Iceland trip

 Wow! What an amazing adventure. My friend, Karen Pharr asked me the Saturday before Memorial Day if I would like to go with her to Iceland. She won the trip from her company, Brothers International. The trip would be absolutely free to me. Unfortunately, my passport was expired. So on the Tuesday after Memorial Day I expedited my application to renew my passport. We sweated it out, but my passport arrived and off I went to Iceland on Thursday, July 7, 2022. The company wanted to fly me to LaGuardia airport in NYC, where I would jump off the plane, taxi to JFK to meet up with Karen. Karen decided instead, she would use her points and she flew me to Savannah, via Charlotte to meet up with her and we flew together to JFK. From JFK, we took an overnight flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. It was a 5 hour flight and we expected to be able to sleep, but as soon as we were in the air, the flight crew turned up the lights and fed us a meal. So no sleep for us. We arrived in Reykjavik around 9 am. After deplaning, going through customs and getting our luggage, off we went to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal seawater spa. The Lagoon is surrounded by volcanos and cooled lava rocks covered in moss. The water of the Lagoon is blue because of the way silica, the lagoon's iconic and most abundant element reflects visible light. 

 (a picture from their website)

I took a few pictures outside. I was afraid to take my phone into the water. I knew I would drop it. 

 The moss covered lava rocks.

 My picture of the lagoon.

The view from the window while we rushed through the breakfast they provided us at the Lagoon.

Once we finished breakfast, we headed into the changing rooms and showers. You are required to completely shower before entering the Lagoon. The water in the lagoon was so warm and felt amazing after spending the day before traveling. We also got a free drink at the swim up bar. The had several mud applications you could take advantage of during your visit. We didn't have enough time to do that because by the time we got our drink and headed that way, we didn't have the hour you needed for each step. You had to be careful in the water not to get your hair or face in the water. The silica in the water makes your hair feel like straw for several days and can harm your eyes.

After the Lagoon, we took the 30 minute drive to Reykjavik. The views were amazing as we left the lava fields and headed into town. We stayed at the Marriott Edison Hotel. 

It was located right on the harbor next to the sea. Our window didn't look out over the sea, but it was a nice, if small room. We had 2 beds, a nice fur rug in the corner with a cute chair and beautiful wool blankets draped across the bottom of each bed. We had a walk in shower with a heated tile floor. 

(Our room looked like this without the water view.)

Because of the thermal waters in Iceland, there was always plenty of hot water. The tap water is very tasty. The natives are very proud of the fact you can drink any of the water in the city. I can't tell you anything about the television offerings....we never turned it on.

After a welcome reception at Harpa, a concert hall,  next door to the hotel. 

we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. Karen set the alarm for Saturday morning so we could walk around town before our afternoon spa appointments. Unfortunately, she woke up long enough to turn it off and I didn't hear it. I woke up at noon and she woke up at 12:30. Oops! We headed down to the lobby bar and had some lunch (fish and chips for me - fabulous chips, fish was a little greasy.) Then down we went to the spa. We had a hot and cold stone massage. The massage therapist was excellent and the massage was very relaxing. After our massage, we made use of the hotel's hot tub, sauna, and steam room. 

Our dinner that night was at a local restaurant. We were not offered options. You got what they fed you. Which in our case was beef. It was okay. I was unimpressed by the food choices. No bread was served with any meal. The main choices were lamb, but they also had some seafood, horse, and puffin. Vegetables were mostly root vegetables.  Breakfast in the hotel was an amazing buffet each morning. Best scrambled eggs ever!

After dinner, we were taken to the Sky Lagoon. Another geothermal spa area next to the sea. The view was amazing as you sipped your drink on choice.

 They had a lovely 7 step ritual you can take part in. Unfortunately, several of the people on the trip were acting like teenagers and the people running the event had to ask them to be quiet. In the sauna room of the ritual you look out over the ocean. 

