3 Oct 2015

My friend Robin and I arrived to a cold and rainy Reykjavik this morning.  The flight was not too unpleasant,  We sat next to a man on his way to Zurich, a dual citizen now living in Seattle, on his way back for a visit.  He was very nice and we enjoyed his company.  Behind us was a woman with two young boys.  The younger of the two was a very exited child about 4.  About the time we were hoping to get a bit of shut eye he got loud and fidgety, kicking the back of our seats, making it impossible to fall asleep (although I almost never get to sleep on an airplane so it may not have mattered either way).  Robin was inclined to strangle him at one point but logistics save his wee little neck!

After dropping our luggage off at the hotel, Robin and I wandered around Reykjavik city center.  We had a marvelous breakfast at the Laundromat (there is actually a laundry facility downstairs we discovered when we went down to find the toilet).  Everything was very good.  Fresh baked bread, excellent butter and the coffee – superb! (…and I am VERY picky about my coffee!)  The service was very relaxed (read slooowwww).  Also, we might have sat there for quite a time waiting for the check if the Canadian couple at the adjoining table hadn’t warned us on their way out that they did not bring you a check.  You walk up to the register, point to your table and the order is brought up by table number.

The Laundromat

We visited Hallgrímskirkja Cathedral; a very lovely Lutheran church and the Harpa Concert Hall.  My camera battery died as we reached Harpa which was most disappointing as it is a beautiful building.  I hope to get back to it before we come home.  The cold apparently drains camera batteries quickly!

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Reykjavik city center is very picturesque.  Beautiful little buildings on narrow streets and lots of interesting things to see.  We saw trolls hanging out on the street and vikings guarding some of the store entrances. It is easy to walk around town, as long as you watch out for the motorists. Our Fly Bus driver from the airport this morning ran a stop sign.  This afternoon walking around town we saw a car driving the wrong way down a one way street.  Rather than queuing up behind the other traffic traveling in the correct direction, that had edged over so that this wrong way driver could get by, a car pulled up onto the sidewalk to go around him!  Those of us on the sidewalk turned around and quickly went back the other way to make room for the sidewalk driver!!!

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By the way, it is really cold here!  Looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow we have seen predictions for snow, rain and mostly sunny!  I guess that means be prepared for anything!

We had a nice dinner at Hofnin Restaurant on the harbor.  The food and the service was very good.  We had a nice view and a very pleasant dinner.  Considering is has been over 24 hours since either of us has slept that we managed  to carry on a conversation was pretty amazing!