Day One - Iceland




    Watching the sun set and then immediately rise again as we flew across Hudson Bay toward Greenland was definitely the high point of our overnight flight to Iceland. Greenland’s rocky, glacier-swept peaks let us know that we were indeed near the Arctic Circle.

     Iceland greeted us with rain as we stepped off the plane. Immigration and customs was a breeze. Our rented WiFi hot spot was waiting for us at the Ten Eleven store, and Hertz was able to find us a slightly larger car – we can fit our suitcases and the rental wheelchair, which was also waiting for us in suburban Reykjavik. Now, if we can just cram in all four of us and the road groceries and snacks we’ll need for our trip around the Ring Road.

     On our drive from Keflavik Airport into Reykjavik we saw hundreds of beautiful purple wildflowers, which Elyse, the Icelandic/science student, informed us were an invasive species!

     After contacting our landlady, we met her in front of our home for the next four days. Our apartment is located in the downtown area, within easy walking distance of Reykjavik’s major sites. We drove by the Hallgrimskirkja church, and plan to take the elevator to the top of its tower, perhaps today.


     Sarah and I found pasta and sauce for dinner at the nearby Bonus market (too tired to find a restaurant), where we also found lots of things that we could neither read nor pronounce. Apples, oranges, and cheese don’t need labels, though, and chocolate chip cookies are self-explanatory. The blueberries came from New Jersey.


     With no-to-almost-no sleep on the plane (it’s surprising how much constant daylight affects your ability to sleep on a plane), dinner was all we could manage. We were off to bed.

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