After a quick flight from Stockholm, we landed in Iceland and picked up our rental car and hit the road. I had listened to a podcast leading up to the trip called "All Things Iceland" and got the scoop on the rental car among other things. (The host has a very soothing voice and sometimes I just turn it on for her to put me to sleep!) Of course the most iconic site for Reykjavik is Hallgrimskirkja Church, so I had to snap a photo of that on the approach. We dropped out bags at our hotel room downtown and then head to our reservation at Sky Lagoon. Blue Lagoon is the more iconic, better known lagoon, but Sky Lagoon is developing a following. It's near the city while Blue Lagoon is near the airport and included on a lot of layover and tour itineraries. Sky Lagoon is newer and cleaner being man made!
Their ticket includes a seven-step ritual: lagoon (warm), cold (cold plunge tub), warmth (sauna with beautiful views over the water), drizzle (cold fog-mist room), softness (exfoliating scrub), steam (steam room), and shower. You wear the scrub into the steam room, so need to rinse off before you go back to the lagoon. Each step is neat but I knew my favorite part would be floating in the lagoon. The steam room and sauna are too hot for me and the cold plunge is too cold. I really enjoyed being in the lagoon and watching people in the cold plunge, which was the only one of the steps that was exposed. The others were inside a separate building/rooms. It looked like a small hotel hot tub but was freezing cold. Some people sat in there a long time. Most did a quick dip and then ran back to the lagoon or into the sauna.
The sunset around 9:30 p.m. when we were there. That was great for getting in lots of sights but it made evening meals a challenge because we would lose track of time and not have many open kitchens by the time we were ready to eat. Our reservation the first night was cancelled (they called me at the airport earlier in the day) because our 10 pm reservation was after the 9 pm kitchen close. They recommended another place nearby which we went to - Tres Locos - and ended up enjoying so much that we ate there a second time during our three night stay.
