Iceland – Day 1

First full day in the land of ice and fire!  We are honored to have Tim’s cousins – Sondra & Blake Groves – join us on this short adventure.  Tim’s birthday and Sondra’s birthday fall in the same week so this will be one heckuva celebration week for them!

The temperature when we landed was an amazing 48 degrees (43 with windchill); quite a contrast to the 90 degrees in KC at the same time (basically midnight in KC).  After a quick dropoff of luggage at the guest house (yes….guesthouse…not hotel) we set out to explore Reykjavik.

First stop was lunch as we hadn’t eaten for a long time.  Side note: Icelandair is a no frills airline.  We had orange juice twice.  No snacks, just juice.   Anyway, we found a restaurant just around the corner from the guesthouse and their specialty was pizza.  Our previous experience with pizza in Iceland was this: cheese pizza with grape jelly on top.  Don’t knock it – it was strangely good!  This restaurant’s pizza had a variety of interesting combinations such as shrimp, mangoes, and fresh sweet chillies.  It was delicious and even better was the view!  We sat in the front of the restaurant on a busy pedestrian street and people watched.  🙂

We meandered up the streets heading to Hallgrimskirkja, stopping at several little shops along the way.  Here are some shots of the down town Reykjavik area:

Of course the street culminates at Hallgrimskirkja:

On our 2014 trip to Iceland we were able to visit the observation deck at the top of the church but not the sanctuary due to a scheduled event.  Today everything was open and boy what a contrast between Iceland in August and Iceland in November!  Bright blue skies – we could see for miles….all the way to the peninsula across the bay.

Here are photos of the City from the observation deck:

After taking photos over Reykjavik we took a stroll through the sanctuary.  Interesting as it has the same interior as exterior – kind of a gray concrete look.  What was surprising and SO impressive was the pipe organ.  During the summer they offer free organ concerts at regular intervals but we are booked during each of those time slots.  That would have been an amazing experience though as we are certain the acoustics are superb.

We continued to explore the town, walking around all afternoon.  Here are some more pictures to give you a flavor of the uniqueness that is Reykjavik.

A little sod on the roof…

A street Water Closet (WC) (also known as a bathroom)…

In the evening we had dinner reservations at The Perlan.  It’s a multi-use business – manmade ice cave underground to educate people about ice caves, glaciers, and the environment, a planetarium, a museum, and a glass dome restaurant at the top that rotates.  The rotation didn’t happen while we were there but it didn’t matter because the views over the city and the water were amazing!!  Dinner was three courses: a spicy seafood soup (wasn’t spicy and not really sure of the ingredients, but Jay actually ate it so it must not be too bad), a ribeye steak with fondant potato (if only we knew how to cook those!), and a delicious creme brulee for dessert.  It was a special and unique way to celebrate the cousin’s birthdays.

After dinner we headed back to the guesthouse….oh yes…”guesthouse”.  We are located on one of the main drags which is a great location to have as a base.  But it isn’t a hotel – while the Groves’ have a room with en-suite, the Collins’ do not and will share the facilities at the end of the hall with other guests.  We knew that going in so it wasn’t a surprise, just something different from what we’re accustomed to.

After a long day (extended day since we started our days Tuesday in KC and it’s now Wednesday late after noon in KC) we are calling it a night.  Big plans for tomorrow so we need our rest!