continued… After the show, we walked to a restaurant that the lady at the ticket counter had suggested. We hadn’t really understood the name she’d said, and when we’d asked for directions, she pointed to the next street over. Hoping the restaurant would be obvious, we took the closest cross street. The northwest side of the street was an endless row of these little storage units. Christi’s guess was they were primarily storage for small fishing boats and gear.

The other side of the street was a commercial harbor, with an array of buildings dotting the sea wall. Most of the boats in the harbor looked like fishing vessels. 

We followed the street southeast for a ways and saw nothing that looked like a restaurant — the one side was only storage units and the buildings on the other side looked like they were part of the commercial fishing industry. Then we saw a small sign in front of what we’d thought was another industrial building.

The entrance looked promising.

Inside, was a food court. Each stall was decorated differently, giving the court a lot of character and eclectic charm.

There were choices from all over the world, and we opted for traditional Icelandic.

Keith ordered lamb meat wrapped in Icelandic flat bread, which we figured would be similar to a gyro. It tasted great, but it was kind of hard for him to eat. It was served like a sandwich rather than a wrap, so the meat was between two pieces of flat bread and the meat kept falling out of the bread. It was served with French fries.

Christi ordered a salad with grilled goat cheese and crispy lamb bacon. She’d never heard of lamb bacon before. It was far and away the best bacon she’s ever had in her life.

The wall along the harbor had huge windows, with a great view of the waterfront.

After we finished eating, we walked back to hotel. Here was some of the scenery along the walk.

The black building with the slanted roof pictured above turned out to be the Maritime Museum. We also noticed that across from the museum, the little storage sheds had been converted to shops selling food and ice cream.

Beyond the Maritime Museum was the roundabout where we turned to get back to our hotel. Back in the hotel, Keith talked to his friends online and Christi went to the spa for about 40-minutes. It was in the basement, with a big hole in the ceiling that let in light and rain and snow.

The items included in the room cost were the hot tubs, sauna, and a room with chairs where you laid back with your feet up and listened to calming music as scented oils burned. and chair with feet up. It was relaxing.

Meanwhile… After the conference had ended for the day, Eric joined a big group of people from the conference for another exclusive event. There was a popular lava tube called Raufarhólshellir that was about a half hour outside of town. The cave also had some casks of liquor aging in it, and there was an event to taste test a vintage that had just finished aging.

The group piled into a bus, which took them to the cave. Once off the bus, they had to put hard hats on before they could go in.

While the tunnel did offer daily tours, this event wasn’t a tour. They made a beeline for the casks, though they couldn’t move fast because of uneven ground. They passed what was called a skylight, where a piece of the roof of lava tunnel broke, allowing light and precipitation in, hence the pile of snow under the skylight.

They passed another skylight.

Deeper in the tunnel, it became really dark, though it was lit with artificial lights. They climbed a set of stairs up to a metal grate fairly high over the ground. Ice crystals formed in the winter, and they looked down to see thousands of ice crystals on the ground below them. They were lit with colored lights, which made them even more beautiful.

This was where the tasting was done. Since they only walked as far as where the casks were stored, Eric wasn’t sure how much more there was to it.