Post by Tulips on May 28, 2015 22:29:14 GMT
Several months ago I mentioned to a friend of mine, who happens to be a travel agent, that if she saw a deal or special for Iceland to contact me. She did so in February and I booked a flight and hotel package and then added some excursions. I have just returned from this adventure.
My friend emailed me and said that from my postings on Facebook, it looked like the trip was fantastic. She wanted to know if it really was fantastic. My answer was that it was awesome, spectacular, on of the best vacations ever and I want to go back so badly.
Below is my tale:
I started off at Halifax airport to await the direct flight to Keflavik. The flight actually left 10 minutes early and landed 30 minutes early, for a total of 3 and a half hours in the air. Since this was a red eye, not much sleep was had by me. Icelandair does not serve free meals and they did not offer breakfast service at all. They did give everybody a free bottle of water. The flight itself was fine.
We arrived at 4:30 in the morning and they pulled stairs up to the plane. We were then taken to an area where we had to go through security all again. I have know idea why this was done and I was told this wasn't normal, although I have seen some complaints about this on the Keflavik airport site, so I'm guessing this must be a newer procedure. Off came everything and then they took all the water that we had been given on the plane. Again, don't understand as the water was provided after security and we were nowhere else but on the plane. I was a bit miffed as I wanted to use the water during the day. Anyway, no matter, I wasn't going to let it bother me.
I then proceeded through the arrival duty free shop where I promptly purchased a bottle of wine to have over the next few days. Iceland is incredibly expensive, so it is better to buy booze here than in a store in the city.
My luggage was waiting for me when I was done and I headed straight for the flybys transfer, which I had pre booked. The ride into the city took about 45 minutes or so. We stopped at the bus station to transfer to a small minibus. The streets in Reykjavik are narrow and the big buses cannot pass through. This transfer took all of 2 minutes and I was on my way. I was dropped right at the door of my hotel, the Icelandair Marina, which is located at the marina. Go figure.
I was at the hotel a little before 7am. My room was of course, not ready. I hadn't expected it to be. But, the hotel promised me a room by 9am and they did hold true to that. In hindsight and if I go again, I will book the room for the night before so I can get right in it. At that hour of the morning, none of the sights or shops are open.
I had breakfast at the hotel. This was not included this day, but was included all the other days. It cost me 2900 Kroner, which is roughly $29 CAD. It was a big spread and all you could eat though. I tried Skyr, the Icelandic yogurt and it was heavenly. Wish we could get it here because it is healthier than Greek yogurt.
Not one to waste valuable time, went off in search of photo opportunities. I walked along the waterfront and my first stop was the Solfar sculpture (the sun voyager). This sculpture, shaped like a viking ship, was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the city of Reykjavik.
The next stop was the fabulous Hallgrimskirkja. This is the church that is shaped like a rocket. What a magnificent building. It wasn't open when I was there at this time, but I spent a fair bit of time walking around the outside taking photos of it and the Lief Erikson statue.
I then started walking back down in the general direction of my hotel. Reykjavik is very walkable, especially if you are in the city centre. I walked by
numerous interesting shops, but nothing was open yet. On my walk, I ran into the clerk from the front desk of my hotel. His shift was over, but he remembered me and informed me my room was ready. I headed back and picked up my luggage from storage and found my room.
The room was small, but still functional. The bathroom was the same. In fact, the hotel had a sign up about this fact. I loved this touch. The whole room had a seafaring theme, with seaweed wallpaper and net bags for the remote. Really quirky and different. I loved it.
I had been debating going to the national museum. It opened at 10am and I had to be at my hotel for 12:30 for my grand city tour and see about lunch. It was also a good walking distance from the hotel, so I decided I would not have time to see it properly. Instead, i decided to walk back up to the church as it was open now and go to the top to see the view of the city. This did not disappoint. The views were spectacular and it was a beautiful sunny day. For those wondering, you do not have to climb piles of stairs. There is an elevator to the top and then only 20 or so stairs to the platform.
On my way back down, I had a look in some shops and found a Christmas Store. I got some ornaments, after I got over the sticker shock. You wouldn't believe how much 3 little ornaments cost. Yikes!
I had lunch at a pizza place and the service was quick. This was cheaper than the ornaments. LOL!
I then headed back to the hotel to meet my pickup for the city tour. The pickup for Reykjavik excursions arrived on time and we headed out for the main bus station, where we transferred to the big bus. All the buses are clearly labeled, so you cannot go wrong. You just have to show your voucher.
