We slept in until almost 9 AM, and then lazed around the house eating the groceries we bought yesterday. The weather is a bit rainy and we are grateful to be in a nice Airbnb. At first we were worried this wasn’t going to work out, as the home is full of nice stuff and our gear kind of explodes out of our bags to dry when we get an opportunity to be inside. However, the owner was gracious and welcoming and assured us that she didn’t mind if we unpacked our things around her house to let them recover. So now her living room floor is covered by sleeping bags, pads, etc…. Plus, she allowed us to use her washing machine. When you only have 2 or 3 changes of clothing, every opportunity to do laundry is precious!

We headed to the public pool at 11:00 (a 5-minute walk) and soaked for about 2 hours. Natalie came with me this time, and was a good sport about everything. She even went down the water slide, even though we didn’t have the excuse of “taking our grandkids” or something like that. It was cool. A really steep dropoff into this vortex thing that can only be described as the type of feature which allows you to experience being flushed down a toilet after circling the bowl a few times, dropping through a hole in the middle and emerging at the end in a nice pool. Who wouldn’t want to do that? She also soaked in the ice bath a few times. There are many reasons not to want to do that. Toward the end I could tell she was wearing down by the “how much longer should we stay” questions. Realizing she had already gone above and beyond the call of duty, we headed home.

(Note from Natalie: Some of that paragraph made me laugh out loud. It really is an amazing community pool and we had a great time. The steam bath felt great too. And that vortex waterslide/ toilet comparison was great! We really do need to bring our grandkids when they get a bit older! It was fun to go with Pete since he loves soaking so much and is really talented at it.)

Natalie wanted to see the botanical gardens, and since she had gone to the pool for two hours, it seemed only fair for me to support that. Plus, the last time she went to botanical gardens in Victoria, B.C., she took Laura while Chris and I took the kids to find a mountain lake to swim in but ended up at a nude beach which was more disturbing than glamorous from which we made a hasty retreat – so having learned that painful lesson I went to the botanical gardens this time (Icelandic nude beaches must only be for the really hardy types – I hope they bundle up because it is a bit nippy here.)

(Second note from Natalie: the gardens were beautiful, and Pete was a good sport. Akureyri’s botanical gardens are the most northern in the whole world!)

As we were walking home we came across a downhill mountain bike race through town – right down the beautiful steps which lead up to the Lutheran church. We watched several racers descend and decided not to try it on our bike.

We’re relaxing at the Airbnb for the rest of the evening. Life is good.