We arrived at Keflavik airport on a Monday morning after an overnight flight from Toronto. Our plane had been delayed about an hour, but getting through the airport was quick. Although, for those flying into KEF, note that all the restaurants and shops you come to before heading down the escalator are for departing flights only. We messed up and didn’t see the sign, poured ourselves a coffee, and found out the hard way when we were asked for our boarding passes when trying to pay for it. There is a Joe and the Juice downstairs for arrivals.
We headed over to Blue Car Rental, where we picked up a red Kia Rio, using their contactless pickup. It was fairly painless, other than our Wifi device we had also rented was not in the car, but was easily remedied. We were quickly on the road.
Our first stop was the Blue Lagoon, and it was a perfect first stop after the uncomfortable and sleepless flight over. We had booked the premium package, which allowed us access to bathrobes, three facial masks, and one included drink. In Iceland, their custom is to shower nude before getting into any hot springs or pool. After storing my things in the provided locker (which is locked via a provided wristband that also acts as your credit card), I headed to the showers. I was expecting more of a shared shower space, but they actually were all individual stalls. After washing and thoroughly conditioning my hair (the water in the lagoon will sap all the oil out), I changed into my swimsuit and headed out to meet Mr. Strange.
It was a beautiful day: sunny and mid-60s, so it was not too chilly even outside the lagoon area, but the warm water did feel fantastic. There were quite a few people there, but it never felt crowded because the lagoon is HUGE. We kept finding new places in it to explore. We each redeemed our included drink (a beer for Mr. Strange and red wine for me), then found a spot to just soak in for awhile. We did some people watching and just relaxed. Finally, we headed over to the mask bar to pick out our first facial mask. We opted for the lava scrub, and we were told to let it soak in for about 10 minutes before rinsing.
We discovered a sauna while the scrub was drying, so after washing our faces, we headed there next. It was a little too hot in there for me, so we did not stay too long. We were getting hungry, so we found the cafe and got a meat and cheese tray to share before deciding to get back on the road to our next destination.
We headed up toward Reykjavik and the Golden Circle, stopping at a Bonus on the way for some snacks and groceries. We then made our way (after a wrong turn from Siri) to Þingvellir National Park.
Our plan at Þingvellir was to start from Parking Lot 1 and walk to Oxrarfoss and back. I had forgotten to write down how far this was, so it was a little more walking than expected in our jet lagged state, but overall not too bad. Note: It is NOT the first waterfall you come to. It was super cool walking between the divide in the North American and Eurasian plates, as well as trying to recognize some Game of Thrones filming locations.
Back on the Golden Circle, we drove east and tried not to fall asleep. We were staying at Hotel Geysir, across the street from the geothermal area that is home to Geysir and Strokkur, but we bypassed this to head to one more waterfall: Gullfoss. This one was huge and revitalized us so much that we took every walking path we could find to see it from multiple viewpoints. A rainbow even appeared over it in the mist.
Finally, we headed to our first hotel for the trip. We loved this hotel! It was very modern and the only one we stayed in with USB outlets, so we didn’t even need our outlet adapters. We made a reservation for dinner at 8:30 pm, which was right at sunset. The table they sat us at had a view of Strokkur in the distance and it was beautiful watching the sunset with the geyser erupting every few minutes. After dinner, we were off to bed for some much needed rest.