Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
The taxi picked us up promptly at 5:15am for our 5 minute taxi ride to Gatwick (as well as 5 sterling). We checked our bags in no time, and were through security with a good 1.5 hours to spare. We picked up a wireless signal and had some tea before heading to gate 106. We ended up leaving early for our PACKED flight to (who knew it was so popular?)
We decided not to get a rental car, since we were only staying for such a short three days. After our 3 hours flight, we realized that the airport ‘shuttle’ bus is expensive…. As is EVERYTHING in Iceland. Zoinks. We decided to try and save some $$ and got a return ticket for $40 each. We boarded the bus to find no seats available and then were asked to get off the bus to wait for the next. We found that Icelandic people were helpful….but not the friendliest folks on the planet. Katie attempted to try and get a rental car from one of the three companies only to learn that noone cares that she’s gold status on anything….and the cost was twice what was quoted on the Internet. I can see how Bjork comes from this country….
So…back to the bus, we catch the 45 minute ride into Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. There isn’t much going from the airport into the town…. And it reminds us of Denver, Colorado, and that they’re preparing for huge urban sprawl…so currently the international airport is in the middle of no where, but…one day…going to be in the center of it all. Reykjavík, which took Dermot and Katie a few times to properly pronounce, is Iceland’s largest city, with a latitude at 64°08′ N, the world’s most northern national capital. Although the Arctic Circle is less than 200 miles away, the Gulf Stream so moderates temperatures that in winter Reykjavik is often warmer than New York….but Katie won’t hold her breath on that one…. It was pretty chilly. We came when the weather was around 50 degrees or so, (between 8- 11 degrees Celsius) . After doing some research at our fabulous internet connected hotel, Sunna, we ordered a rental car for Thursday, and we decided to check out the town. Our hotel was very centrally located next to the “huge church.” We window shopped (which even felt expensive, since clothes were four times the price then US costs) and decided to get an afternoon snack around 3pm at the ‘boat’ shop. Our $15/each sandwiches were served hot with ‘mystery’ sauce and corn…. But we were hungry, so we ate it. We toured around the pond to see the plethora of ducks, swans and Icelandic pigeons (eek! Carla!) – and we were drawn to a ‘FREE’ sign on the outside of the National Gallery of Iceland, and so we gave it a whirl.
Back to the hotel, we did some searching for recommended ‘reasonably’ priced restaurants, and we were happy to stumble on a budget traveler article online. We found a burger place called Vitabar with delicious burgers and reasonably priced local beers. Katie did feel a little guilty for eating cow after bonding with Uncle Mick and Uncle Bernie’s cows.
After dinner, we wondered towards the light beam shinning in the sky…we were expecting a club opening or something of that sort… but stumbled on Yoko Ono’s tower of light dedication to John Lennon—and you can see some sad attempts at photos below. Back to the hotel, Katie bought some fizzy water by accident (couldn’t read the label) and we hit the hay.