Iceland 🇮🇸

For the finale of our trip, we took advantage of the Icelandair stopover to re-visit Reykjavik.✈️ We stayed in the same AirBnB as we did in 2019. The host, Siggi, is a retired mechanic and offers a car with the apartment, and pick-up at the airport for a fee (about a 45 min drive). 🚗 

Having started this trip in sizzling Greece, 🏝️and moving through toasty European cities, Reykjavik felt like Nova Scotia in Autumn. The extra clothing that had patiently waited in our suitcases finally saw the light of day (about 18hrs of it in early August). 👖😎

I hear that in the city, maybe in all of Iceland, each neighbourhood has their own, elaborate and affordable swimming & spa complex. 🧖🏼 It's important that all Icelanders learn to swim.🏊The facility in the neighbourhood of Seltjarnarnes is open-air, and has a huge lap pool, a shallow pool, a kiddie pool, four hot tubs of different heats, two cold-plunge tubs, a steam sauna, and heated water slide. We went there three times in three days. 

We drove to see the geyser, and stood around the water with hundreds of others waiting for the burst. It was comical and crowded, and a man standing behind me was so bold as to rest his wrist on top of my head while he took a video.🙄 It is pretty exciting when the water shoots 100 feet in the air and sprays a warm eggy mist -- not to be missed. ☔️

We spent a day at the beautiful Secret Lagoon, a natural hot spring pool which is considered the oldest in Iceland. The views are lovely, with surrounding hills and forest. A little boardwalk circles the pool. 🗻The change rooms are no place to be shy, and the signs posted everywhere insist that you shower in the buff -- in the big common shower room -- and clean those key bits with soap because they don't want you bringing in any products into the water. It's a culture shock for sure, and even at the pool complex, the people seem to take their sweet time to air dry before they get dressed. When in Rome, I guess... 🍑

We walked around downtown Reykjavik, and hiked along the coast, where the kids played on the giant cubic sculptures (allowed). We tried Fly-Over-Iceland and highly recommend it. It's a simulated flight ride that makes feel like you're paragliding over the whole country. It’s incredible.🦅

I can't forget the most decadent treat, "Caramel Sin" 😈-- artisanal donuts topped with ice cream at a shop called Loo.koo.mas. Rich. 🍨

(August 2019 : https://luckhoundstravelwithkids.blogspot.com/2019/08/norway-iceland.html)