space. I'm fairly certain my body went into shock at this point. I can't remember if I screamed out loud, or only in my head. Interestingly, this room is actually open to the elements and you can see the sky above. A very cold light rain mists down on you from the spaces in the walls above. (Picture also provided by Sky Lagoon.)
The second to last step was a FANTASTIC body scrub. Scrub yourself down and then head on in to the steam room. This room is SO steamy, that you cannot see across the very small room. It's also so steamy that it feels like you are breathing actual water. We didn't spend long in here, but it felt very good and you get to "maximize the hydrating benefits of the Sky Body Scrub." This body scrub is so amazing, I made Todd buy me some for my upcoming birthday!
We showered off and emerged from the Ritual VERY refreshed! You can see it was somewhat crowded, but not terribly so. The infinity pool they have here is about 70 meters (or about 230 feet) long! At this point, I went and purchased a dry bag and a beer!
No, Grant is not drinking Todd's beer here. Ha! Look at the view though! I think we perfectly captured Kelir mountain in between Grant's and my head!
I love this picture of Grant and Todd in the infinity pool at Sky Lagoon, with the Atlantic Ocean behind them. Happy boys.
This is what the other side of the infinity pool looks like.
I love the turf roof here. It has such a good, authentic Icelandic feel, even if it only opened in 2021!
There is a waterfall on one side of the pool that these guys wanted to go swim under.
At least the waterfall is warm!
These two are so crazy!
You have to remember that the air temp when we were there was in the low 50s (F). So if you got out of the (roughly) 100 degree water and sat up on a rock like this, it was very chilly!
The end of our time at the Sky Lagoon was spent relaxing on the rocks and enjoying the beautiful views.
Todd said, "I'm going to go sit in the cold pool before we leave!" And he did it! He looks FAR too relaxed here, but little did you know his organs were already shutting down from the cold. (I kid!)
Just wanted to give you a birds eye view that I got from the Sky Lagoon page - this was an amazing experience! I think I liked it even more than the Blue Lagoon!
The drive back to the apartment is MUCH quicker than the drive from the Blue Lagoon. Every time we came back into the apartment, Grant would point out that someone left a pair of boots on the stairs to the building behind ours. We dropped our stuff off and headed out on the town again!
We went out for a little dinner at Reykjavik Fish - don't these guys look so relaxed after our fun day?
Todd had the fish stew, or plokkari again, and Grant and I enjoyed some fish and chips that were excellent.
This kid is such a goofball.
Alas, it was time to head back to the apartment on our last full day of our short Icelandic adventure.
Only... we weren't back very long when the fire alarm went off. We met some lovely people from England and some Americans from the DC area (and Colorado) when we were waiting for the apartment staff to come shut off the alarm. A poor girl on the second floor leaned out and waved - she had been cooking and set off the alarm, but there was no real fire threat. The only problem was, the alarm was VERY loud in the apartment, so we chose to hang out and socialize with our neighbors until the alarm was turned off.
Make sure you have all of the essentials. The backpack and my purse with the passports and Grant's EpiPen. Stuffed animals, including Croco. My good camera. And of course, the drinks.
Confirmation that the earthquake I felt last night was an aftershock of the one we felt yesterday evening!
After being let back into the apartment, Grant made me take a picture of him with THE Goat Pillow that Grant was obsessed with. Never mind that it's actually a ram, ha ha. He wanted to remember this pillow, so he also took a picture and now it's his home screen on the iPad.
This crazy guy and I watched the Umbrella Academy before heading to bed. And guess what? In the middle of the night, HE was awoken by yet another earthquake! Somehow I slept through that one, but something was definitely about to go down geologically in Iceland!
