"Some people feel the rain, others just get wet."
- Bob Dylan
- Bob Dylan
After a long week of waiting and packing, and an even longer
time planning, north we go to Iceland. The forecast looks ominous this week, but we've been told that the weather in Iceland is never a sure thing, and a 10 day forecast is unreliable. Here's to hoping that's true! Our plan is to see the northern lights and overcast skies don't play into those plans.
The lady at the rent-a-car place was informative and nice enough for 7 in the morning, but I could have done without all the scare tactics of driving in Iceland (clearly a ploy to get you to buy additional insurance). She tried to sell me theft protection. I read somewhere that Iceland has one of the lowest crime rates of any country in the world. If I never got my car stolen in Quincy, MA, I think I'm all set in Reykjavik.
Driving in Iceland is surprisingly similar to driving in New England. You drive on the right side of the road, pass on the left, and street signs and lights are similar. It's a universal understanding that anything with a red circle with a slash across it is no good. Yield signs are mostly the same, too, which is helpful through the numerous roundabouts. Getting used to yellow street lights notifying you of a coming green light was new, but I kind of liked it. I got driving down pretty quickly in our little 4x4 Suzuki.
After a long nap at our guesthouse we explored Reykjavik. It was overcast and windy, but we did our best not to let that stop us. We were happy there was a warm booth to eat hot dogs in. I think my toppings (and there were many) would have flown off into the Atlantic Ocean had we eaten outside. Hallgrimskirkja is the famous church at the apex of the city (the one designed to look like a basaltic lava column) and getting to it was like walking on the observation deck at the Mount Washington observatory. Inside, we sat in a pew and prayed not to be blown into the Atlantic on our way down like hot dog toppings.
My first impressions of Reykjavik were good. So many places don't feel like they should, but Reykjavik felt like a cold sub arctic European capital. Most of the buildings are short to protect against high winds, and colorful to protect against depression in the winter, where daylight can be limited to 3 hours. The people were nice, but standoffish, and everything was outlandishly expensive. In fact, I would compare Iceland to Switzerland in that respect. I think they're secretly having a competition to see who can get away with charging the most for a standard main course.
After exploring the city, we went back to the guesthouse and finished the night off with some Brennivin vodka; also known as "Black Death" to Icelanders, and fell asleep. Naturally we slept in. When we woke up we took a drive to Reykjaladur Valley. Here we took a hike to a geothermal river where the water was flowing at the temperature of a warm bath. That was all well and good. The river felt like Heaven on Earth, it was the hike in and out that gave our duo some trouble. Though it was only a 5 mile round trip, the conditions weren't ideal. Ice particles were blowing hard in our direction on the way up and against us on the way down; very similar to a day above treeline in the White Mountains. In between we got wet bathing in the river and had to do our best to dry off quickly and put our clothes back on before freezing to the Iceland ground like trolls caught in the sun. Anybody from the outside looking in would have found that part particularly amusing. On the trail, we were surrounded by snow, ice, and steaming water, an unusual combination. Around the time we got back to the car it was dark. We took advantage and tried to find a place where the sky was clear so we could see the Northern Lights. No luck. The sky was either too cloudy or was too close to Reykjavik for us to see anything. The Golden Circle awaits us...
The lady at the rent-a-car place was informative and nice enough for 7 in the morning, but I could have done without all the scare tactics of driving in Iceland (clearly a ploy to get you to buy additional insurance). She tried to sell me theft protection. I read somewhere that Iceland has one of the lowest crime rates of any country in the world. If I never got my car stolen in Quincy, MA, I think I'm all set in Reykjavik.
Driving in Iceland is surprisingly similar to driving in New England. You drive on the right side of the road, pass on the left, and street signs and lights are similar. It's a universal understanding that anything with a red circle with a slash across it is no good. Yield signs are mostly the same, too, which is helpful through the numerous roundabouts. Getting used to yellow street lights notifying you of a coming green light was new, but I kind of liked it. I got driving down pretty quickly in our little 4x4 Suzuki.After a long nap at our guesthouse we explored Reykjavik. It was overcast and windy, but we did our best not to let that stop us. We were happy there was a warm booth to eat hot dogs in. I think my toppings (and there were many) would have flown off into the Atlantic Ocean had we eaten outside. Hallgrimskirkja is the famous church at the apex of the city (the one designed to look like a basaltic lava column) and getting to it was like walking on the observation deck at the Mount Washington observatory. Inside, we sat in a pew and prayed not to be blown into the Atlantic on our way down like hot dog toppings.
My first impressions of Reykjavik were good. So many places don't feel like they should, but Reykjavik felt like a cold sub arctic European capital. Most of the buildings are short to protect against high winds, and colorful to protect against depression in the winter, where daylight can be limited to 3 hours. The people were nice, but standoffish, and everything was outlandishly expensive. In fact, I would compare Iceland to Switzerland in that respect. I think they're secretly having a competition to see who can get away with charging the most for a standard main course. After exploring the city, we went back to the guesthouse and finished the night off with some Brennivin vodka; also known as "Black Death" to Icelanders, and fell asleep. Naturally we slept in. When we woke up we took a drive to Reykjaladur Valley. Here we took a hike to a geothermal river where the water was flowing at the temperature of a warm bath. That was all well and good. The river felt like Heaven on Earth, it was the hike in and out that gave our duo some trouble. Though it was only a 5 mile round trip, the conditions weren't ideal. Ice particles were blowing hard in our direction on the way up and against us on the way down; very similar to a day above treeline in the White Mountains. In between we got wet bathing in the river and had to do our best to dry off quickly and put our clothes back on before freezing to the Iceland ground like trolls caught in the sun. Anybody from the outside looking in would have found that part particularly amusing. On the trail, we were surrounded by snow, ice, and steaming water, an unusual combination. Around the time we got back to the car it was dark. We took advantage and tried to find a place where the sky was clear so we could see the Northern Lights. No luck. The sky was either too cloudy or was too close to Reykjavik for us to see anything. The Golden Circle awaits us...
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