We started out by being shown many sites while on the bus. Then we made our first stop, at the Grotta Lighthouse. I love lighthouses and have recently been taking photos os some near where I live. This one has a different shape compared to the one's where I live, so it was nice to see.
We then stopped at the Perlan. This is a conference centre built high on a hill. The views of the city from here are even more spectacular than those from the church.
We then made our way through different parts of the city and stopped at Hofdi House. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met here in 1986 in what was a first step in ending the Cold War. Unfortunately, there was a man sitting on a bench there and despite that fact that there were numerous people with cameras, he refused to move. So he is in everyone's photos.
The tour finished up at the church. Since I had already been, I headed back to my hotel because my next adventure was starting at 5:30pm.
I went down to the front desk to ask them to help me get a reservation for the next night at a restaurant across the street from the hotel and the clerk said there was a message that my tour, "Warm Baths, Cool Lights" had been cancelled. They said they tried to call me earlier in the day, but as I had been out, did not get the message. So, the clerk was on the phone to the company and we were trying to sort out what I could do for the evening and then the pickup shows up. It turns out that the original guide for the tour called in sick and they were unsure if a replacement could be found, but they did find one and then failed to notify the hotel. So, a bit of confusion, but it all worked out in the end. In fact, I was the only person on the tour, which was great.
As I ended up with a private guide, there was all kinds of flexibility in what we could do. We stopped at a few places for photos.
Above is the Eurasion tectonic plate.
I asked if there were any Game of Thrones locations around? Katrina, my guide, indicated there were and we hiked up to a spectacular waterfall area used in the series. I was able to spend quite a bit of time getting photos and even dug the tripod out.
After., we headed to the Fontana hot springs for a lovely buffet dinner. I tired the lamb meatballs. Normally, I am not a fan of lamb, but the Icelandic lamb is very good. They also had this amazing smoothie. Icelandic food is very fresh and you are getting good quality stuff.
It was then time for the baths. Now, this is where I discovered they aren't big on privacy in Iceland. They expect you to shower nude and there are no cubicles or areas where you can hide. Therefore, you see it all. The fastest shower I ever took, I can tell you. LOL! The baths were lovely. They are a lot smaller than the blue lagoon and there is a lot less people. Therefore, I found it a much nicer place and less touristy. The view isn't bad either.
After finishing up at the baths, it was time to head back to Reykjavik and it was 11pm. I totally lost track of time because it was still light out. I was running on total adrenaline. I had been up for darn near 48 hours.
My friend emailed me and said that from my postings on Facebook, it looked like the trip was fantastic. She wanted to know if it really was fantastic. My answer was that it was awesome, spectacular, on of the best vacations ever and I want to go back so badly.
Below is my tale:
I started off at Halifax airport to await the direct flight to Keflavik. The flight actually left 10 minutes early and landed 30 minutes early, for a total of 3 and a half hours in the air. Since this was a red eye, not much sleep was had by me. Icelandair does not serve free meals and they did not offer breakfast service at all. They did give everybody a free bottle of water. The flight itself was fine.
We arrived at 4:30 in the morning and they pulled stairs up to the plane. We were then taken to an area where we had to go through security all again. I have know idea why this was done and I was told this wasn't normal, although I have seen some complaints about this on the Keflavik airport site, so I'm guessing this must be a newer procedure. Off came everything and then they took all the water that we had been given on the plane. Again, don't understand as the water was provided after security and we were nowhere else but on the plane. I was a bit miffed as I wanted to use the water during the day. Anyway, no matter, I wasn't going to let it bother me.
I then proceeded through the arrival duty free shop where I promptly purchased a bottle of wine to have over the next few days. Iceland is incredibly expensive, so it is better to buy booze here than in a store in the city.
My luggage was waiting for me when I was done and I headed straight for the flybys transfer, which I had pre booked. The ride into the city took about 45 minutes or so. We stopped at the bus station to transfer to a small minibus. The streets in Reykjavik are narrow and the big buses cannot pass through. This transfer took all of 2 minutes and I was on my way. I was dropped right at the door of my hotel, the Icelandair Marina, which is located at the marina. Go figure.
I was at the hotel a little before 7am. My room was of course, not ready. I hadn't expected it to be. But, the hotel promised me a room by 9am and they did hold true to that. In hindsight and if I go again, I will book the room for the night before so I can get right in it. At that hour of the morning, none of the sights or shops are open.
I had breakfast at the hotel. This was not included this day, but was included all the other days. It cost me 2900 Kroner, which is roughly $29 CAD. It was a big spread and all you could eat though. I tried Skyr, the Icelandic yogurt and it was heavenly. Wish we could get it here because it is healthier than Greek yogurt.
