Hveragerði Hot Springs

so many hot springs!

After a wild night out on Saturday, we all managed to get out of bed, rent a car and head out on a Sunday adventure! Apparently I am the only one who can drive shift stick (thanks mom and dad!) so I was the driver. I was a bit nervous navigating around Reykjavik, but we seemed to have a good sense of direction after walking all over it the past two weeks and it is definitely no Boston. We decided to head to a little town called Hveragerði which is known for all of it's geothermal activity. We headed into town and once again down a gravel road to the end. Even from the parking lot we could see steam pouring out of the ground.

too hot!

We followed the trail up and around a mountain quickly gaining elevation, and then down into a valley. We came to a river crossing with no apparent way to cross it and decided to take off our shoes and walk. I was pleasantly surprised to find the river wasn't cold, but lukewarm. The trail skirted along what looked like an old inactive volcano to a land filled with hot springs! It still amazes me that boiling water can bubble out of the ground here. We walked up to a few and though about jumping in....but they were so hot and decided that

was a bad idea. After walking a little further we came around a corner to find that same river we crossed filled with people. There is a hot spring fed river coming down from the mountain on the left and a cold spring river coming down from the right and at the bottom of the valley they meet and create the perfect river for swimming! It was amazing, the highlight of my Icelandic trip so far. It was so cool because, like the old pool it wasn't a tourist attraction.

where hot (left) meets cold (right)

The people next to us were all from Iceland, and we saw a few Icelandic families hiking along, but not too many tourists. We did our best to change (there are no trees and Icelandic people have no problem whipping their clothes off) and hopped in! Spent the rest of the afternoon bathing and relaxing in the hot water. Eventually it was time to head back so we dried off and trekked back to the car and back to Reykjavik.

fish 'n chips

 

Once we got back to the hostel we figured we had the car all night, and might as well use it, so we decided to head out for a nice dinner in a little fishing town on the Reykjanes peninsula called Grindavik. After a bit of driving around and asking a poor 13 year old who hardly spoke English for directions, we found Salthúsið (salt house). We all had delicious meals of fish, lamb and meat soup! After dinner, we drove around the town a little, found a gravel road to wander down and saw our first real sunset of the trip (at around 10:30)! All around it was a great Sunday. I am definitely going to miss the wide open spaces of Iceland when I go back to Boston.