Day 10 Iceland: Lagoon and city day

We really wanted to try some hot springs in Iceland but did not want to go somewhere too crowded (which means we would need to go somewhere where we would have to pay for admission). We ended up landing on Secret Lagoon, which was fairly cheap (around $40 USD per person), but the catch was that it was 1.5 hours away from where we were staying. So we headed out to the Lagoon in the morning and early afternoon, and then decided to check out the city of Reykjavík.

Here are all of our Secret Lagoon photos:

I really appreciated that they had these wristband with keys so we could access our lockers:

By the hot springs pools, there was also a cold plunge pool but the air was already so cold, I did not want to go in it. My husband and his brother did though !

And here were photos of the springs right next to us that sourced all the hot water:

Here was some other random scenery to and from the Secret Lagoon:

I also liked seeing this sign whenever we drove through a city and then left it, letting us know that there would be no more city for a while ! :

We then returned to our AirBnB and decided to take the bus into the city (we could have drove, but I did not want to think about parking). Our first stop was the church once we arrived:

Unfortunately the inside of the church was closed when we visited (it would have been free to visit otherwise). The best I could get was a capture through the window of the sanctuary door :

There was also a well-known bakery down the street and I had read somewhere to try Rye Bread while in Iceland. The bakery was about to close but thankfully I managed to grab half a loaf of rye bread (they only sold them in whole loaves):

We then walked around the main street of the city, mainly going through souvenir shops. Here are the shots I got while walking on/near the main street:

I thought this was a funny sign:

And there were so many lamb stuffed animals (because Iceland has a lot of lambs) that they reminded me of JJ, especially from the back:

I also read that Iceland was well-known for their chocolate-covered licorice candy. I only really like licorice in the form of Twizzlers, but I wanted to be adventurous. I found a cheap pack at the downtown Bonus store and tried one, and then did not try any more. But now I can say I’ve tried it:

We then wanted to look for these well-known Icelandic hot dogs at this stand close to the harbor. The line was long, but they were quick. It was about $10 USD a hot dog. They’re unique because they have lamb meat in them, which you could taste a little bit of. I thought they were just okay tasting, but I am still glad to have tried them:

And since we were by the harbor, we decided to walk around. There was this really pretty convention center, and nice views of the water and mountains in the back:

We then ended the city exploration by eating some ice cream at Valdi’s:

We then took the bus back and stopped by the grocery store to get some more bread for breakfast and lunch prep. I saw some interestingly packed eggs, and then I also found a small container of cream cheese to purchase to go with my Rye Bread (don’t know if that’s proper or not but I wanted something to eat with the Rye Bread even though it tasted good by itself):