Iceland and Greenland Day 9 & 10 - The Blue Lagoon, NYC, and Home

The flight from Greenland to Reykjavik was brutal. It was a 2.5-hour red eye. That isn’t nearly long enough to provide any meaningful sleep. Alison and I both slept the entire flight, but that still meant we only got a couple of hours of sleep that night. We were very tired when we landed. While it was a terrible flight, visiting Greenland was 100% worth it. 

We planned the ideal activity for this type of day. We went to the Blue Lagoon. We did have to hang out at the airport for a few hours first. We landed at 4 am and the Blue Lagoon didn’t open until 8 am. We found some seats and chilled until we could catch the shuttle to the Blue Lagoon at 7:30 am. 

The Blue Lagoon is a large hot spring. It is blue because of the minerals, like silica and sulfur,  in the water. They have developed the hot springs into one of the largest and most famous spas in the world.

When we arrived we checked our luggage and were given our wristbands. The wristbands are high-tech - they lock and unlock your locker and you can use them to make purchases around the lagoon. They have a really seamless process to get people into the Blue Lagoon. 

Once we changed into our swimsuits we hit the lagoon. The water felt so good. We were already loving our decision to come here today. This place is super relaxing. Our package included three different face masks. We floated over to try our first lava scrub face mask. 

After the face mask, we found the in-water bar and claimed our complimentary drink. Then we floated around enjoying the water for a while. 

Later we explored the area. As we were exploring we tried the steam and dry sauna rooms. 

Eventually, we claimed our two other masks - silica and algae. We spaced them throughout our stay. By the end of our visit, the skin on our faces felt amazing. 

We had lunch reservations at one of the onsite restaurants - Lava. We chose this restaurant in part because they let you dine here in a bathrobe. We got out of the lagoon and put on our bathrobes and headed to the restaurant. We bought the slightly upgraded package to the Blue Lagoon because included a bathrobe. We bought this package mostly so that we could wear that bathrobe to lunch. It was totally worth it. 

The lunch was great. We had a wonderfully placed table overlooking the Blue Lagoon. The restaurant served delicious bread and salted butter. Alison ordered the fresh catch of the day and I had the lamb. I love lamb and it is on just about every menu in Iceland. It is quite popular here. We finished the meal with a nice Crème brûlée. What a great lunch experience.

We had another hour before our scheduled transfer so we slipped off the robes and headed back into the lagoon. This was such a great way to pass the day, especially on a day after a brutal red eye. We would highly recommend the Blue Lagoon, especially to anyone who arrives in Iceland after a redeye flight. 

We arranged for transportation from the Blue Lagoon to our hotel in the afternoon. They have a convenient system where a bus takes you from the Blue Lagoon to a central hub in Reykjavik where you transfer to a smaller bus that takes you to your destination. It took us about an hour and we were at our hotel. 

We walked to downtown Reykjavik and did some souvenir shopping. Then we came back to the hotel where we ate soup and sushi in the lounge. Then we called it a night. 

The next morning we woke up and took a bus to the airport. We took a flight to NYC and then we were supposed to catch a flight home, but we got caught up in this summer’s “airmageddon”. Our original itinerary out of Iceland gave us a 3-hour layover in NYC. Then the day before we were scheduled to leave Iceland our flight was delayed 3 hours. We were able to switch to a different flight out of JFK. We would get home a little later and this flight only gave us a 90-minute layover. That should have been more than sufficient. We have global entry, clear, and TSA pre-check so getting through customs, rechecking our bags, and going through security would take less than 30 minutes. Where we ran into an issue is with the mess that is operations at JFK these days. We landed a little ahead of schedule, but another plane was at our gate. So we sat on the runway for almost an hour. We got off the plane and still thought we might have a shot, but our bags took too long getting off the plane and we missed our connection. 

The folks at Delta helped us get everything sorted. They rebooked us on a flight on Monday morning and put us up in a hotel near the airport. Since we had a bonus night in NYC we took the subway into Manhattan. We got some delicious NYC pizza for dinner and then got a couple of cookies from Levain Bakery that we ate at Washington Square Park. It wasn’t what we wanted, but there are worse places to be stuck overnight than NYC.  

We made it home Monday afternoon. It was good to be back. It was a little harder and took a little longer to get here. We are glad to be home, but we miss Iceland and Greenland. This was one of our all favorite international adventures.