Inimitable Day at Fontana Hot Springs!

Yesterday was one of those days that’s hard to describe.  I was already wondering how I would describe the day, but then I looked at the fun and unusual array of photos and see that they will tell most of the story!

We started the day with yoga.  The focus of today’s session, in honor of the Vikings and to contemplate the concept of “Spiritual Warrior”,  was to work on the Warrior Poses.   Along with the Warrior Poses, comes the story of Virabhadra, the warrior who is born of flames to right a terribly wrong deed.  It was a powerful class.  My group of yogis are hard working and work well together.  Every day the yoga and the sound of Om becomes more powerful.

After breakfast we went to an off-the-beaten path thermal/mud foot bath that our interpreter, Lisa told us about:

raining and feeling the chill deep in our bones, most of us headed straight to a greenhouse structure where we found coffee brewing and a lovely sweet rye bread freshly steamed in an oven for 11 hours  the oven traps hot steam rising out of the ground…not a butter eater not a butter eater really not a butter eater…but icelandic butter is not to be passed up..a slab goes on the bread and the mouth waters before i start eating the bread…some brave souls go out and dig their feet into the hot mud..they have a blast and come back showing us their perfect tree poses: their feet stick to the ground!

Happy Feet I

Happy Feet II

Lisa, our interpreter, also tells us about another place we should experience.  It is like a museum where you can enter a room and it simulates an earthquake.  When the museum was being built, a huge rift was found in the ground and the rift is part of the large American/Eurasian plate drift. This is one of the few places where you can stand on TWO continents:

we enter the small room in small groups of floor..the door is shut and we begin to hear a rumble..and the building shakes and shakes and then it stops..it isn’t real so we sort of laugh, but afterwards, you realize how sobering it is to experience such violent tremors..iceland is the 6th best prepared country in the world for earthquakes…then we all go over to see the rift in the earth, the rift is covered by glass…julie, karin, and fran do splits over the continents!! and the whole group, playful as ever, does a crazzzzy pose

Um, I am not really sure what happened in the photo below.  I mean, I was right there, but I was staring at the camera.  My guess is that Julie N fell forward and Bridget was catching her?  Anyways, makes for an hysterical photo!

Playful Warriors span two continents!

Karin standing on two continents!!

..head choppin’ splits across the continents!

What do you think they are?? They are eggs, of course!  They will be placed in the hot springs in hard boiled in a matter of minutes.

Brown bread baked in geothermal steam for 11 hours.

The Fontana Hot Springs is a blast:  there are several pools with varying degrees of heat…we all head to the hottest one and as i talk about breath jeff invites a young man into our circle..the young man is from portland oregon…we get very warm and brave the cold water of the lake and go in…we do this again and again…sauna and cold plunge..hot spring and cold plunge..someone takes a photo of us in the cold lake..will the photo capture the goosebumps?  we meet two women from belgium, an italian man with his french wife who live in paris sit with us in the sauna..i talk him into a cold plunge…he swears in italian..his italian is peppered with french and it’s the darnedest thing to hear him speak!

The sign at Fontana Hot Springs tells you not to dive…who would dive?  the water only reaches your knees

The hot springs is a comfortable 35-40 degree C.  It has been used for bathing since medieval times.  The geothermal springs of Iceland hare wonders of nature.  Icelanders have been enjoying their beneficial effects on ailments like rheumatism and skin conditions for centuries. Some say that hot springs contribute to the nation’s long lifespan.

great place!!!

the sauna..unisex..and yes, everyone wears swim suits..conversation between Bridget and Fran: “Oh, there’s a man in there!”  “Is he naked?”  “No.”  “Then we can go in.”

I do believe that’s a lingam (without a lingam) next to Karin!  (photo taken from the dining area as I had my late lunch)

A kiss for Fran!!! (photo taken as I sat eating my late lunch…I was having so much fun I forgot to eat…extremely unusual for me to forget to eat!)

Delicious buffet at the hot springs