Iceland - Blue Lagoon - Friday 25/05/2007

Iceland - Blue Lagoon

Friday 25/05/2007

Windy, Sunny, 4 oC

This morning we were so excited and looked forward to see puffins and whales.

We got up a bit earlier to pack our luggages because we were checking out today. We had breakfast at 8:00 and again struggled to find a table due to lots of conference people also had breakfast around that time. We checked out at reception and put our luggages in the storage area. We were told to wait at the hotel main entrance at 8:30 for the whale watching bus to pick us up. We waited and waited. At 8:55, Fat bear asked a receptionist to find out what happened and was told the whale watching tour is canceled due to rough sea. We were very disappointed and wondered what we could do. We really wanted to go to the whale watching and also we have already paid for this tour at the Tourist Information Centre. We decided to walk to the Tourist Information Centre from the hotel which took us about an hour. The weather was very nice but windy. At the Tourist Information Centre, they tried to call the whale watching tour office but could not get through. We took five minutes to walk to the whale watching tour office and asked about rebooking the next tour at 13:00. They could not confirm at that point due to the windy situation and asked us to call or come back at 12:00. There was a computer with internet connection for visitor to use. We checked our emails then want back to the Tourist Information Centre. We were suggested to go to the City Hall and the National Gallery for our free time, both free entrance. There is a big 3D Iceland map at the National Gallery which is quite interesting. And the view from the coffee shop to the Tjornin City Pond is very nice. Then we walked to the National Gallery unfortunately the art there were not our cup of tea. On our way back to the Tourist Information Centre, we took a good view of the Tjornin City Pond. We were told the 13:00 whale watching tour was also canceled so we had a refund for the tour. We were going to Blue Lagoon today so we booked the bus (ISK 1000) with Tourist Information Centre and arranged the bus to pick us up at 14:45 at our hotel. We also asked for recommendation for lunch. Solon was suggested and I read about it on our travel book as well.

The Whale Watching Tour Boat

The big 3D Iceland map in the City Hall

View of Hallgrimskirkja and the National Gallery from the other side of Tjornin City Pond

Solon was a cafe which served good, healthy, reasonable priced food. I had chicken salad (ISK 1300) and Fat Bear had lamb noodle (ISK 1300). We enjoyed our lunch. After lunch at 13:30, we still had some time to kill so we went back to Hallgrimskirkja and went up to the top of the tower. The entrance fee was ISK 350 each. We took the lift up to the top and it was windy. We had a nice view of the city and took some photos. We walked back to the hotel, picked up our luggages and waited for the bus to come to take us to Blue Lagoon. After the bus picked us up, it went to other hotels to pick up more passengers. Just outside Reykjavik city, we had to change bus.

View from top of Hallgrimskirkja - Reykjavik City

View from top of Hallgrimskirkja - the Mount Esja

On the top floor of Hallgrimskirkja - Photos of Hallgrimskirkja in different season and weather

The journey to Blue Lagoon took about 40 minutes. I fell asleep in the bus and when I woke up, I saw the rocky land again. When I saw the blue water, I knew we arrived at Blue Lagoon. I booked a room at the Blue Lagoon Clinic Hotel and the bus dropped us there. The Clinic was part of Blue Lagoon and had a private Blue Lagoon swimming area. We checked in and looked around the hotel. The deco there was very clinical, very clean and tidy. Our room had a balcony. We dropped off our luggages and went to Blue Lagoon straight away. There was a path to walk to the main swimming area of Blue Lagoon which took about 5 minutes. The whole area gave me a very strange feeling. It looked like a bomb was dropped and killed everything, but there was lives on the rocks, some kind of alpine plants on them. You need to see it to understand what I mean. The area was breathtaking.

Blue Lagoon - outside the swimming area

The two fat bearz with our swimming gears.

Me - relaxing in the Blue Lagoon

Fat Bear - floating in the silky warm water

The Svartsengi power station at the back produces this natural by-product.

Fat Bear at Blue Lagoon

The entrance fee was included in our room rate (ISK 14100 Double room B&B), usually it costs ISK 1400. At entrance, we were given a towel and a sachet of Blue Lagoon body cream. Got changed and locked everything in the locker. We jumped in the blue silky warm water. We spent about 1 1/2 hour in the water. And of course we had the white silica mud mask. There were Blue Lagoon shower gel and conditioner in the shower room. If you like the Blue Lagoon toileteries, you can get it in the shop. We had dinner at the restaurant, saw a lot good review about the restaurant so we looked forward to it. I had Blue Lagoon fish soup (ISK 1360) and Steak of tuna in a coat of sesame with wasabi soy sauce (served medium rare) (ISK 2800). And Fat Bear had Tiger shrimp brochette with mango-jalapeno sauce and fresh salad (ISK 990) and Roasted lamb shank with root vegetables and herb sauce (ISK 1740). The food was disappiointing and the waiting staff looked like part-time. We took more photos after dinner and had a early night because we needed to catch a morning flight the next day.

Click here for more photos.

Links to our other postings:
Iceland - Reykjavik - Wednesday 23/05/2007
Iceland - Golden Circle - Thursday 24/05/2007
BHF London to Brighton Bike Ride 2007