What a day. Well actually what a two days. In true “Iceland Style” (frozen food supermarket not country), I’ve had a 241…. Actually more a 222:
2 Days
2 hours sleep
2 countries
To suggest I’m tired is an understatement.
Having got a lift to Newark, I gingerly placed my bag on the scale to find out that actually surprisingly my bag was underweight! (I’m not sure how!) I popped some more stuff in and headed towards the gate….
I’m still unsure why people would want to “preboard” the plane. You’re gonna be sat on your bum in that seat for the next 4, 5 or however many hours… Why have extra time sat down?! Anyway… We boarded, I’d been switched back into an exit row (following a 3 time switch debacle!) And due to the man behind wanting to sit next to his partner ended up making a new friend in Emma (shout out to Emma, who for the record agrees with my preboard point!).
I somehow managed to pick up 2ish hours sleep. I don’t sleep well on planes…. Oh and a very nice new blanket for the collection! Some shluf, Sour Patch kids Courtesy of Emma and some conversation later we land in Keflavik Iceland…
I head straight for the “Shuttle bus to car hire” Pickup point (Outside in the cold, not wearing appropriate clothing) to realize that actually I was being met in the terminal. I got back in side just before a quick snowstorm and tried to buy a coffee. Apparently “The coffee machine doesn’t open before 8am, but the one over there works”… Who knew coffee machines had feelings.
Eventually I was on my way – rumbling along in my Opel (Vauxhall!) Mokka 4×4, with Nails in the tires! (Good nails – Spikes out, NOT Bad Nails – Spikes in).
The man at the car rental explained that it wasn’t going to get light until 10am, and that there wasn’t much do/see when the sun was down but I could head to Grindavik and drive the very long way round to Reykjavik that way.
On arrival at Grindavik I found nothing…. Well nothing but a very off road road which led right down to where the land met the sea. (And at times, the water did meet the land, and I had flashbacks of Mersea 2015 – 4×4 copes better in water than civic!)
This tiny dirt track of a road led me to watch the sunrise over the sea by the lighthouse. Pretty cool!
From there I headed to Reykjavik, stopped off for another coffee and cake before realizing that I couldn’t check in until 4 so I ought to do something with my day!
So I headed out to do my own version of the “Golden Circle” tour that a lot of tour operators here run for me this included
- A hike/walk/stroll/slide round bits of Þingvellir National Park
- Seeing the Geysirs
- Seeing the Gullfoss waterfall
I’m not really going to write much more about it, but just leave you with some pictures!
I had dinner tonight in a restaurant round the corner from my hotel and now I’m off to bed but first must decide what to do tomorrow… sadly no northern lights were visible tonight 🙁
