Reykjavik Day 1

I have a confession to make.

I lied to you all.

It was innocent enough…..

I must have lost some brain function as of late because I promised you that there would be no Tectonic Plate discussions forthcoming.

But here we are at Tectonic Central!

The Actual Place where we can SEE the convergence/divergence of two of the Earth’s basic plates in action! The Eurasian and North American Plates here in Iceland show that rift between those plates as makes its way all the way to the surface in dramatic fashion. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tremors galore illustrate Tectonic Action better than I could ever do!

But I’ll save that for later and try my best to keep it to a minimum!

                                We departed Newark with little fanfare which is the sign of a good flight. The goal on these overnight flights is to try and get as much sleep as possible. ‘Possible’ being the operative word here. Lots of distractions on planes so some semblance of restraint is necessary. Movies, snacks, libations, and full dinners are the ones to try and avoid because everything else is also trying to keep you from sleeping. I was mildly successful…. no dinner, no movies, just a double Baileys and some pretzels!

                                The issue came after we had successfully (phew!) landed in Reykjavik and taxied up to the gate assigned to us. The usual hustle and bustle of us passengers disengaging our seatbelts before we were supposed to, just waiting for the opportunity to jump up, grab whatever and crowd the aisle. We did all of that with the precision of an F1 Team but then we waited….. and waited….. and waited…

                     The main door did not open. Never.

                     Looking outside we spied the issue. The Jet Bridge Driver was gallantly attempting to get that contraption to get close enough to the side of the aircraft to release us from our confinement.

                                Attempt after attempt was……. attempted.

                     It got to the point where we all wanted to get out and say, “Let me do it!” It seemed simple enough, just grab the joystick and maneuver it over and be done with it! But apparently it was more serious than that cuz even the maintenance guy could not get it to snuggle up! We watched for an hour. Yup…. one hour.

                                Eventually they rolled one of those old-fashioned stairways up to the rear of the aircraft and we deplaned row by row from the rear! AAAARG! Here we are in Row 4, anticipating a timely exit because we have a Tours by Locals tour beginning as soon as we can get ourselves through the system and off to the hotel. Needless to say, the one hour turned into two and then we still needed to get through Customs, etc. We were the first to arrive for the day, which means that we’d have been inside with zero lines in the Official Area, but now we’re mingled in with the ‘others’. More delays.

                                Finally, we made it out of the Airport courtesy of Viking’s transfer driver, Ollie. All this time I’ve been in contact with Solrun (she is our TBL Guide for the next two days). She waited patiently for us to arrive at the hotel and get ‘processed’ and have some breakfast. Introductions completed, she suggested a change to our itinerary as we had lost those two hours. Instead of trying to complete a tour of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, which required quite a drive just to get to, she suggested the tried-and-true Golden Circle. This is the requisite tour just outside of Reykjavik which is sizeable in its own right. We were trying to avoid this as it could get quite crowded, but we yielded to Solrun’s advice and away we went.

                     Just as we had feared, the weather was not what would be considered ideal. But at least it didn’t rain….. much. I’m afraid that there will be no gorgeous landscape photography to ponder over as sunlight is a key ingredient of the same. But we did see some really cool waterfalls and geysers, and we had lunch at a unique spot…. a place that grows 40% of Iceland’s tomatoes, in huge greenhouses. And inside of them they serve lunch, most of which consists of several versions of their homemade tomato soup and incredible bread! As it turned out, all of this completely filled our day and we returned back at the hotel around 6:00 pm.

                                Dinner was had across the street at a place reminiscent of a food court but with a nice twist. Instead of a bunch of fast-food joints there were small individual high-end kitchens that were individually owned and operated. They shared the dining area, the plates and silverware were real, there was a bar for liquor sales, and each had its own ‘beeper’ system that allowed them to carefully prepare your meal without a long line queued up in front of them impatiently waiting for their dinners to be presented. I had a wonderful Linguini Carbonara that ruined any chances of me repeating that dish anywhere else because it was the best one I’ve ever had! So now I need to fly to Vietnam for a haircut and Iceland for Linguini Carbonara. I can see how this could get expensive!