It’s our last day in Iceland. And it’s a two pool day! First is our new local, Sundhöllin.

Next we get some delicious pastry from Brauð & Co. and walk over to Kolaportið, which is a flea market. Nothing much going on there, not even a magnet for our collection.

Then around to Nordic House, couple of photos there. Pool two is Vesturbæjarlaug, the last pool of the Iceland leg. It’s another casual pool and probably halfway through our soak they have to close the pool because there’s no hot water working. So we walk slowly along the southern waterfront as the sun starts to colour the clouds.

This little walk is such a peaceful, pleasant moment and it could go on for hours, please.

Back to Hlemmur Mathöll for more food, this time beetroot and goats cheese and a burger.

Now at home packing to leave for Denmark at 4am tomorrow

Anna and the horse at Elliðaárdalur

We walked to Árbæjarlaug via Elliðaárdalur.

Elliðaárdalur is a big park in Reykjavik with two branches of the river flowing through it. The river is dammed up stream and forms the park’s north and south boundaries. The river is partly frozen over and the water is flowing under ice in many places.

Once we get beyond the dam there is a horse path where a young rider is training a black horse, back and forth.

The pool at Árbæjarlaug starts indoors, under a big dome, and we swim under the dome to the outside. It’s another gentle public pool vibe and we sit and relax for an hour or so.

We catch a bus back near home to Hlemmur Mathöll where we eat Mexican and get some beers.

Back to our hotel and we get ready for a Friday night dinner with Erla and Luke at Mat Bar. The dinner is great and we go to the bar where they first meet 17 years ago (!)

We got home from northern lights viewing around 2am and we’re heading out for horse riding at 8:30. We wake up feeling hungover. The rest of the group have the same feeling, so there’s some comfort in that!

Our guide at Íslenski Hesturinn, Begga, is upbeat and funny and the group quickly warms and gets excited.

After getting setup we head off to meet our horses (I will ride Ljósbrá) and then set off into the snowy landscape.

We ride, including plenty of tölt, for an hour or so. As we get more comfortable with the horses we are better at forming into a neat group, side by side. The landscape is snowy and the clouds are getting pink. We ride between false craters (formed by lava boiling water and bubbling) and up to small hills that give us views out to the surrounding ridges. Extremely fun.

Back at the stable the horses are freed from their saddles and writhe on the ground. Lel.

We head back to Sundhöllin for some more soaking. The hot pots are good, but ultimately it’s the kids pool which is the perfect temperature to completely drift away in

For dinner we follow Anthony Bourdain’s lead to Þrír frakkar, when we walk in the door the smell of fermented shark hits us.

Our choices are pretty conservative: mussels, fish soup, halibut with langoustine and scallops. But I got the smoked cod, this was the rouge of the meals, being far more pungent than I expected. It was good but strong.

I’m grateful for the fresh air on the walk home!

The northern light tour was great!

Initially, we had a few hours where the numbers predicting activity were looking in our favour, but the actual experience was just watching a band of haze and getting extremely cold.

We changed location and ended up back where Luke had taken us earlier today, which was funny. And it was there that the lights started to form.

Certainly long exposure photos are more spectacular, but watching it happen right there is more exciting. The lights are a grey-green band or bands moving up and down, getting thinner and thicker, bright blobs seem to collect together in places, wisps leap up from the band and curl away and horizontal striations form and drop out lower than the band where they started. It moves quickly, and as my eyes adjust even more to the dark (between taking photos) the colour and detail becomes far clearer. Amazing!

These photos are from the tour guide, Rúnar, I will post my own once I get them off my camera