A couple of weeks ago Jeff + I flew to Iceland for a mini get away!
We arrived in Reykjavik super early in the morning, running on very little sleep, so we decided to check in to our hotel and have a quick power nap before going whale watching! I ended up being sea sick pretty much the whole boat ride...but managed to snap a few quick photos at the start! We didn't see any whales sadly, but we saw a few dolphins swimming about! Thanks to Jeff for capturing the dolphins while I was sick :)
Our second day was spent relaxing and floating in the wonderful, vibrant blue waters of the geothermal spa, the Blue Lagoon. The water was so warm, and there is a natural silica mud produced that is great for your skin -- I swear our skin had never felt so smooth!
Our last guided tour in Iceland was called the Golden Circle tour. On this tour we stopped briefly at the national park Þingvellir, the waterfall Gullfoss, and Haukadalur -- a geothermally active area.
The valley of Haukadalur has a few active geysers still, Strokkur being the biggest of the active geysers.
Unfortunately when we got to Gullfoss, it was so cloudy and misty and the ground was so dangerously slippery that we couldn't explore the paths that ran along the waterfall, but it was still a really neat sight to see!
We ended off this chilly, damp day at Svarta Kaffi, a teeny tiny pub that serves the best soup in Iceland (thanks Sam for the suggestion!!) They make fresh homemade soup every day and serve it in a huge, edible bread bowl. 'Twas deeeelicious!
After warming up with our giant bowls of soup, we made our way to Hallgrímskirkja, the tallest church in Iceland. Every year Reykjavik has a Festival of Lights and the festival commences with a funky light display that is projected on the church to music.
After watching the light display we wandered around downtown Reykjavik, watched some snowboarding (they built a mini snow park in the middle of the downtown for the festival), and explored Harpa, the concert hall seen below.
Stay tuned for Part Two of our Iceland adventures!