Icelandaire has put together a pretty good marketing gig, flying direct out of several US cities to the capital of Reykjavik . If you can find time to spend the night here you can cut the price of your ticket to Europe considerably. We took our overnight flight from Denver arriving in the cold, wet 6:00 a.m. dark. The highlight of our flight was getting our first glimpse of the Northern Lights from the 38,000 feet viewing platform of our 757 and boy were they amazing!
Our first order of business after checking into the hotel was......sleep! Three hours was enough to get us going on the streets of Old Town Reykjavik. Lunch(Geysir) was our first chance to sample the famous Icelandic seafood and boy was it good! I had the salted cod which probably had been swimming blissfully in the ocean only a few hours earlier. Dinner was even better at Grillmarken where I was presented with a huge plate of split local langosteins simply prepared but also simply amazing.
Shops line the streets enticing you to buy their wool sweaters with the distinctive pattern around the neck. This is the point in the trip when the local look is tempting, before you really think about how this fashion statement might play back home. I resisted and opted for a more modern look which I'm sure I will be thankful for once I'm back home.
I thought Oklahoma had quickly changing weather but it doesn't hold a candle to Iceland. During our first two days we experienced: rain, mist, wind, sunshine, clouds, more rain, more sun....you get the idea. While cool, it wasn't frigid and was quite easily handled with my new 'stands up to even the harshest conditions ' parka. At times I even found myself sweating! I'm sure I'll have more thrown at me during the week.
Tomorrow: Taken it to the streets.
