Day 1-MSP to REF to LHR
Kyle and I left MSP airport at 7:20 PM CST, right on schedule. We enjoyed a few movies on our 6 hour and 50 minute flight to KEF-Reykjavik Keflavik International Airport in Iceland
Latte and banana bread with butter.
After which we bought our bus pass with Reykjavik Excursion to get us to The Blue Lagoon. We then wasted 2 hours at the
At 9:30 AM our bus left to take us to The Blue Lagoon which opens at 10 and we had 10:30 appointments. The generous driver took the liberty of showing us some locations which were not on the scheduled route which delayed us and we arrived at 10:10ish. Did I tell you we were told to arrive at 10 to check in and allow time to change for out appointments? So 10:10 wasn’t bad except that there were about 15 people in line in front of us. Kyle had to keep telling me to breathe because we all know how I am with being late. Anyway, they were all very nice and in the end we were only 3 minutes late to the actual therapy.
So here’s how this works. We got a towel and a robe, went into the dressing rooms and as with all pool entry, you must shower before you enter. Typical. What we were told on the plane, and they do actually say this on the locker doors in the locker room, is that you should put conditioner in your hair before entering the pool because the white stuff, a.k.a. silica, will make your hair look like the scarecrows in The Wizard of Oz. Kyle, brilliant man that he is, did just that. I on the other hand, frantic because we were late, did not. Oops. No matter. We got out to the pool and there is a designated area for the therapies which is brilliantly called, “The Therapy Pool.” We crossed over 4 cute little bridges over other lagoon areas to get to our pool and were kindly greeted by one of the massage therapists. We were instructed to enter the pool in their excellent accent and they had us lie down on those blue foam floaty deals which was over a massage table in the water all including warm towels and wonderfulness. The treatment started with a salt scrub-AMAZING- then they put the silica on us. Here’s the fun part, they leave the silica on and put you in a plastic bag up to your neck. Sounds freaky but when then move you in to the water you have a neck float and a knee float so your are almost completely immersed in the water, WARM water, with the perfectly positioned neck floaty and knee floaty with a towel over you as well which is also immersed in the warm water. It’s so heavenly. It was a BEAUTIFUL day as well. The sun was shining down on us. It was absolutely perfect. We just floated in the water, supervised by our therapists of course in case it got to be too much for us and they would move us around a bit here and there so we could feel water current and, I just can’t even express how magnificent it was. Anyway, after about 20-30 minutes of sitting in the plastic bag doing nothing, which will forever be a joke for us now, they take us out of the bag and they stuck a fork in us and we were determined to be done. No, I’m kidding. They do take us out of the bag but then they do a 50 minute full body massage in the water. Ahhhhh. When they were done with that they kindly, in their perfect accent and massage therapist way, explained we can stay as long as we like just as we are and can exit when we’re done. SUCH a great 6 year anniversary gift to us.
We stayed for a bit then got out of the pool to grab some lunch. What do you know, my hair was like straw. Oh well, I figured I’d shower when we got to London
After lunch we toured the gift shop and then went for a walk around the lagoon. It was absolutely beautiful.
Often times it looked very much like a lazy river.
So beautiful.
Love this sign.
A picture of us on our 6 year anniversary.
We're a bit bogged down with our carry on luggage.
After our walk our bus was waiting and we hopped aboard. Once again the kind driver extended the tour to show us additional places, thank goodness we didn’t have any luggage to check or checking in to do (luggage was transferred and our check in for our MSP to KEF flight checked us in for our KEF to LHR as well). We were one of the first to arrive at the gate (that’s more like it-nice an early) so I took the opportunity of washing my hair with hand soap in the bathroom. Don’t worry fellow Americans, I wore a sign while doing this that said, “No worries. Not all Americans wash their hair in airport bathroom sinks with hand soap.” We were all clear.
We then continued our journey on our 2 hour and 50 minute flight from KEF to LHR. Kyle slept the whole way, or tried to sleep the whole way. I attempted to at first and did a bit but once they came around with that beverage cart I had to have some tea and decided to watch another movie; The Adjustment Bureau. I enjoyed it.
We arrived a little late at Heathrow and had to circle over head a few times before landing. We finally landed, grabbed our luggage (my fear of our luggage falling apart did not come true) and headed for the exit. No problems through customes and was greeted by the dear Julia. YAY! We made it!
Julia kindly escorted us to our hotel where I immediately, yes, washed my hair with soap meant for hair, oh and conditioner, dear conditioner. I changed then Julia took us out and we grabbed dinner and Bella Italia; great place and quite the chain here. It was excellent to be with Julia and my hubby of 6 years (AH!) in London
After dinner we all went home and crashed. Okay, you know I unpacked first but I couldn’t have slept if I didn’t, and I only unpacked most of my stuff not all of it.
Anyway, that was day one for us! We miss the kids of course but we’re not thinking about it because that would just cause trouble. We’re enjoying this once in a lifetime chance we’ve been given and we are SO grateful for those watching our kids!
Stay tuned for more!
Comments