I probably should have just let everyone sleep the first time we went down to nap, since we woke up sooo late. I was surprised to see that it was 11:44am when I checked my phone. We had slept most of the morning away! We woke up the kids, and I showered. Then we drove to the Strokkur Geyser 1.5 hours away. There were lots of people there and also some other mini hot springs to see around it. The geyser erupted about every 4-10 minutes, sometimes even three times in a row!
After seeing the geyser, we walked over to the gift shop and looked around but didn’t buy anything. Our next stop was the Gulfoss Waterfall about 10 minutes down the road. We looked at the waterfall from above first and then hiked down a little closer. It was neat to see but not nearly as impressive as Iguassu Falls. We took some pictures and got fairly wet. It was a small hike back up, but still a hike! We warmed up/rested for a bit in the gift shop.
Then we drove the 1.5 hours back to Reykjavik for some dinner at Icelandic Street Food restaurant. They mostly served soup in bread bowls. Elisa and I ordered the lamb stew, Ian ordered the spicy tomato soup, and Gabe ordered the seafood stew. Erik ordered the Fisherman’s favorite, which is a cold dish made of fish and potatoes. He also ordered the “Happy Marriage” cake, but the cashier gave us a couple of free pieces after Erik answered “yes” when she asked him if we had a happy marriage, haha. We found a table in the corner. Elisa decided she didn’t like her soup, so Erik and Elisa switched dishes. There were free waffles, so we ate some of those too. Erik’s Fisherman dish was interesting—it tasted like clam chowder in solid form.
After eating we went back to our Airbnb house and changed into swimsuits since Erik had made a reservation at the Blue Lagoon resort/hot springs which was 45 minutes away. I was a little worried that it would be a really cold experience but in fact it was quite the opposite! Elisa and I went into the women’s locker room to shower off and put our stuff in the lockers. They told us we needed to condition our hair and try to keep it out of the water since the water supposedly isn’t good on hair. Elisa and I found an entrance into the pool from the inside, which eased us into the cold outside air without getting cold since we were already in the warm/hot water. The boys met us shortly after we were outside. The water was hot and very blue! There were lots of people, but it was also a very large pool area. Most of the people all congregated around the drink area and the mask area. Included with our reservation was a “free” silica mud mask, which we all tried out except Ian. After trying the masks and cleaning them off, we got our “free” drinks. Ian’s reservation didn’t include a free drink, so we had to pay extra for his. I got the orange carrot ginger drink, Erik got the green smoothie, and all three kids got the blue slushie. Most of the time we just swam around, and Elisa carried Ian like a baby.
We got out of the pool around 9:15, earlier than I would have liked but it was a 45-min drive home. It took about 20 minutes for us to shower and get dressed in the locker rooms. We went to bed as soon as we got back to our Airbnb house.
The kids should visit Yellowstone with so many more geysers. The falls were a little short, but it looks like so much water fell. It's good you visited the Blue Lagoon.
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