Mon 30 Sep
The bus arrived on time. There were a fair few people on the bus and at the parking lot for Blue Lagoon – despite it being the shoulder season there were definitely lots of people about.
I’d booked the Comfort package for the lagoon, which includes a towel, a complementary drink and face mask. Blue lagoon is essentially a giant geothermal hot spring with blue water. There is also a steam room and sauna, in addition to the lagoon itself. On site is a restaurant as well as resort complex which looks pretty but is very expensive, retailing at about $700 a night but includes access to the lagoon as well.
All up, I had about 3hrs at the lagoon which was plenty. There's only so much time you can spend in the water, which was a balmy 38 degrees. The ambient air temperature was about 4. The overall experience was quite similar to an outdoor onsen in Japan, except here you had to wear swimwear. After about an hour in the water, I showered, changed and decided to check out the restaurant for a late lunch.
The restaurant on site is called the Lava Restaurant and offers a la carte as well as a set menu after 17:00. There is also a smaller café on site.
The menu can be found here:
Blue Lagoon Lava Restaurant: Gourmet Dining & Menu. They also have the option of 3 courses with a glass of house wine for 14,000 ISK, which is what I picked. I selected the langoustine soup for the entrée, fish of the day for the main (which was cod) and the crème brulee for dessert. The house white of the day was some organic sauvignon blanc which was decent, not sure where it was from. The food was good, but I wish I’d gotten the beef instead as I saw another table order it and started getting a bit of food envy!
After lunch I got on the bus again which took us to a terminal in Reykjavik where we then boarded smaller vans which took us to specific hotels or bus stops in the city. My hotel, Sandhotel by Keahotel, was located on Laugaveger, the main shopping street that is inaccessible to any buses. It was a short 7 minute walk from the closest bus stop to my hotel – having to do a bag drag made me again appreciate the fact I was doing carry-on only! The room is very nice, a definite step up from the VSC!
That evening I had also booked to do a Northern Lights tour. It offered unlimited rebooking till you saw it (or left/gave up) and I had intentionally booked it for my first night as it then meant I could try again if I didn’t see it, even if it meant I’d have a stupidly long day. The tour didn’t start till 2100 (the best viewing times are at night with minimal light i.e. night time) so I had a short nap and woke up feeling preeetty average after sleeping for about an hour.
The tour itself was quite quirky. About ten of us piled into a van and we set off to the sound of Viking war songs – because as our guide, Daniel, put it, we were there to hunt the Northern lights. He was a good guy, with a great sense of humour. He’d been hunting the Northern lights for 11 years, and during the drive he gave us a brief rundown on the phenomena, the conditions which influenced their strength and occurrence. Importantly, he revealed that the biggest influence was cloud, as you needed clear skies in addition to solar activity in order to see them. We had to be prepared to drive for hundreds of kilometres that evening if necessary to find a clear patch with the right conditions.
Of course, the million dollar question – did you see the Northern lights? Well see below to find out.
We actually got very lucky, seeing them only 30 minutes into the tour at our first viewing stop. However, after about an hour, the clouds rolled in and we lost them. Although we moved to two other locations, they didn’t reappear. To be honest, after the first sighting I was so fragged I was happy to just go back to the hotel and sleep, but we pressed on, searching in vain for a further hour. Unfortunately, as we were returning, about 20mins out of Reykjavik our van experienced some vehicular malfunctions and Daniel told us we would have to swap vehicles. We then sat at a gas station for 20 minutes waiting for the replacement van to pick us up, before proceeding with the dropoff. By the time I got home it was 0100 and I knew I’d have to be up early for the following day’s activities, which had an 0800 start so I was pretty keen for some sleep.