Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Day 1 in Iceland

[Lots of photos]
We made it "easy peasy".  The flight was on-time and we left Seattle on a sunny afternoon.
The flight was 7 1/4 hours and it never got dark.  Very strange site to see
And then it was about 6am and quite lovely
At the Keflavik airport (the main international airport) we were parking next to "The Iron Maiden" World tour plane. [who cares]  Our Icelandic seatmate warned us of the Icelandic "moonscape" when we came in from the airport.  Rather like the big Island (Hawaii) as it is totally volcanic
The trees are in the city where they have been specially planted.  It is rather flat - except for some hills a bit of a ways away

[with snow]  We had a bit of breakfast (European: bread, meat, cheese, tomatoes and Elaine made waffles)along with the Bulgarian national Women's Soccer Team, staying in this hotel,  a brief nap and then headed out to walk along "the" retail shopping street.  Our only purchases were some tissues and a calendar.  Then we visited Hallgrimskirkja a very famous Lutheran church, right in the middle of downtown.  The shape is supposed to be reminiscent of basalt volcanic columns [not unlike ones found along the Columbia River in Washington] and is still very controversial.
A ride to the top of the tower provides great views all around.

By late afternoon it had begun to cloud up and the temperatures had dropped to the high 40's, clouds and wind.  A stop for coffee and skyr cake (a very nice, light, yogurt based cheesecake) was called for.  It's just about time for some dinner and then an early night.  Edda will call us this evening and we will make our plans for tomorrow.  She has promised to be our personal tour guide - aren't we lucky?

Life is such an adventure!  .

4 comments:

Simone said...

So nice, that you're going to meet Edda! And Iceland seems like a wonderful country to me.
BTW... Do you still have some time left in your busy schedule? I'd love to see you again!

Laura said...

Woo-hoo! You made it and have pictures to share already! Thanks for keeping us U.S.-bound folks in your thoughts, you two. Isn't it amazing to see how incredibly flat so many other parts of the world are compared to where we live? Enjoy your time way up there!

ballardquilter said...

Your travels are off to a wonderful start.

Caroline said...

Looks fantastic. I'm very curious about your Iceland adventures. Tomorrow is the big day in the Netherlands. see you bye bye Caroaffers