Iceland is about a six hour flight from the Midwest and about a three hour flight from the capitals of western Europe. Leaving yesterday evening has us arriving at 7 in the morning in Reykjavik, the northern most capital city in the world (it's also a five hour time change from CST). There is no way anyone is going to get a solid amount of sleep on such a flight. It's long enough to leave you tired, but not long enough to get you to close your eyes for more than a few minutes. Since I am traveling with a ten year old, and since I am now at an age were tiredness cannot easily be ignored, I booked a room for an early arrival. We're staying only one night (as I said yesterday, the itinerary of this trip is, well, whimsical!), but I thought we'd treat this first day of our trip gently -- with lots of downtime and perhaps an exploratory walk if the weather is decent.
We are greeted with rain and a temperature right around 50F (10C). Our plane was packed and at least three fourths of the seats were occupied by Viking cruise people, boarding their boat in Reykjavik, bound for Norway and the Netherlands. As Snowdrop remarked -- gaga, they are all your age!
I splurged on a cab to our overnight hotel. Our driver, from Afghanistan, was the perfect amount of chatty and quiet. It's a long ride into town and it's a real budget breaker of a trip! But then, everything in Iceland is a budget breaker. I asked him which countries sent the most tourists here and he said lately it's America, ever since Viking started it's huge ship cruises from Iceland. Then, too, England, and India. I wondered if he liked his life here (he'd emigrated six years ago). He says -- 50-50. The weather in the winter is just awful. Oh yes, I was here one late November weekend. I swear they just dont do daylight then!
We're staying at the Hotel Konsulat.
I know, it has been taken over by a chain and I avoid chains when in Europe, but it has so much going for it (especially, comparatively, the price) that I kept returning to its website again and again. And I'm glad I did. The room is small, but quite okay.
We leave our bags, she showers, we go down to breakfast. Which is fine enough -- upped considerably by the addition of very good smoked salmon. The girl loves it and so do I.
And now comes a bit of a rest. I know you're supposed to keep going and not give in to tiredness in order to adjust to new time zones quickly, but I think that's great advice for those aged 10 to 70. Everyone else should take it easy that first day!
Eventually we head out. Snowdrop tells me -- Reykjavik is not drab! Though I'm not sure I'd want my photo on a building wall...
She is eager to get to the shore ("I've never seen the Arctic Ocean!"). I like the idea of some sort of lunch. Maybe at a bakery?
(Their lilacs are in bloom just now. As are the lupines. We saw fields of them by the airport. Blue and white and beautiful.)
I'd noted a handful of bakeries and cafes in the area. We walk over to one of them -- the Hygge Coffee and Microbakery. Sounds like one right up my alley!
(pastries -- sort of Danish, a little French, all very good!)
I hear an exchange between two of the four people behind the counter. Polish! I answer in kind. Yes, they are indeed from Poland. All four.
Snowdrop and I take our treats outside (madelines for her, a blueberry cinnamon danish for me.)
The sun comes out for a few seconds and if it weren't for the Arctic wind, I'd say it's almost warm. Ish.
Snowdrop claims she loves countries with cooler climates. People are funny -- she say. They want to go to warm places in the winter and cool places in the summer. Me, I really am a northern girl.
Nonetheless, we stop at H&M to buy her an extra sweater. She's into large. Me, I'm happy: H&M is the first reasonably priced place I've seen in this country (where even a pause in a bathroom will cost you 200 Icelandic Krona -- nearly $2).
We walk along the shore. Reykjavik is small -- about half the size of Madison. Heck, Iceland itself is tiny if you consider the numbers. 393 000 people. That's the whole country. Wisconsin, a sparsely populated state, has fifteen times that number.
We pass an ice cream shop. Can I???
The girl loves the walk: the views to the mountains, half hidden in a layer of clouds, the calm waters of the bay, fishing boats, signs on the shore alerting you to whaling expeditions. And to fish eateries.
I have in mind a pause at two places: the Harpa Concert Hall, which I think is an amazing piece of architecture and the Sun Voyager Sculpture. The large sculpture makes you think that the artist had the Vikings in mind when he designed it, but in fact it is merely an idea of a dream boat moving toward the sun, toward light, with hope.
We head up toward the main drag now -- the Laugavegur. All pedestrian, full of shops.
A puffin was purchased (puffins figure prominently on the list of reasons Snowdrop wanted to visit Iceland). Not this one.
And down the hill we go, to once again rest in our hotel at the bottom of the incline.
Dinner is at an Italian eatery -- Grazie Trattoria. So many of our remaining dinners are at fish restaurants, but for this first evening (is it evening when the sun is overhead?) I thought I'd start us off with the easy and familiar menu. And yes, she does opt for a pizza (as do I), but she also adds a first course of mussels (loves them!), and a last course of Tiramisu (loves it!). You'd think this would be a good low cost dinner. Ha! It is good, but far from low cost.
Tomorrow, very early in the morning, we take IcelandAir to Copenhagen. We'll see more of Iceland on our way back.
with love...
