Iceland: Botanical Gardens, Christmas House, & Forest Lagoon

Posted on August 9, 2024 by The Owl

We planned to have only one full day in Akureyri, and this day was it! I arrived with two priorities: the famous Christmas House store and the Forest Lagoon thermal spa. We booked our entrace at Forest Lagoon for 7 p.m. We decided we could go to Christmas House later in the afternoon. Before we could get going going with the day, we needed to start some laundry and eat breakfast.

Since we still had quite a lot of food from our camper van, we decided to make scrambled eggs with chopped pear and a rye cracker with cream cheese and lox. We picked up the rye bread with lox inspiration from our stay at Silica Hotel. We were still managing to eat food from our one trip to Bónus grocery store.

lox on rye cracker, scrambled eggs, chopped pear on a plate — Our homemade breakfast hit the spot and fueled us for the day.

After breakfast, we hit the streets to see the city in daylight. Street art populates every nook and cranny in Akureyri. Between murals, fancy trash cans, statues, and giant trolls, we stumbled on interesting things at every turn.

Troll statue outside of our apartment — The troll statue stood on the same street as our apartment.

Love Akureyri statue — Do you love Akureyri? We sure do, and this statue lets you take photos to share on social media with #loveakureyri.

fall leaves on trees behind a person — I loved seeing the changing leaves during our walk.

We then wandered into a botanical garden. With it being September, Northern Iceland showed the beginnings of fall. In fact, the month of September pretty much is all of fall as snow starts falling in October. We enjoyed the beautiful gardens that included photos of how those gardens look in winter.

Graham pointing at the botanical garden gate — I made Graham point at the entrance gate to the botanical garden.

Graham in front of concrete-walled garden — We always love looking at plants in other areas of the world.

botanical garden building — This building appeared to be a cafe and gift shop. The design reflects nature.

fall leaves on the ground under trees — We checked out this burst of fall color before October brings winter.

picture of garden in winter — I had never seen a botanical garden with depictions of the garden in winter.

a winter garden scene with fall garden in background — Here is another winter garden picture.

After the botanical garden, we headed out for a short drive to Hrafnagil to see the Christmas House. I am obsessed with Jólakötturinn (the Yule Cat), and I wanted to find Christmas ornaments featuring this giant cat who eats people who have not received new clothes before Christmas Eve. Jólakötturinn descends from Icelandic folklore and is supposed to be the pet cat of Grýla(an ogre) and the Yule Lads. For more details, you can visit the Wikipedia page.

The Christmas House looks like Santa’s home. The festive red building even has a clothesline behind it with Santa’s clothes drying. Like many Christmas stores, each room had a theme.

Christmas House building — The Christmas House looks like a place where Santa Claus would live.

Christmas store room — The store had many old-fashioned Christmas decorations.

I was as excited as a small child when we entered the room with a stone structure coming out of the wall. Gnome and troll ornaments perched on the rocks. Then I saw the slit with the name “Grýla” written on a small sign.

Slit in a rock wall structure. — I knew Grýla must be living in that structure!

I peered into the slit, and there she was…Grýla, complete with pointy teeth and scary eyes!

Although I expected to find lots of Jólakötturinn paraphernalia, I only found a resin statue, a wooden cut-out ornament, and a deck of cards featuring the Yule Lads. Of course, I bought all the things, but I was disappointed that they didn’t have more.

Yule lads figurines — I bought the Yule Cat figurine on the second shelf.

Outside of the Christmas House, you could purchase mulled wine and cider, buy caramel apples, and play games. The hillside featured several stools made from logs with homemade game boards.

Susan sitting on wooden stools with a game board — We snapped a picture of me with the tic-tac-toe board.

Before returning to our apartment, we decided we’d dine on hot dogs before heading over to Forest Lagoon. The hot dog stand Pylsuvagninn á Akureyri down the street offered a dazzling array of Icelandic hot dogs with all sorts of toppings and buns. The volcanic dog contained all things spicy on a black bun. We ate our hot dogs at our apartment and spent a little time relaxing. That’s when I managed to take a few photos inside our apartment. Then we packed our day packs to go to Forest Lagoon, which is right across the Fjord from Akureyri.

This is the view from the living room to the dining room/kitchen. That door goes to the terrace.

Graham reading a book on a couch. — Graham surfed on the laptop in the living room.

Spiral staircased into living room — The first floor of the apartment had the bathroom and two bedrooms. The spiral staircase takes you to the second floor where all the main living areas are located as well as the door to the terrace.

As with our other themal bathing experiences, we did not get any pictures except for a couple of photos after we got dressed and sat on the deck. Forest Lagoon opened earlier in the year, and as the name implies, the clear thermal pools are surrounded by forest. It is GORGEOUS, especially at night. Graham realized he forgot to pack his bathing suit after he got into the dressing room, but he was able to rent a bathing suit for the night (I’m glad they offer that!). We floated around the pools and used our wristbands to charge our drinks at the swim-up bars. We relaxed in the dry sauna and hopped in the cold plunge pool. Mostly we just soaked up the warm water and watched other people. In Iceland, you go for a soak (and a drink) after work. I would love to have this option in our country. Absolutely awesome!

With our third thermal bathing experience, I noticed that my modesty about nudity finally dropped. In Iceland, you have to shower before putting on your bathing suit and entering the water. The shower rooms are open showers with a few private shower areas, probably because of Americans. At the Blue Lagoon Retreat Spa, we had our own luxurious private shower/bathroom/dressing room. At Mývatn Nature Baths, I jumped into one of the few single shower stalls. At Forest Lagoon, I let it all hang out. I walked into the shower room in my full naked glory and enjoyed the deliciously hot shower. Women of all shapes, sizes, and ages showered all around me, and it felt natural. After soaking in the thermal baths, I returned to the shower room where I was greated by a very tall, gray-haired, naked German woman who pointed at my bathing suit saying something that I think was complimentary (you can tell a lot by body language). I smiled and thanked her, stripped off my bathing suit, and showered off. It was one of the most freeing experiences of my life. Americans have a lot of hangups about nudity. Europeans are much more relaxed about nudity, and I prefer their acceptance of the human body.

Trees at night with city lights — This is one of two photos we took at Forest Lagoon from the deck. This is the type of view we had from the water.

cushioned deck chairs with a city skyline at night in background — After we got dressed, we sat in the comfortable deck chairs looking out over Akureyri.

After we returned to the city, we went for a walk and got more lakris ice cream! Lots of other people strolled around the city at night as well, and we watched kids skateboarding up and down the streets. We saw more decorated trash bins. This time we captured a photo of a knitted troll.

knitted wool trash bin cover — A knitted troll trash bin cover!

We repacked our suitcase and backpacks with fresh, clean laundry and turned in for the night. We snuggled down for another great night of sleep. The next day we would start our journey to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, an optional side-trip on the Ring Road, that is supposed to capture the essence of Iceland in miniature.