We left Vik this morning in the wind and rain. It rained the whole time we were here, with the winds never dropping below 30 km/h. For all I know it’s still raining in Vik.
It stopped raining shortly after we exited Vik city limits, heading back towards Reykjavík along Hwy 1. After an hour we turned inland, en route to Secret Lagoon, a geothermal pool near Flúðir.
We wanted to try a geothermal pool whilst in Iceland, and the Blue Lagoon sounded too busy and touristy. Several travel bloggers mentioned Secret Lagoon as a good alternative, so I bought timed-entry tickets online when I booked the trip.
We arrived at 11:45am, fifteen minutes early, but they didn’t mind. We took off our boots in the common shoe room, then split up to our respective change rooms. Changed, put my stuff in a locker (with bracelet key), showered, and then entered the pool area. We timed it perfectly as we both got to the pool at the same time.
The pool was nice and warm, about 40C. We gravitated to the warmer spots where the hot water enters the pool. It wasn’t too crowded, we could move about easily without bumping into folks. The pool bottom is lava gravel which felt nice on our feet.
After about 30 minutes we had had enough and changed back out. We had left our phones in our lockers and there’s no clock around the pool, so we had no idea how long we had been in the pool at the time. Maybe that’s the idea.
We had lunch at Vínstofa Friðheima. It’s an interesting concept. It’s a greenhouse, growing most of the tomatoes sold in Iceland. They have a large restaurant, with tables in and amongst the vines, with most of the dishes involving tomatoes. We spilt a salad, ravioli with a romesco sauce, seafood skewers, and non-alcoholic takes on a Bloody Mary. It was all very excellent, but I don’t want to look at tomatoes for at least a week.
Our hotel for the next couple nights is the Héraðsskólinn Historic Guesthouse. It is a former boarding school, and one of the few hotels with character that I found while booking. Our room was recently renovated, and had a nice view of Laugarvatn (a small lake with geothermal springs).
We cleaned up and then went over to the nearby Lindin restaurant. It’s a pretty fancy restaurant for a town of 300! We enjoyed our dinner.
It was overcast and no chance for the Northern Lights yet again :(
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