Since yesterday was such a busy museum day, I wanted to relax and enjoy Reykjavík on a bit of a slower pace today. One item that everyone recommended when I decided to visit was the Blue Lagoon – a natural, geothermal hot spring that has been turned into a massive commercial attraction. Given my limited time, I didn’t want to drive most of the 45 minutes back to the airport for the Blue Lagoon, so I opted instead to visit the manmade, but still beautiful, Sky Lagoon, which is located only 2.2 miles from downtown Reykjavík. It was an easy bus ride (~30 minutes door-to-door, including walking time) and absolutely worth the trip. Along the way, you pass gorgeous fields of flowers and can take in the lovely north Atlantic views.

We also passed a couple notable sights along the waterfront – first is the Sun Voyager statue (which, despite its appearance is not intended to be a Viking ship, but rather a “dream” boat and ode to the sun). We also passed the Höfði House, which is famous for being the location where Richard Nixon and Mikhail Gorbachev met in 1986 to begin the negotiations that would end the Cold War at the Washington Summit in 1987.

The Sky Lagoon itself is beautiful and very spa-like (and I appreciated that they had separate “device free” areas, like saunas – I’ll admit I took my phone in briefly to take some pictures, but after that it was all relaxation!). From the outside it looks unassuming, but inside is essentially the lagoon paradise of dreams.

The building opens into a cavernous lagoon lined with gorgeous volcanic rock – and then, as you make your way through the steam, you start to see the glimmering infinity edge that leads to the Atlantic views. Of course, they’ve meticulously monetized the experience and offer a swim up bar, as well as the “ritual” experience you’d imagine in a Nordic-style grass-topped home (cold plunge pool, dry and steam saunas, salt scrub, mist chamber, etc.). I have to say, the cold plunge wasn’t quite the same as jumping in the Gulf of Finland like I did in Helsinki, but the experience was phenomenal.

Photos honestly don’t do it justice. Feeling extremely relaxed after my Lagoon experience, I walked back to the bus stop. Apparently this “yellow rock” is a tourist attraction, but why I cannot determine.

On the way home, I took in additional views including the gorgeous water (again!) and the lovely Harpa building, which really sparkles in the sunshine.

Given I’d been soaking in warm water for the better part of the morning, I figured it was time for lunch and headed to the Fish restaurant within the Pósthús Food Hall & Bar. I had a delicious fish and chips and also tried the Icelandic Gull beer.

After that, it was time to visit one of the most infamous museums in Reykjavík – the The Icelandic Phallological Museum. If the name didn’t make the content obvious, the sign certainly does!

I truly had no idea what to expect from the museum, but it actually ended up being an extremely worthwhile visit. In case you still haven’t realized what the museum’s focus is… it’s penises. Interestingly though, there was absolutely no sexual connotation whatsoever to the curation – instead, it’s primarily focused on biology (lots of specimens in jars!) as well as tracking how pop culture treats penises as a subject. In a world in which women are often hypersexualized, especially via pop culture, it was really compelling to see critical analysis of the penis.

From the biology section, I found several things interesting:

• Apparently many animals / fish actually have penile bones, which have been collected by various cultures over the years to use for a number of purposes (walruses feature yet again; apparently their penile bones make effective weapons!)
• “Pizzles” i.e., instruments made from stretched, dried bull penises, make effective whips (and act as a strong deterrent for thieves)

Aside from these fun facts, the biological collection contains specimens / fact sheets for >50 animals, with information about their mating practices, etc.

I did appreciate that they took a good natured approach to this and also added a whole “biological” section for mythological creatures, especially those from Nordic legend!

After that, we then move into the history section. One historical item that stood out was a penis-marked coin from the Roman era, when these would have been used for currency in brothels. I’d read about these in history classes, but always cool to see in person!

Other items in this section included the penis sheaths used by indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea, and a fascinating overview of historical “medicines” aimed at improving size and stamina (one involved rubbing sun-dried carrots, radishes, mustard oil, and saffron-colored ants directly to the affected area; I’ve got to say, that was shaping up to be a nice salad until the ants were added, although I would probably be more ‘alert’ too if I had ants on me!). They also had some more personal stories, including one of a gentleman from the mid-1800s who found a lovely phallic-shaped rock and decided to bring it home with him and draw it in “personalized” manners (i.e., add a hat, add a mustache). Unfortunately for him, his wife found the drawings and promptly divorced him and took away their children; had he lived ~150 years later, he would have been a key cast member in Superbad and had a thriving Hollywood career.

Lastly, I have to commend the museum on its body positivity. Much of the pop culture section is actually “casts” of various famous (and less famous) people’s penises, and it really was interesting to see an unbiased, non-pornographic, non-Hollywood sampling of size, shape, etc. I also have to commend the Icelandic National Handball Team, who won silver at the Beijing Olympics, for offering casts of their members for posterity.

I finally got a photo to upload – there is an on-going project by an artist to take casts from as many Icelanders as possible – as of now, they have 100+ and apparently, it’s actually useful data from a scientific perspective, since it helps calculate “average” beyond self-reported statistics.

After the museum, I decided to take it easy and headed back to the Airbnb to relax and pack before my journey onward to the Faroes tomorrow.

On the way back to the Airbnb, I wandered past the lovely Austurvöllur park, which was Reykjavík’s first park.

It should be beautiful weather tomorrow, so I’m hoping for a smooth flight on what I suspect is the first prop plane I’ve flown in years!