August 28, 2017: Iceland, Land of the Vikings!
I left Seattle on Sunday, 8/27, on an Icelandair fight at 4:20PM, ten minutes ahead of schedule . It was almost a full flight and I was in a coach seat, but on an aisle. The flight was scheduled to be 7.25 hours but we actually arrived 25 minutes early in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. The trip through customs was a non-issue and the baggage was already on the belts when I reached the arrival area.
I felt I was in Seattle as it was raining lightly and the temperature was around 50 degrees-just like a winter day in Seattle- except it was still summer here in Iceland!
The driver from the tour agency was waiting for me in the arrival area with my name on a sign so the overall trip was a “piece of cake”. The trip from the airport was about 30 minutes as the airport was further from the city than I had expected. The area is pretty desolate-not a tree in sight. My driver said it was because this whole area is covered by lava from ancient eruptions. As an aside I read that Iceland has 130 volcanoes, making it one of the hottest spots for seismic activity in the world. About two weeks before my departure there was a lot of small earthquakes near one of the more active volcanoes in the area, causing the authorizes to raise the alert status to “yellow”. If you ,recall in 2010 there was major eruption on Iceland that caused an upheaval in air travel throughout Europe for quite a while. Luckily the tremors subsided before I arrived and all is calm here for the moment.
My driver was an older gentlemen with a large white beard and fisherman’s hat. As we drove from the airport I learned he was a native and one of 11 children in his family. He learned English by watching Gunsmoke on TV! I also learned that a major attraction of Iceland- seeing puffins will not happen as they have already returned to sea, having been on shore during their mating season. Bummer, as they sure are cute!
We arrived around 9AM at the hotel selected by the tour operator to find that our room was not ready as people still had not checked out so I had to stow my luggage, grab my rain jacket and walk about 0.5 miles in a gentle drizzle to the local airbnb that Scott had used for the previous two nights. He was expecting me and once I got there we wandered a few blocks into the business district where we had coffee and a breakfast croissant. Killing time we walked a bit through town to see some of the local sights before retrieving his luggage and walking back to our hotel room around noon, where we found that our room was now ready for occupancy.
I showered and grabbed a two-hour nap before we headed out to explore Reykjavik in more detail. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun began shining although the temperature was still pretty cool. The business district is small (Reykjavik has a population of about 150,000 – the whole island has a population of 340.000) do,images by small shops selling a lot of Icelandic woolen products and souvenirs and restaurants. Prices are high-$200 for a woolen sweater, $30-40 for a tee-shirt. Iceland is not a shoppers haven!
We spent the afternoon visiting some of the major sites in the city, then retired to a local pub(s) to try the local beer before having an early dinner at one of the many seafood restaurants here.
As you might guess seafood is plentiful and fresh in Iceland. Prices are also high in the restaurants – comparable to those in top end Seattle restaurants. Entrees range from $30-$40.
20,123 steps later we retired to our hotel room where I am busy trying to put this together before retiring. It is 9:30PM and is still somewhat light outside.
We will be picked up tomorrow morning around 8AM and taken to pick up our vehicle and begin our 9 day traverse of the island.
Father/Son Trip to Iceland
In 2015 our son, Scott, suggested he and I take a “father/son” trip to Iceland to complement an earlier trip I took with our other son, Steve, to Antarctica in 2013. Iceland offers a series of “you drive” trips of 7-12 days where they provide a car, make daily hotel reservations for you, loan you a local phone and give you a guide book highlighting what you can see and do as you circle the island country. In February 2015 we booked the trip for August, 2015. As summer approached Scott announces that he has taken a job in New Zealand and I quickly decided we needed to cancel the August trip so he could focus on the move and new job. Fast forward to 2017. Scott and family are settled into living in the land of Kiwis and we decided to reschedule our adventure for this summer.
Our driving tour of Iceland is highlighted on the following website:
http://www.tour.is/tour-package/iceland_circle_including_snaefellsnes_-_10_days
I am using Scott as my personal chauffeur; I intend to simply watch the world go by and take a lot of hopefully lovely photos of Iceland. From what I have read the country is rich in waterfalls, stark landscapes, active volcanoes, and glaciers.
It is a relatively easy journey for me as the Icelandair non- stop flight from Seattle to Reykjavik is only a little over 7 hours as we go “up and over”. Scott, on the other hand, living on the opposite end of the earth, has a much longer journey. He will be coming into Reykjavik a few days before me to visit with grad school friends coming in from Norway and Sweden.
If the Wifi is as good as they publications say it is in the country I will stay in contact and share our experiences as we traverse this unique landscape.
By the way this will be country # 97 for me-getting closer to my “current” goal!