We Made It To Iceland

We made it to Iceland! This has been a great way to start off the adventure, and we’ve all really enjoyed Reykjavik and the sights we saw on the Golden Circle drive. Coming here was Steven’s idea, after discovering that Icelandair was by far the cheapest airline to fly to Europe. The girls and I needed some convincing about staying four days- but I’m so glad that we did. Reykjavik is a cool city and it’s been fun to wander around and check out the restaurants, cafes, different architecture, flea market, shops, etc. The food is pretty much what I expected, given that I had read about the local specialties, which include seared sheep’s head, rancid shark meat, rams testicles, and mashed fish. We’ve managed to find things that we could eat, though, and have become regulars at the wonderful bakery right across from our apartment. This morning we wandered in there rather dazed, trying to decide which delicious pastries to try and what sandwiches to pack for our lunch, and the server said, “I think that you two need your coffee first, as you look so tired and can’t decide what you want today!”

We are staying at the Reykjavik4you Apartments, and our place is excellent. www.reykjavik4you.com It feels like we walked into a dwell magazine photo shoot or an IKEA showroom, and it’s so nice to have some space, rather than just a hotel room. The apartments aren’t cheap (nothing in Iceland is), but the location is perfect, Mickey at reception is so sweet and helpful, and the apartment is really nice, so it’s well worth the cost for our stay. Steven says that he would happily live here for a year, and Greta agrees with him, but Francesca and I are excited for our next stop- London.

Today the girls got to choose the activity, so we spent the day at the Blue Lagoon. Honestly, we thought that it would be a total tourist trap and weren’t thrilled with shelling out a small fortune to spend the day there, but it was beautiful and wonderfully relaxing. Our aching bones thanked us all morning, and the kids were thrilled to soak it all up. The geothermal pools were incredibly soothing, and the weather cooperated for the day; it turned out to be a lot of fun, much better than expected. And I think that the kids felt the same about yesterday’s excursion to see huge geysers and waterfalls, driving through the different landscapes of Iceland, which vary unbelievably from lava rock to moonscape to lush green valleys and fields that look like scenes from The Lord of the Rings. It was a long day of driving, but was great to see so much.

The wi-fi in our apartment isn’t working, so we haven’t been able to connect with anyone or check in on things back home, other than a quick peek from Franny’s ipod touch while at a café for dessert last night. It was a scramble right up to the last minute of leaving, and the final load of laundry got left in the dryer (a friend from work had actually warned me about this, as the same thing happened to her when she was leaving the country for a year!), but we decided that there wasn’t anything else that we absolutely needed and we just had to get out of the house. The bedding was stripped and washed, the floors vacuumed and cleaned, we scrubbed the bathrooms and dusted everything, it was time to go. Our adventure was beginning, and we took a deep breath and jumped in.