Off to Iceland!

We said goodbye to Ireland today (Tuesday), in what started out as a beautiful day but was raining again before we took off! No time to do anything this morning (except an early morning trip to the hotel hot tub for Patrick, who wakes up uncomfortably early), but we made it through car return, security, the VAT tax refund line and to our gate before boarding, so that was a successful morning. We had to bid a fond farewell to Bedsprings, and also to send Dani off to her next travels.

We got off in Iceland to a lovely 45 degrees and sun...although we learned that sun and rain can alternate every 10 minute easily here. We checked into our Viking-themed hotel, which I believe is a bit cheesy and Patrick absolutely adores, before heading off to tour Iceland's first and only whiskey distillery, Eimverk Distillery. (Iceland has now been producing whiskey, as they tell is, for a full 9 months!) The tour was a lot of fun, with a co-founder leading the tour and tasting. He obviously loved his job and loved talking to people, and we learned everything from the history of his distillery to why Iceland traditionally burns sheep poo. From there we ate a quick dinner at the also Viking themed restaurant at our hotel (which Patrick also loved) and headed off to the Blue Lagoon.

If the Viking bar and restaurant was Patrick's  happy place for the day, the Blue Lagoon was mine. It is an entire facility devoted to a hot tub through size of a small lake - what's not to like? The water was warm and beautiful and brilliant blue, and absolutely relaxing. I haven't downloaded the photos from the waterproof camera yet, but the huge billows of steam right below are definitely the Blue Lagoon, and you can see them from miles away!

We were there for about 3 hours, floating, enjoying and trying through mud masks. The Blue Lagoon is not a natural geothermic pool, as I used to believe - the water is heated due to a factory. The lagoon itself, though, is still considered a mineral baths and is warm, relaxing and left my skin soft and refreshed! We barely kept our eyes open for the drive home (there was terrible singing to keep ourselves awake) and we fell asleep before we even managed to dig our toothbrushes out of the bags. It was a great welcome to Iceland!