We had another chilled day planned for that day, but had no idea just how chilled it would turn out to be. We got up at 08:00 again. We got ready and headed down for breakfast.
We both had our usual latte and juice. I had some sparkling water. Graham tried the forest fruit skyr with his fruit that morning. He also had some scrambled egg on toast and some porridge. I decided I was done with chia seeds. I had read somewhere the day before that skyr is often eaten with jam. I decided that is worth a try. I had some of the plain skyr with blueberry jam. This was delicious. I also had my usual cocktail frankfurters, hash browns and boiled eggs, but I added some cheese that morning.
After breakfast, we went back to the room to add some layers and grab our coats. Then we headed out. It was time to take to the buses again. This time round, we had to change buses. The bus system in Reykjavik is incredibly clever. The had a number of dedicated connection bus stops where the connection times between different bus routes have been finetuned. We were directed via one of those bus stops. The connection stop was near Harpa, and this worked really well. Not long after we got off the first bus, the next bus arrived.
Our destination that day was Hafnarfjörður. This was one of Graham’s discoveries. Hafnarfjörður is a port town, located about 6 mi south of Reykjavík. It is often referred to as a village, but with a population of 31500 inhabitants I consider this to be a sizeable town. It is the third most populous town in Iceland and has more inhabitants than Akureyri, which is considered to be the second city of Iceland. Hafnarfjörður was home to the first Lutheran church in Iceland. The original building is long gone, but there are two interesting Lutheran churches in Hafnarfjörður.
We had a clear run up to Hafnarfjörður. As soon as we reached the outskirts of Hafnarfjörður, it became clear that this is a very different proposition from Reykjavik. Whereas Reykjavik is ultra-modern for the most part, Hafnarfjörður is more traditional and somewhat quaint. The bus station is in front of the local shopping centre. We went inside to use the bathroom. As soon as we got inside, we finally spotted a bakery. I figured that we may well come back to this, but first we wanted to go and explore.
We had intended to check out the tourist information first, but the signpost to the tourist information seemed to be contradictory. In the end we gave up and figured we probably find our own way around without a map. Our first stop was the Lutheran Free Church, which is located on top of a fairly steep hill. The church was built in 1913. It was from this church that the first radio mass in Iceland was broadcasted in 1926. This was very progressive even by Lutheran standards. I was glad to see that the door was open. I had read that this is well worth seeing, but that it is often closed. However, there was a good reason why the church was open. As we were going up the stairs to the church, there were a lot of people coming the other way. I figured that service of some description had just finished. As we approached, I noticed that there was a coffin in front of the altar. Out of respect, I did not want to enter the church while the coffin was there. We decided to hang back for a short while t see if the coffin would be moved. This did not happen, and we decided to leave.
Hafnarfjörður is a charming little town with a lot of traditional buildings. There were also a lot of unique shops, but most of them seemed to be closed. On our wanders, we came across the smallest duck pond that I had ever seen. Apart from the usual assortment of ducks, there were also Northern Pintails, which was a new bird sighting for me. There were also some very unusual looking pigeons. There was a handy bench, and we sat down for a short while, but soon we started to feel cold and moved on.
We came across another church. This was the main Lutheran church of Hafnarfjörður, which is attached to the local community centre. This was closed. We pushed on towards one of the other landmarks that I had read about before we came to Iceland. They have something in Hafnarfjörður called Viking Village. This was listed on various websites as a must do attraction, but there was next to know information about this. I figured that it was a museum of sorts. It did not take us long to find this. The buildings looked interesting and there were all kinds of statues in the area. What we could not find is an entrance. Eventually we worked out that the Viking Village consists of a hotel, holiday cottages, a Viking themed restaurant and a cave bar. There is a museum of sorts there, but this is part of the restaurant, and you can only access it if you have dinner there.
We headed back towards the bus station via the waterfront. There is a resident humpback whale that likes to hang out near the entrance to the port. It did not take long until we had a whale sighting. Unfortunately, the whale was too far away to capture on camera.
When we were thoroughly frozen, we headed back to the shopping centre. Graham used the bathroom, and I stayed downstairs near the bakery. We decided we were ready for a snack when Graham came back. Graham had a latte and a cinnamon roll. I had a flat white and a pistachio pastry, which was delicious.
Once we had finished our coffees and pastries, we headed back out to the bus station. We had a little wait for the bus. Our next destination was on the same bus route that we used to come to Hafnarfjörður, but a little bit further out. We fancied another swim. Hafnarfjörður has three geothermal pools. We were heading for Ásvallalaug, which is the biggest thermal pool in Iceland at about 6,000 m². More important though, most of the facilities are inside.
Ásvallalaug is located in an industrial area. When we got off the bus, it was not immediately obvious where we needed to go. Graham spotted some gym equipment on the top floor of what looked like a huge warehouse. We knew that there is a gym at Ásvallalaug. We headed over there and indeed, it was the swimming pool. We paid our admission and rented some towels. Then we went to get showered and changed.
Ásvallalaug is an amazing facility. The centrepiece is a 50-meter-long swimming pool that is usually divided by a bridge so that half of the pool is 25 meters and half is 50 meters. Graham had got changed quicker than I had. He was in the second pool which is supposed to be a children´s pool. This pool is 17 meters long and is a very nice 32 degrees. Adjacent to this is another children´s pool that is very shallow and has various toys in it. There are three hot tubs indoors and two outdoors. There is also a waterslide with both the entrance and the splashdown inside, but the actual slide goes outside. I was tempted, but figured it was probably pretty cold. There were various swimming classes going on in the main pool, but we had the pool we were in to ourselves. We swam for a while and then we made good use of the indoor hot tubs. Once the classes had finished, Graham decided to give the main pool a try. I was tempted, but figured it would feel rather cold after the hot tubs. I decided to stay put.
Once Graham had finished his swim, we decided that we had enough watery fun. I had left my towel on one of the chairs and somebody had taken or moved it. I spoke to one of the staff and she gave me another one. Then I headed to the changing room for another shower and to get dressed.
This time round, we did not have to wait long for the bus, which would take us straight back to Reykjavik. On the way out of town, I spotted the last thing that I had figured would be worth a look, but I had no clear idea where it was. Hellisgerdi Park is a small public park that is known for its interesting lava formations. According to tradition, Hellisgerdi is home to elves and “hidden people”. If we come back to Hafnarfjörður, we will definitely check this out.
We had a clear run back to Reykjavik. Graham wanted to see how close to the hotel the bus would get us. It turned out there was only one further stop after the stop where we had got on in the morning. We walked back from there. I was not too impressed. The walk was pretty boring, and it was cold and damp. Fortunately, the walk was not too long.
We headed back to the room for a bit of downtime. The we decided to give the beer garden another try for dinner. They were doing steady business, but we had no issue to find a table this time. We both had the First Lady IPA again. We shared some pretzel and beer sauce and then we had both had the Beer Garden Burger. This was a beef burger with Maribo cheese, onion jam, tomatoes, tomato relish, and pickles. It also came with fries. It was not quite as good as the burgers we had the previous day, but it was still a really nice burger. The burgers we had the day before had been exceptional.
After dinner, we headed back to our room. I did a bit of research on what we could get up to the next day and read for a while. Then I got ready for bed. Graham was already fast asleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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