Sight Seeing and Smell Smelling

Sunday 1 April 2012

Sleeping in was a much needed and very nice change of pace.  While Shelley went for a run, the rest of us took our time getting ready, then all headed out to see the city. First stop (once we found it) was The Gray Cat - a coffee shop founded by some Icelander after spending some time in New York City. The kids both got "The Truck" which was bacon, fried eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, and "American Style" pancakes. I got some egg and meat on toast thing and Shelley probably got some kind of salad. It was all very good.

We then did some photo-walking / shopping along the streets of Reykjavik and  also took the elevator to top of the tower at the Hallgrímskirkja church. The weather cooperated again and we were able to see and shoot some great views of the city. Reykjavik definitely has a hip vibe, not unlike Soho or The Village in New York.

Siggi, Jon, and Hannah came by after lunch to take us  along the Golden Circle. The partly cloudy weather was as nice as we'd seen, so we thought it would be a great day for it. Unfortunately as we travelled north over the mountains, the weather took a turn for the worse. By the time we got to Geysir it was 4 degrees C, windy, and raining. The good news was that I had brought a rain coat, hat, and gloves with me. The bad news was that I'd left them back at our apartment. Even so, Geysir was something to see and to smell. The original geyser which is named Geysir (from which all other geysers get their name one can assume) no longer geyses, but another one right by it now does instead. We waited in the warm sulphor smelling steam for 3-5 minutes to see it go.

Aside: One cool thing about Iceland is that they don't go out of their way to protect litigious stupid people from themselves. Anyone is free to put their hands in the 90 degrees C pool or stand directly next to the erupting geyser. Luckily we were not that cold, and also Siggi told us to not to.

Another Aside - I think on this excursion I was the furthest north I have ever been - over 65 degrees. I could nearly see the great wall of ice.

After some quick refreshments at Cafe Geysir (I am totally making this name up) it was on to Fourth Falls where it was just as cold but smelled a good bit better. During most any other month of my life this would have been the coolest falls I'd seen, but for this trip it just made it into the top three. Definitely. Also very nice and appreciated was that at no time on this trip were any of the four waterfalls we saw referred to as "The Niagara of Iceland". At Fourth Falls Shop of Gifts, I'd had enough of being cold so I bought a fake-fur trapper hat which Siggi assured me that Icelandic people actually wear. It kept my head snug and toasty all the way back to the truck, and I look forward to wearing it again in the next 9-12 months.

Cementing their candidacy for hosts of the year, Siggi took us back to their house where Berglind had prepared a succulent lamb dinner complete with more of that Icelandic Appelsin orange soda which I seem to have become addicted to. Then we got to enjoy a piano and/or cello recital from the three oldest kids which allowed me to once again ask my kids "See what happens when you practice?"  Also there were hot fudge sundaes and Easter Fortune Eggs.