Not one to waste valuable time, went off in search of photo opportunities. I walked along the waterfront and my first stop was the Solfar sculpture (the sun voyager). This sculpture, shaped like a viking ship, was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the city of Reykjavik.
The next stop was the fabulous Hallgrimskirkja. This is the church that is shaped like a rocket. What a magnificent building. It wasn't open when I was there at this time, but I spent a fair bit of time walking around the outside taking photos of it and the Lief Erikson statue.
I then started walking back down in the general direction of my hotel. Reykjavik is very walkable, especially if you are in the city centre. I walked by
numerous interesting shops, but nothing was open yet. On my walk, I ran into the clerk from the front desk of my hotel. His shift was over, but he remembered me and informed me my room was ready. I headed back and picked up my luggage from storage and found my room.
The room was small, but still functional. The bathroom was the same. In fact, the hotel had a sign up about this fact. I loved this touch. The whole room had a seafaring theme, with seaweed wallpaper and net bags for the remote. Really quirky and different. I loved it.
I had been debating going to the national museum. It opened at 10am and I had to be at my hotel for 12:30 for my grand city tour and see about lunch. It was also a good walking distance from the hotel, so I decided I would not have time to see it properly. Instead, i decided to walk back up to the church as it was open now and go to the top to see the view of the city. This did not disappoint. The views were spectacular and it was a beautiful sunny day. For those wondering, you do not have to climb piles of stairs. There is an elevator to the top and then only 20 or so stairs to the platform.
On my way back down, I had a look in some shops and found a Christmas Store. I got some ornaments, after I got over the sticker shock. You wouldn't believe how much 3 little ornaments cost. Yikes!
I had lunch at a pizza place and the service was quick. This was cheaper than the ornaments. LOL!
I then headed back to the hotel to meet my pickup for the city tour. The pickup for Reykjavik excursions arrived on time and we headed out for the main bus station, where we transferred to the big bus. All the buses are clearly labeled, so you cannot go wrong. You just have to show your voucher.
We started out by being shown many sites while on the bus. Then we made our first stop, at the Grotta Lighthouse. I love lighthouses and have recently been taking photos os some near where I live. This one has a different shape compared to the one's where I live, so it was nice to see.
We then stopped at the Perlan. This is a conference centre built high on a hill. The views of the city from here are even more spectacular than those from the church.
We then made our way through different parts of the city and stopped at Hofdi House. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met here in 1986 in what was a first step in ending the Cold War. Unfortunately, there was a man sitting on a bench there and despite that fact that there were numerous people with cameras, he refused to move. So he is in everyone's photos.
The tour finished up at the church. Since I had already been, I headed back to my hotel because my next adventure was starting at 5:30pm.
I went down to the front desk to ask them to help me get a reservation for the next night at a restaurant across the street from the hotel and the clerk said there was a message that my tour, "Warm Baths, Cool Lights" had been cancelled. They said they tried to call me earlier in the day, but as I had been out, did not get the message. So, the clerk was on the phone to the company and we were trying to sort out what I could do for the evening and then the pickup shows up. It turns out that the original guide for the tour called in sick and they were unsure if a replacement could be found, but they did find one and then failed to notify the hotel. So, a bit of confusion, but it all worked out in the end. In fact, I was the only person on the tour, which was great.
As I ended up with a private guide, there was all kinds of flexibility in what we could do. We stopped at a few places for photos.
Above is the Eurasion tectonic plate.
I asked if there were any Game of Thrones locations around? Katrina, my guide, indicated there were and we hiked up to a spectacular waterfall area used in the series. I was able to spend quite a bit of time getting photos and even dug the tripod out.
After., we headed to the Fontana hot springs for a lovely buffet dinner. I tired the lamb meatballs. Normally, I am not a fan of lamb, but the Icelandic lamb is very good. They also had this amazing smoothie. Icelandic food is very fresh and you are getting good quality stuff.
It was then time for the baths. Now, this is where I discovered they aren't big on privacy in Iceland. They expect you to shower nude and there are no cubicles or areas where you can hide. Therefore, you see it all. The fastest shower I ever took, I can tell you. LOL! The baths were lovely. They are a lot smaller than the blue lagoon and there is a lot less people. Therefore, I found it a much nicer place and less touristy. The view isn't bad either.
After finishing up at the baths, it was time to head back to Reykjavik and it was 11pm. I totally lost track of time because it was still light out. I was running on total adrenaline. I had been up for darn near 48 hours.
I've got to get this one also. Don't know what happened to the photos!