On Friday May 10th at 9:10 pm our flight took off and we arrived five hours later at 6:00 am in Iceland. Over all the flight was pretty good.... except for the crazy heartburn I experienced throughout the first three hours of it! Aside from that, we arrived safe and tired in Iceland where we were greeted at the airport by one of the guys with a sign reading "Joshua Vanderstelt" - wish I'd been more awake and taken a picture, but as it was, we basically had missed our night sleep and it was now bright and overcast at 6am and our drive, being his first day on the job ever, was very keen to help. So we took our short shuttle ride into Keflavik where we got our little rental car. We could only fit one suitcase in the trunk... the other took up half of the back seat. Lucky for us we packed light. From there we started driving around the peninsula. Our first stop was two light houses side by side. The old one, and the current one.
The newer of the two lighthouses and a little museum that was closed... cause it was only 7am
The older of the two lighthouses.
Trolls and fairies and the like are a big part of Icelandic culture... and when Icelanders spoke about them you could never quite tell if they were joking around or if there was in fact a hint of seriousness behind what they were saying. This little guy was our first encounter with the little folk.
Me and the little car. At this point in the morning we had found breakfast at a local bakery just as it was opening and discovered Icelandic bread! Wow do they know something we don't about baking good bread!! Even their store bought "cheap" stuff was so much better than our bread. (and I say cheap in quotes cause nothing in Iceland is cheap). We have also upgraded from our spring jackets to our winter coats and gloves... not so much because the temperature was that low, but that wind was something else - but more on that later.
Here is a little canyon that is proof that Iceland is being pulled apart at the seams. Iceland rests on both the European Continent and North America's Continent... and each year they move about 3 cm further apart - this is one of the places you can see evidence of it.
After this stop we found our way to the blue lagoon where we bathed in the chalky blue pond that's heated by the waste heat from one of Iceland's many geothermal electric plants. The water was splendid and although we did try the face mask stuff, we didn't really notice a whole lot of difference. But it was one of those must do things while in Iceland. From there we headed into the city of Reykajvik and found our little hotel/guest house where we would spend our first two nights two nights in Iceland.
A comment on accommodations in Iceland... a basic room comes with a bed and towel... you provide your own sheets. The next upgrade is to have a sink in your room. And the cream of the crop is to have the en-suite washroom. Twin beds are generally the standard, so if you want a "double" it's frequently two twins pushed together.
All in all, a really long but enjoyable first day.
No comments:
Post a Comment