Flight and Reykjavik: July 10-11, 2023
We had a NCL booked Delta flight from DFW to Detroit, a 1:30 hour layover, before an overnight flight to Reykjavik, or rather Keflavik (KEF). This overnight flight was about 5 hours, so not much time to (try to) sleep. I think of Delta as being good, but I only had Sun Chips for breakfast. They did not promise breakfast, and I like Sun Chips, but for breakfast time? The dinner meal service was weak too; a cheese, fruit, and almond tray (Travis got) or chicken salad sandwich on a croissant (I got; though I don't like chicken salad). Travis's was missing the cheese, the main course. They happily got him another tray of the full meal. We traded some, and Travis let me eat some cheese on the croissant top. It was pretty good. We had loud kicking kids behind us, and a Mom and good kids, with her husband, to the right. My fault, I picked the back of the plane where there are more kids. Oddly, there was not a restroom in the back. Delta now provides free wi-fi during the domestic portion of the flight with a Delta SkyMiles account, which was very nice. On the international portion, WhatsApp and Facebook Messager were included, but other internet was purchasable. Travis let me have the window seat (vs. his aisle) to lay on and try to sleep and get the first glimpse of the Iceland.
The first glimpse was clouds, cool clouds. Then land! Followed by a golf course.
We landed at little before 6am, scheduled to land at 6:20 am. Upon landing, we taxied somewhere and had to wait for rolling stairs and buses to be setup and arrive (not longer than normal because they had front and back stairs). Leaving later, we did walk on with a jet bridge. Then we rode to the International arrivals for passport control and customs. Before getting in line, we stopped by the ATM, which was closed with a card insert blocker, but open after we stopped by the restrooms. We though that we needed the cash for the bus to Reykjavik, but they took credit cards and thought we were crazy with cash. Then we learned that buses in Reykjavik/the Capitol area only took cash or pre-bought cards, not credit cards. We are not that crazy. Restrooms were downstairs and strange. People would come out and did not wash their hands. After going, I found that the stalls were fully closed rooms with the sink. There were sinks outside of these, which is better to use if there is a line to not keep people waiting as long. We had a line on arrival but not at departure. The stops were a mistake because the passport line was now crazy long and slow. It was also no clear where to stand in line; someone was there and then walked away. We were worried about missing the 7:43 am bus because there was not another for 2 or more hours. We still had to collect our checked bags after and walk to find the bus stop. The passport agent was friendly but asked the normal inquires about the visit. The US agents really are the scariest :).
We had a some trouble finding the right door to exit to get to the Straeto, the bus system name. After exiting the right way, Travis found it easily. Waiting for the bus, it started to rain where those of us waiting started moving under the small bus stop cover. Paid with credit card, as did everyone else, where the driver worked to drive and process credit cards at the same time. It is a 45-60 minute ride from the airport; we enjoyed the scenery. Many people used FlyBus for about 27 EUR per person; this price changed different times that I looked too. The USD was stronger against the Krona when we started booking things, but the USD started losing value against it. The bus was about $15 each. We passed steam on the ride and thought it was in the currently erupting volcano. Later, our taxi driver back to the airport said it was the Blue Lagoon and pointed out the volcano. With clouds, the volcano smoke looked white. We noticed nice flowers and later learned that they are Lupine and were brought from Alaska to help with erosion and now invasive.
We got off at the main bus station, BSI Terminal, in Reykjavik. It was close to our guesthouse. We booked the Travel Inn on Orbitz early. We got a message through Orbitz from Travel Inn about how to get in and reminder on check-in time, noting our key would be in the unlocked room at 2pm. I responded asking if we could storage our luggage with early flights. They said that we could use the bloom closet, but not to leave anything valuable because it was not locked. The house had no reception. There were blooms and other cleaning items in the closet, and we returned to change shoes, after the long flight and morning walking, the closet was full with other's stuff too. They really needed a separate broom closet to get to the cleaning stuff. They also noted and offered a kitchen with microwave, convention oven with two burners on top, coffee maker (fancy, noted by one of the other guest when we dropped luggage and were checking it out), small fridge, and sink.
We walked by the water (not the ocean but concrete pond) to the Reykjavik City Hall and the Unknown Bureaucrat sculpture. Then found Rainbow Street to the Lutheran Church, Hallgrimskirkja.
Tickets to the top of the tower were available in the gift shop, which included an elevator up. The bells rang every 15 minutes, noted in the elevator. Once up, we waiting for the bells. It was loud and surprising. Only some of the bells rang at once. Maybe one of the 15 minute rings included all. I liked the white in the clock face replaced with windows at the bottom where someone can see out. Here are the multiple sets of bells and views from the top.
A more distant view from the park.
For lunch, we had a Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur hot dog and a Prince Polo candy bar. The hot dogs were good; the chocolate bar was not as good as expected -- like a chocolate wafer bar.
Then we visited the beautiful Harpa performance hall; look at the different colors in the windows. Travis visited the restroom downstairs for 200 ISK. We had some change from a previous purchase, maybe the hot dogs. This was a common price, and most took credit cards. One took our money and did not let us in; someone came by and said to go inside where we found free ones. This was at the black sand beach. Someone in the restroom gave me the idea to fill up our waters, so I caught Travis heading out and suggested to him too. After getting sick in Italy from drinking the water, I'm good about buying bottled water now, but read that Iceland has the cleanest water. We drank it the full time with no issues -- except it was super sulfurous in our guesthouse, but more on that later. The yellow bus in the picture the Straeto bus, yellow in the capitol area.
We walked along the coast to the Sun Voyager. We could see another cruise ship far in the distance (the cruise port was some distance away). After Sun Voyager, it was getting close to our 2pm check in time after our very long day. We stopped by Bonus, a budget grocery that we researched before, to get dinner, some snacks for our 12-hour tour the next day, and interesting candy. The dinners that we picked were a Chinese bowl and a slice of pizza for the guesthouse microwave. This store had a refrigerated room for the dairy and other cold, non-frozen items, so everything was just sitting out. Brrr.
We walked back; our guesthouse was off a main street. We passed by the church again. At the guesthouse, they were laying a new sidewalk. We went in with the code, found our room ready with the key inside, and went to collect our luggage. We were on the main floor. They offered shared bathrooms, but we booked a double with a private bath. We had a fridge in the room. Notice the blackout curtains for the midnight sun; when we were there, it was setting about 11:45 pm and rising about 3:20 am and never got dark. Our room was always a little warm. They had the window open when we arrived, so we opened it again the next day. It was basic with no soap or shampoo; bedding and a hand towel and bath towel each were provided. I booked it early, December for July, and saw it more expensive later. It was good value. However, back to the sulfur smell, I drank the water at first, and it was fine. After hot showers, there was a strong sulfur smell. I started getting drinking water from the kitchen instead. We made and had our dinner in the kitchen, and talked to another guest, he was asking where Bonus is. Per the sign, the kitchen was self-cleaning...in that each person cleans up after themselves. We got our stuff out for tomorrow, packed the backpacks, and turned in early.
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