We started the morning with our usual amazing breakfast buffet from the hotel.
We left around 11:15 to head out on our adventure for the day. We went to Fontana Laugarvatn for several hours. When we first started planning this trip, we thought we might go to the famous Blue Lagoon on our way back to the airport on Sunday (meaning tomorrow), but when we did the math on timing, we didn’t want to be rushed and wanted instead to be able to lounge around without paying attention to the clock. So we decided to go to Fontana today instead, and it was the perfect solution.
Reason #1 why this was great was because this place also offers a geothermal bakery tour! As we got closer to today, this was one of the things for which I was most excited. Icelandic rye bread is a tradition and a real treat. We’d had it a few times during our time here but had never seen them bake it! We gathered in the lobby at Fontana with our tour group and guide, and then we immediately headed outside. When we got out there, right next to the lake, we could see a hole with bubbling water in it. A hot spring! Our guide had in his hand a stainless steel pot that had been wrapped in plastic wrap and prepared for baking!
It takes 24 hours for a loaf of bread to bake in the ground. Essentially, the loaf that had been buried yesterday morning was what we would get to eat today. The pot our guide buried today will be ready tomorrow morning, and so forth. He told us they have a marking system for keeping track of which pot was buried where and when. So first he started digging until he got deep enough where he knew he’d hit the pot. Then he brought it out of the ground and set it aside. He placed the “new” pot in there and covered it with sand and marked it. The guide then put the pot that he just unearthed into the lake to rinse it off. We moved to another area to a table where he began to unwrap it. He tried to trick us at first and make it look like the process didn’t “work,” as there’s never any guarantee what the temperature of the ground might be. But of course - it worked! We headed inside to try it.
He told us this bread didn’t have as much of a dome as it sometimes does. That could be because it was too hot when it went into the ground, and it caused it to fall. They had a spread for us there with Icelandic butter (so good) and smoked trout. He cut the bread into slices and suggested we butter it and have a slice of trout on top. It was so yummy! There was enough for seconds, so I had an additional piece of bread with just butter because he said while the trout is very tasty, it can mask the taste of the bread alone.
Once the tour was over, we went to the car and grabbed our bags with our swimsuits and towels. Next up: geothermal pools! In Iceland you have to shower naked in communal showers before going in these pools. We abided by the rules and headed out. I didn’t get pictures of all of the pools and views from them, but I did get most of them. There was also a sauna and a steam room on site. With the lake right there, going for a (very!) cool dip before getting into one of the warm/hot pools is an option. I decided when in Iceland… but wow, was it cold!
Then we were lazy and just floated around and chatted until our skin was beyond pruny. Drinks made it feel even more festive.
It rained off and on while we were there, but it mostly didn’t matter, because we were already wet! A couple of times it rained harder and was a bit more unpleasant, but I figured out that it was raining at a diagonal, so if we put our back to it and got in the water up to our neck, we mostly didn’t notice. :) The view, the company, the relaxation… soaking and eating bread was a perfect last day!
There was a couple there from Nashville, NC. One of them will actually be on our flight back tomorrow. We were comparing notes on the things we’d seen and done, many of which were the same, including the hotel where we stayed in Reykjavik! They told us about an ice cream shop not far from the geothermal pools (and it happened to be on the way back to our hotel). We hadn’t had lunch, so ice cream was a good filler to tide us over to dinner.
The ice cream shop is on a dairy farm, and you look at the cows while you eat your ice cream! Here’s the general look of the place…
And here was our view while we ate…
It was REALLY good ice cream! Between the three of us, we tried mango, chocolate, vanilla, blueberry skyr, and cinnamon.
Then we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours for some downtime and packing time before we needed to leave for our dinner reservation.
On the way to dinner, the weather was swinging back and forth, as it has done this whole trip in Iceland. It changes in a hot second! On the way to dinner it was raining, and then the sun broken through. Ken mentioned that we should be looking for a rainbow, and then sure enough…
How about that for the last night of an incredible trip??
Dinner was at Lindin Restaurant in Laugarvatn, actually right by the geothermal pools where we were earlier. So we knew the drive well - a straight shot down the road from where we are staying, about 25 minutes.
It was really good! Not the best meal of the trip, but likely the nicest. I’m not sure what the absolute best was… we ate so many different things! Tonight’s dinner for me was a steak duo (beef and lamb) and Icelandic Skyr mousse.
We had a great view at dinner, actually the same view we had earlier in the day in the geothermal pools. But tonight we learned from the owner/chef of the restaurant that we were looking at Hekla Volcano, Iceland’s most active volcano. He said it erupts about every 30 years and it’s been 25 so far…
In the photo below, you can see it just at the horizon - mountain covered in snow/ice/clouds.
I told Ken and Pauline that I don’t know how they’re feeling, but when I hear about these volcanos getting ready to erupt, I’m glad we’re headed back to the Triangle tomorrow!
On the way past the front desk tonight, we put in our request for Northern Lights wake up calls again. The guy said it’s close to a zero likelihood due to the clouds and the time of year. We’re so glad we got to see them earlier this week - and like Ken said, it’ll be a win-win tonight. We either get a good night’s sleep, or we get to see the Northern Lights again!
It was another banner day indeed. Tomorrow we travel back home. I’ll do one last post at some point this week to wrap up the trip, but for now, I can say I’m filled with gratitude. It has absolutely been the trip of a lifetime!
You can still check out Ken’s thoughts over at worshamsgotoiceland.blogspot.com
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