The flights were all fine. We were only en route for something like 12h, which was impressive. With the time difference, of course we arrived early this morning, regardless…so it has been a long day! Thankfully, the car rental with Thrifty went really smoothly. They were waiting for us as soon as we excited customs (even though we were an hour late from dealing with the lack of bags!) and we had no problem with the price or conditions of
the car at all!
Around 6:30 or so we were on the road with nowhere to go! We decided to stop at whatever interested us along the way…so we headed down the highway to Reykjavik and were distracted by the sights on the Reykjanes Peninsula en route to the city. The ground is completely covered with moss-covered lava rock, which makes for a pretty barren landscape. In the distance, we could see the steam coming from the Blue Lagoon so took another highway to get there. There was basically no one on the roads at all! Kind of a weird feeling!
The Blue Lagoon is Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction. It is a huge hot pool that is supposed to have excellent healing qualities due to the mineral content in the water. As well, no chlorine is needed because the water comes from the ocean and is replaced entirely every 40 minutes! We couldn’t go in today because we don’t have our bags, but also because we arrived hours before it opens. It was an eerie feeling to walk around the lava fields and murky blue water with no one around. We’re planning to return in two weeks when we are in Reykjavik again on the way home.
We continued South to the town of Grindavik, which is a small fishing village with some really nice houses. We didn’t stop here, but continued on to the oldest lighthouse in Iceland, Reykjanesta. It was a cool find at this location because as well as the lighthouse, there were boiling hot mud pots and steam vents. Nothing tourist-y about the location, really…but it w
as neat to be the only ones walking around! We also climbed up a steep rock cliff to have a better view of Eldey. This white island is home to one of the world’s largest gannet bird colonies (about 16000 birds nest on the island each year!).
At this point it was almost noon and we were definitely feeling jet-lagged and hungry, so we decided to make a bee-line for the city. We didn’t make it that far!! About 10 minutes away from the city we decided we needed to nap in the car! So, we pulled off the highway and into a school parking lot and slept for about an hour. It worked wonders. We were then able to navigate around the city and find a grocery store where we found some Fanta Limon and croissants for lunch. All good things.
We parked downtown and walked around the inner part of the city for a few hours. After visiting the information centre and getting some ideas of where we could stay the night, we found our hotel as well as a few unique stores and shops. We visited the church and saw the old residence of the President (did you kn
ow that Iceland has both a Prime Minister and a President?!).
After crashing for about another hour as well as finally having a shower, we met the son of one of my patients outside of the tourist info centre. He took us out for pizza at this really great pizza place and gave us some tips on what to see and do while we are here for the next two weeks. It was good fun. It was like having our private guide to show us around the city!!
Staying awake is challenging…lots to accomplish tomorrow!
Night!
-Allison
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