Well, that felt almost like a normal pre-covid journey… barely any masks, no hand sanitiser in sight and an aeroplane.
It wasn’t until we were moving down the runway that I realised I had never actually expected to go- so many of our plans have been cancelled that I suppose I hadn’t got my hopes up!
A slight delay in the airport, a rearrangement of children (other people seemed to want to sit near theirs- no accounting for taste) before we took off and a turbulence free flight all resulted in landing in Iceland only a few minutes after we were scheduled to. I had no idea how many people used Iceland as a stop on the way to the US, I think half the passengers hsd connecting flights.
My favourite passenger backstory was the Icelandic man who told everyone who would listen in a variety of languages and volumes that he had just spent a month in Morocco with a woman he met on the internet and had got engaged! Queuing is very dull, so you have to get your entertainment where you can!
We were sad that dense cloud cover gave us no chance of seeing the volcano, but unsurprised, we will have to save that treat for later. The pilot apologised, so I think he was sad too.
Collecting the hire car (Hyundai Santa Fe) was very straightforward, although the number of chips in the paint and windscreen should have given us a hint as to the likely road surface, and we set off to the bridge between continents. Keith terrified another tourist by rolling the car foward slowly whilst in electric mode without realising she was leaning on the car. She jumped a bit!
We were immediately distracted (third junction from the airport) by an Icelandic supermarket and went in to buy snacks and a map. Forgot the map and just bought biscuits that we didn’t recognise- the rule while travelling is no familiar brands!
We did make it to the bridge- it is surreal standing in the gap between two tectonic plates moving apart at a rate of 2cm a year, but we didn’t linger as it was chilly.
Keith was doing a great job on the wrong side of the road in an unfamiliar car and we made it through Reykjavik and up to Geysir. There is literally nothing here except a hotel (review to follow), a restaurant, a tourist information area and the hot springs.
The journey here was epic, every twist in the road revealed the next geographical treat- glacial valleys, meandering rivers, alluvial flood plains, crevasses created by water, peaks carved by wind, enormous lakes, snow-capped mountains. Some things we are going back to visit tomorrow.
We didn’t quite make our 8pm table, but with little fuss they found us somewhere to sit and something to eat. We went for the tasting platter for 2 and some chicken wings as a starter. Absolutely amazing but I am glad we didn’t order more! The goat pate and reindeer slice in bread were my favourite, Danny ate the jam with a spoon and Mila struggled with her conscience while chowing down on Rudolf! Keith tried a local beer and I had the Artic Char- which looked like salmon but wasn’t as fishy. We were way too full for pudding and it was already 10.30pm, so we changed back into walking boots and went up to the geysir.
We watched Strokkur erupt from every conceivable angle, but the sky behind it was the same white as the steam, so it made photos tricky. The bigger geysir (imaginatively named: Geysir) has been dormant for years which has the advantsge that you can look into the clear pool and see the tunnel down to the centre of the world… We all liked the pool that looked like it was a pan of water on a rolling boil. Right at the entrance is a sign for stupid tourists that we all scoffed at, but I have to admit it was strangely tempting to see how hot the water was. I managed to resist and so avoided the 63K drive it might have resulted in!
Our first day in Iceland was done and we were all ready to collapse and take advantage of the excellent black out curtains that kept back the very late dusk followed almost immediately by a very early dawn!