Tag Archives: hot spring

Aug30

Soaking in the Friedrichsbad hot springs

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Saturday, 27-July-2024


I’m in Germany, soaking in a hotspring that Mark Twain once visited, and said that  “After 10 minutes you forget time and after 20 minutes you forget the world.”

I mean, I didn’t expect to be taking travel advice from Mark Twain, but that’s a pretty dang intense recommendation if I’ve ever heard one. How could I say no?

I couldn’t, and the end of July found me melting away in the glorious spa of Friedrichsbad. Warm showers, followed by warm mineral pools, with salt steam rooms, saunas, hot tubs and lap pools… the spa really was a fully intense experience. I found myself fully understanding what Mr. Twain had said, and that after the first room or two I really had no idea what time it was, or how much time had passed.

It was a completely different experience from the pools of Iceland – there, the focus was mainly soaking in one specific pool, or possibly moving from cooler to hotter, and back again, as I found in Krauma… whereas in Friedrichsbad it was a sequenced ritual. Very German, which should have come as no surprise in retrospect, where we went through 16 rooms in sequence. Phones were, of course, left in the lockers so my dear readers will have to forgive me a lack of photographic documentation… but understand that it was absolutely beautiful and stunningly Romanesque.

For more photos, I fully recommend checking out their website – for now, I’ll sit back and luxuriate in the memory of the warmth, the salty tang of the air, and the serenity that I was suffused with.

Link = https://friedrichsbad.net/

Jun9

The famous Blue Lagoon

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Saturday, 18-May-2024


So, heads up to start this post off with. I did not take pictures in the main swimming area of the Blue Lagoon. I know, I know, technically phones are allowed… but man, it just feels weird! Right? I’m not crazy, am I? It just feels weird to have a phone out, taking pictures, when everyone around you is luxuriating in the hot spring wearing bathing suits.

Fine. I’m a prude, okay. Whatever, I live my life and choose to leave my cellphone in the locker. #Cell-Signal-Free 4 lyfe.

I mean okay, I did bring my kindle. I like reading my book in the warm water.



Let’s dive into the Blue Lagoon. First off – no diving. It’s probably deep enough to dive, near the middle, but the edges are almost universally shallow. So… don’t dive. It’d hurt, and you can’t see how far you’ve got to dive, since the water is super murky.

But it’s a neat murky – Supposedly it’s from all the suspended silica in the water, which gives the Blue Lagoon its “good for your complexion” properties, but I can tell you from direct experience that it’s simply lovely feeling water, at a glorious temperature. Which is interesting – unlike all of the other hot spring resorts that I’ve been to, Blue Lagoon had a massive single pool, with small inlets and islets. Hvammsvik and Krauma (And Breitenbush back in Oregon) had multiple smaller pools, each at a different temperature, which allowed you to pick your heat… Blue Lagoon was just the single heat setting, at a lovely warm bath temperature.




I soaked, read my book, and relaxed.

I even got a “floating massage”, which was definitely an interesting one. Basically I was plopped up on a floating yoga mat, with a blanket over me, and got a massage from below – using my own bodyweight to press the masseuses hands and fingers into my muscles. Then, every 5min or so, she’d dunk me under to re-warm the blanket… which was a little weird at first, but super lovely once I got used to it.

I wouldn’t recommend it over a traditional table massage… but for what it was, it was a lovely option to have… and a good addition to my soak in the Lagoon.


So yeah. Soaked, read, relaxed. Dried off, bought some fancy face masks, and got some sushi. Absolutely lovely.

Jun8

Visiting Hvammsvik hot spring and spa

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Friday, 17-May-2024


My second hot spring spa of the day was Hvammsvik, pronounced more like “K-ams-vick” – a sort-of competitor to the Blue Lagoon in terms of tourism, at least from what I could tell looking at the various ads for each of them in the airport when I first landed in Iceland. Which, incidentally, was at least one of the ways I’d heard about it. Advertising does work!

I’d tried to swing by before, nearer to the beginning of my adventure on the 14th, but they’d been closed to clean the pools out. Which I’m actually okay with, since I’d been able to find a tiny little hot spring in the woods, all alone, instead… but that’s another story.

Hvammsvik was lovely. I don’t have any photos from the pools, since it seemed weird to have my phone on me in such a private place, but I can 100% confidently state that the pools were lovely, at excellent temperatures, and that their mineral content was absolutely lovely. I luxuriated, recovered from some of my aches and adventure pains, and felt glorious.



Afterward, I followed by tradition from Krauma, and got myself a very lovely dinner – a lovely dinner that I could take pictures of! Melty cheese, delicious seafood soup, and even a fancy health-shot of… something… vaguely spicy? It felt a little woo-woo magic-crystals, but it was tasty and I felt pretty good afterward, so I’m taking it as a win and being happy for it!

Which is the theme, here. Two hot springs in one day, getting to watch the sun slide down toward the cliffs, and having an excellent meal afterward? Yeah, I’m not going to be complaining at all.

An absolutely lovely visit to a lovely spa.