Here are the 7 steps:

1. Embrace the soothing lagoon

2. Invigorate in a glacier-fresh pool (we missed this step)

3. Amazed by endless sea & sky (sauna in picture above looking over the ocean)

4. Refresh in an energizing mist (I disliked this step, but Karen loved it)

5. Rejuvenate with a cleansing scrub

6. Warm in a blanket of steam

7. Cleanse in a pure gentle shower

The funniest thing happened here - a 30ish young woman asked a spa employee to take a selfie of her and her friends. 

It was a lovely lagoon and very soothing evening.

Onto Sunday's adventure. We left the hotel after breakfast and set off in jeeps 

 that could change the pressure of the tires by remote inside the car. We drove for a couple of hours to a glacier. (pictures along the way)

 Our jeep got stuck at one point as we headed onto the glacier. Took about 20 minutes to get us off. Our guide, a delightful young local woman, kept giving our driver a hard time about losing his manhood because he got stuck. We discovered the Iclanders were very direct and said exactly what they were thinking. We all hopped onto a snowmobile. I doubled with Karen. I knew I would not be able to drive the snowmobile. We got instructions on what do do it you started to tip over. Most important point - do not try to stop yourself. Go with the fall. You won't get hurt. The glacier had melted a lot, so we had to go further up. (they said their glacier are melting due to global warming) We started up the glacier, Karen driving, in a single file line. It was quite overcast, wet and slushy. Five minutes into the ride and, yes, you guessed it, we tipped over. And what did we do? We stuck our legs out and tried to stop ourselves! Exactly what we were told to not do. The guides helped us back up and no injuries. We managed to make the rest of the 1 hour journey upright. 

Up on the glacier pictures. 

 Our selfie, which we did all by ourselves. lol

 The whole crew.

After arriving back at the bottom, we had lunch (no idea what it was) and drove back to our hotel. 

Pictures on the drive back: 

Then we dressed and headed to the Award banquet. It was for all the people who won the trip (including my friend, Karen who sold so much Brother stuff). It was held at a theater that is an event center and bar now. Very beautiful place. We had a wonderful filet mignon dinner with lots of wine and creme brulee for dessert. Then a live band that was wonderful. Brother really knows how to treat their best salespeople. 

Monday morning saw us taking a Whale watching, puffin seeing boat ride. 

Our boat

 View of city from the boat.

Protected Puffin Island (one of 3) The puffins meet here

and mate. They arrive in April and stay until mid-September. There are several breeds of puffin, but the one that comes to Iceland to breed are called Atlantic puffins.

The puffin mates for life, but if a mate dies, they can mate again. However, if the puffin male's mate does not return in Spring, they will pick a new mate. If the mate shows up again later, the male will kick out the new mate. 

Then it was off to see the whales. First we saw minke whales, which I had never heard of. 

The minke is the 2nd smallest whale. Then we started to see a lot of dolphins. They were especially playful. Then  the humpbacks arrived. One came within 10 yards of the boat, turned over next to us and then dove down. It was such a wonderful morning with these magnificent animals. After our cruise, we headed out to walk around downtown.

Here are some pictures we took around town and we looked for souvenirs. 

Sun Voyager art - bones of a Viking Church

Beautiful garden in the city.

View from the top of the street down toward the ocean.

Hallgrimskivkja - a Lutheran Church which is the tallest church in Iceland. You can walk to the top and see all over the island.

 These were outside the church. We weren't sure what they were, but they were interesting.

My favorite color for a house!

Our closing dinner was held at Videy Island - 

 a short ferry ride from our hotel, we were treated to a Viking battle to overtake the island, dinner, music and lots of wine. 

On Tuesday, we left Iceland at 11 am (7 am EST) and I arrived home at midnight. We flew to JFK, then Karen and I had to taxi to LaGuardia airport where I flew to Knoxville, a direct flight that diverted to Atlanta due to thunderstorms in Knoxville and then back to Knoxville. Crazy day!

It was an amazing trip and I will always be in debt to my friend, Karen for asking me along.