11th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

March 3rd was our 11th Wedding Anniversary. Leading up to our anniversary we were incredibly fortunate in that a) I won a gift certificate to the Blue Lagoon Exclusive Lounge (worth 135 EUR/189 USD/21600 ISK) though a game hosted by 66 North on Facebook; b) Finnur got a gift certificate for “an all expense paid dinner for two for up to 40000 ISK/250 EUR/350 USD”; c) Finnur’s parents were willing, able and available to host Anna and Bjarki overnight at their place!

We decided to go on the Saturday after the Wedding Anniversary, even though the weather forecast was crappy. And so we dropped the kids off at their grandparents’ place and drove to the Blue Lagoon in the blistering wind and pouring rain. When we got there we were shown into our own very fancy private changing room (one of six), complete with shower, sink, mirror, robes, towels and moisturizing creams. Once we were all changed into our swimsuits we went downstairs to a nice lounge with funky stone-looking seats that were actually quite comfy, not stone at all, but plush! There were some cut up fruits to nibble on as well as some chocolate, and water/tea/coffee.

We hung out in the lounge for a bit and listened to the weather beat up the building. We then ventured into the water (private entrance from the lounge) and it was… rather cold, much colder than usual at least. Once outside we could see that all the other visitors were huddled around the hot-water exit-points (there aren’t that many) and that the lagoon (read “large swimming pool with water chuck full of minerals”) was actually quite choppy.

So we made a go for it, and found little pockets of warmth. After a bit we went to where the saunas are and I was a little surprised that there wasn’t more warm water being pushed out in that general area. Still, the saunas were nice, the whole thing was a little mad, and probably more memorable than if we’d gone there on one of those picture perfect days (been there, done that!). We ended by hanging out in the lounge for some more (along with a couple almost certainly on their honeymoon judging by the bottle of bubbly they were sharing) before returning to our swanky changing room, and then returning to Reykjavik. And yes, just the thought of returning to the Blue Lagoon and enter through the usual changing room is now weird and feels like belonging to a herd of sheep. Yes, we have been spoiled!

We made a quick pit stop at our apartment before heading out to a nearby hotel, the Hotel Saga (or Radisson Blu Saga Hotel or whatever it’s called now – for me it will always be just Hótel Saga). On the top floor there is a restaurant called Grillið (The Grill, or The BBQ) where they serve posh food. Through internet-scouting we’d found out that they offer a seven-course ‘surprise’ meal with wine, oh, hang on, it’s “Gourmet menu with wine by our Sommelier”, for 19900 ISK per person. Seeing how that fit our (ridiculous) budget nicely, that’s what were ordered.

And thus began the Theater of Food and Wine. Each course was basically a sample-platter, with little bits of scrupulously prepared food scattered here and there over plates of various shapes and sizes (many of which were not symmetric!). Also, we hadn’t quite realized beforehand, but each course brought with it a new glass of wine!!! Thankfully the waiters were good about refilling our water-glasses, and the whole meal took some three or four hours, and we didn’t finish all those glasses, but yikes, that was a lot of alcohol!

The clear winner overall was the lobster-tail, which was just awesome. Salt-fish-mousse will also be remembered, as well as the lovely bleikja (trout?). I was less a fan of the wild duck, but the beef was quite good. I may have to experiment with eating fancy cheese with honey again, and it’ll be a while until I get a silky smooth ice-cream like that (lime?) again…

We walked home (0.5 km/0.3 miles) after a very enjoyable day, where we were thoroughly spoiled by companies with too much money, and loving grandparents. It sure was nice not to have to wake up and take care of the kids the next morning… 🙂