MARCH 2007
Map and flag of Iceland
Every winter for the last couple years, I've heard commercials on the radio for Iceland Air. They offer deals for airfare and two nights in a hotel for a cheap rate -- about a third of what it would cost during prime tourist season. Lisa and I had talked about going in the past, but for one reason or another it never worked out. This year we decided to go for it. We pushed the dates out as late as possible to avoid the worst of winter. Iceland Air also lets you extend the stay by one night, which we did.
We flew out of Baltimore on Sunday night at 9 p.m. The flight was around five or six hours. Iceland is four hours ahead of D.C. time, so we landed sometime after 6 a.m. on Monday morning. We didn't get much sleep on the plane, maybe about two or three hours.
The Iceland Air deal was great; however, the flight was mediocre. I have to admit, based on this flight, I am not a fan of Iceland Air. For such a long flight, the seats were really cramped. My knees were against the seat in front of me for the whole flight. The cabin was kept too hot (more on that later). The movie (Tootsie) was really old. Lastly, we got into some really nasty turbulence for about 20 minutes. It was so bad, I had to drink my soda quickly so that it wouldn't spill. Ok, I know, I know, the turbulence isn't the airline's fault, but it added to an already uncomfortable flight.
Here is a little secret. The airline ticket says you land in the city of Reykjavik, but this isn't true. You actually land about an hour away in the town of Keflavik. Luckily our package deal included airport transfers. Otherwise, we would have been stuck paying around $40 each for a round-trip bus ride or much more than that for a taxi ride. Our hotel was the first stop in Reykjavik, so we arrived around 9 a.m. We had some concern that we wouldn't be able to check into the hotel that early, but luckily a room was available.
Our hotel Loftleidir was about two miles from downtown Reykjavik. The hotel was decent. It had funny elevators, though. They were very small, which is typical for European elevators -- but the doors to the elevators were like typical doors to a room, not elevator doors. As the lift went up or down, you could see the floors and the exit doors go by. I wouldn't want to get my fingers pinched in there!
The room was a little small, which is not unusual for Europe. It was very clean and had been renovated fairly recently. At least the shower was enclosed, unlike at other hotels we experienced in Europe. I hate showers with no curtains, because water gets everywhere. Our hotel did follow the European custom of no bed sheets. They use individual duvets instead. Lisa's was fine for her, but mine was about four inches too short for me.
The hotel had a restaurant and a bar. They provided a free buffet breakfast, which was the only time we ate at the restaurant. For the most part, the food was typical breakfast food, but there were a few kinds of fish on the buffet that neither of us were brave enough to try.
Our hotel
Once we dropped our luggage off, we went for a walk into town. In the four days we were there, I bet we walked a hundred miles. The hotel provided a free shuttle to the town center, but it had goofy hours, so we generally walked instead. It was only about a 20-minute walk.
We did so much walking that we covered most of downtown Reykjavik. We had booked a city tour of Reykjavik for Wednesday morning, but because we'd already seen much of the city, we could have skipped this tour. Our other tours included the Blue Lagoon and The Golden Circle (more on these later).
Reykjavik is a pretty town surrounded by mountains and water.
Our walk into town.
Walking the town -- the main shopping street
We were amused by the unisex bathrooms everywhere. When you open the door to the "water closet," you find one bathroom with lots of stalls. If someone was playing the trumpet next to you, it may be from a male or female. :-)
Another interesting thing we saw were women with babies in the shopping area. We were walking past some strollers, and I joked about a baby being in the stroller. We were surprised to see that there actually was a baby in the stroller, and the mother was inside the shop. I guess Reykjavik is pretty safe, because we saw this several times while we were there.
Good luck reading the signs. Icelanders speak Icelandic with each other, but most also speak English as well as other languages. All of the tours we took were conducted in both English and German.
Notice the corrugated building behind the sign. We noticed that many of the houses are sided and roofed with this stuff.
Apparently, Iceland was founded by the Nordic people. On the way to the Iceland, they decided they needed some women, so they picked up some Irish and Scottish women. This is the general makeup of Icelanders. They claim their genetic line is fairly pure after all these years because Iceland has low immigration.
Lisa noticed that there was a higher percentage of blondes among the Icelanders than we see at home.
Viking boat sculpture along the harbor
Our first day in Iceland was really nice. It was warm enough that we left our jackets in the room and wore sweatshirts or sweaters. The following days were much colder. Jackets, gloves, and scarves were required. The funny thing about Reykjavik is the weather patterns. The weather changes every hour. One minute it is sunny, the next it rains, the next it is sunny again, the next it sleets, then sun again, then snow, etc. I've never seen such crazy weather. I'd say on average, the temperature hovered just around freezing, sometimes above and sometimes below.
Brad at the harbor
This was an incredible view -- you really can't tell from the pictures, unfortunately.
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