We awoke to a fresh coating of snow and a bitter, strong wind that made it feel like 14 degrees F, according to the weather app, as we packed up the car and headed over to the main building of the Hotel Grimsborgir for an Icelandic breakfast.
We drove to the Secret Lagoon and arrived just before opening. The Secret Lagoon, known locally as Gamla Laugin, is the oldest swimming pool in Iceland, made in 1891 at Hverahólmi. Vaðmálahver, Básahver, or Litli Geysir provide 100% of the water supply in the lagoon. The pool water flows continuously, and it takes only 24 hours to its complete replacement. Warm, clean, rich in sulfur, stays at 38-40 Celsius all year round.
We split off for the locker rooms and the showers before meeting up again outside. There was a bit of a walk in the cold wind before getting into the pool and we wished we had kept our hats on as the wind was strong and cold, but we managed to stay for several hours.
After the lagoon, J. R. ordered one of the lagoon's signature beers and a soda and we sat at watched people out in the lagoon since we had time to kill before our lunch reservation.
As Janie finished her soda, J. R. braved the stiff wind to walk around the lagoon to take some pictures of the geothermal springs and the other pools.
After the lagoon, we were hungry so after a quick stop to top off the car with gas, we headed to Friðheimar, where tomatoes grow all year round in their greenhouses and all of the menu items feature tomatoes. We parked in the main lot and made our way past the horses down the slippery walkway to the restaurant.
We were seated at our table next to live ferns and a basil plant that we could use to season our meals. We both started with the tomato beer, which tasted like regular beer. J. R. decided to have the famous all-you-can-eat tomato soup with freshly baked bread while Janie opted for the stone-baked tortilla (pizza) with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese and we split a chicken skewer. We finished off with a silky French chocolate mousse with red tomato jam and chocolate flakes.
After lunch, we walked around the greenhouses to see where they grew the tomatoes. At this time of the year, most of the tomatoes are small cherry tomatoes as opposed to the heirlooms they have later in the year.
We took some pictures of the greenhouses from the outside as we exited and then walked by the horses on our way back to the car.
Our next stop was Urriðafos, just off of Route 1. It has a water flow of 12,700 ft cubed per second, more than half the flow of Dettifoss in North Iceland, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. The winds were incredibly strong now but the view was magnificent.
We arrived for our room for the night at the Aurora Igloo hotel, located on a farm outside of Hella. Janie had booked a private igloo with an exclusive bathroom, refrigerator, shower, double beds, and multiple heaters. The private igloo was a good choice as it was a cold night and walking to a communal bathroom in this weather at night would have been unbearable. We had chocolate, strawberres, grapes and sparkling wine awaiting us as part of the welcome package she had booked and we settled in. There was no one around for the first part of the evening, and even with others arrived, the privacy walls would prevent anyone from seeing into the igloos, but there was a privacy curtain we were able to pull to block any view from the parking lot.
The skies were cloudy as we settled into our igloo, so our hopes were low of seeing the aurora tonight, but the clouds parted close to 10PM and we were treated to a fantastic show of lights over our heads in the igloo.
