Reykjavik to San Francisco

The final leg of our trip was the flight from Reykjavik to San Francisco airport. We flew WOW Air, a budget Icelandic airline.

After waiting for a mechanical problem to be corrected, we were in the air and on our way home. G mostly snoozed, and I mostly binge-watched Netflix shows I had downloaded in the Reykjavik airport.

About 8 1/2 hour later, we were on the ground in San Francisco. Tired and hungry and sore from sitting so long, we stumbled off the plane and into the airport. After waiting our way through the immigration line, we emerged in the airport.

We caught an Uber and made it home by 11PM. Exhausted, I went straight to sleep. I had work the next day.

Last Day in Reykjavik

On this day, our last in Reykjavik, we woke up and ate the included breakfast at the hotel.

After packing up or bags, we headed out into the city to see Reykjavik in daylight. The highlight of the walk was stepping inside the performance hall, Harpa. I'd spent several days in Reykjavik in 2013, but I'd never been to Harpa before.

Harpa has one of the most interesting architectural styles in the city. While blocky and dark from the outside, it is light and colorful on the inside. The geometric windows create patterns of light on the floor. There are souvenir shops on the bottom floor, but as you ascent the levels of stairs, sounds of musicians practicing reach your ears. These musicians are practicing for concerts, likely later in the day. Unfortunately, we didn't have more time. If we had, we might have stayed to listen to one of the rehearsals. As it was, we had to return the car by 4PM, and we still wanted to stop by the Viking World museum near the airport.

The highlight of Viking World was the full size Viking ship replica hanging in the main room of the museum. Patrons are allowed on the ship to explore and take photos. Again, we were short on time, and I could have spent a bit more time exploring the museum grounds, but I did get my picture taken on a Viking ship!

By 3:20, it was time to head to the airport, Keflavik. Keflavik is less than 10 minutes from Viking World. We hit a snag when trying to gas up the rental car, but turning in the car went off without a hitch. Before 4:00 PM, we were in the airport terminal checking in.

Next stop: home.

Bergthorshvall Farm

This post is in the form of a letter. It is a letter I wrote to one of my students. As explained in a previous post, I am a private tutor, and I like to give my students extra practice when I am away. Extra practice sometimes takes the form of letters. Here is one of my letters:

Dear Student, 

I hope you are having a good week and had a good time on your field trip. 

I wanted to tell you about staying on a farm in a town called Bergthorshvall in Iceland. The funny part is that there is only one farm in Bergthorshvall. There are no other houses or stores. It's a really old farm too. It has existed for about a thousand years! In fact, there is a very famous Icelandic story that is told about the people who lived on this farm. It's called a saga story, and it is very, very complicated. It is all about a man named Njall (Neal) and his family. 

This farm has chickens, horses, and sheep. I didn't see any chickens while I was there, but I did get to visit the sheep. I was excited to feed and pet the sheep. They were so hungry! Some of the sheep even climbed up on top of the other sheep just to get to the food in the trough. A trough holds animal food.I even got to see a baby lamb. It was only a few days old. The farm worker said he is expecting many more lambs soon.  

I never stayed on a farm before, so it was a new and unique experience. I better go, but I look forward to seeing you later!

Your teacher, 

Elaina

Reykholt (the north one) to Akureyri

From Reykjavik, we drove north through snow-speckled hills and interesting landforms. There is not much in the way of civilization out there - a farm or two here and there only.

Today was a long driving day, almost 4 hours by Google maps, and we are finding that Google underestimates the time a bit. We made few stops along the way. Places to pull over on the side of the road are few and far between. Additionally, there was not a whole lot to see beyond ice and snow. Before setting out on our round-the-country road trip, I had the expectation that the trip would be a lot like the drive around Yellowstone National Park that G and I did last summer. There, we stopped every few minutes to check out some geyser or mudpot or some waterfall. At Yellowstone, we spent all day pulling over on the side of the road and hopping in and out of the car. However, this part of Iceland is nothing like Yellowstone.

Finally, we made it to our next destination, Akureyri. Akureyri struck me as a town that would be much more enjoyable in the summer months. As it was, I was freezing the whole time. The temperature was low, and the wind was strong. The harsh wind made the walk around town even harder.

Despite the weather, we were able to walk around the whole town, shivering a little on the way. The town is small and quaint, but most businesses were closed for Easter Sunday. Happy Easter by the way!

The main attractions are the church at the top of the hill, the fjord below the city, and the botanical gardens. The church was closed, but we walked up the hill to get a closer view anyway. From the church, we could get a pretty good view of the town and the fjord below. From the church, we made our way to the garden. Since it's still just April and the daytime temperatures are still just in the upper 30s or lower 40s, few plants were growing.

Bird's eye view of Akureyri

The church

The fjord

One of the only flowers blooming in the garden.

My favorite activity from today was going to the Christmas garden. About a fifteen minute drive from Akureyri town center, the Christmas garden featured a gingerbread house Christmas store selling primarily handmade ornaments. I bought a few ornaments before we explored the rest of the grounds, Santa cutouts, Santa's laundry, miniature houses, the world's largest advent calendar, another store, and even a couple of art sculptures.

After seeing the Christmas house, we drove back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Keflavik to Reykholt (the Reykholt in northern Iceland)

We arrived in Reykjavik in the middle of the afternoon. Exhausted (after only about an hour of sleep on my end) and a little disoriented, G and I made our way to the Hertz counter to pick up our rental car. At the counter, we found out that our car was an hour away at a municipal airport. We're still not sure how the mix-up happened, but we were fortunate that the rental guy was able to get us a car at the Keflavik International Airport where we were.

Neither of us owns nor drives a manual vehicle, but as we are in Europe, a manual car was our only choice. We ended up with a tiny VW Golf. Whenever we go on a car trip, G always drives. This trip is no exception. G took the wheel, doing very well for someone who only drives stick when we are in Europe.

Our plan for this trip is to follow the Ring Road. Basically, the Ring Road is a route that goes all the way around the country. As it is still only April, and there is still snow and ice around, this may be difficult or even impossible. There is the very real possibility that we will have to turn around once we get to the eastern part of the country. We've read that April is often hit or miss for weather - you can get lucky and encounter passable roads, but you can also see road closures because of ice and snow. Since the weather changes frequently, we still aren't sure what to expect.

Leaving the airport, G turned us in the direction of the town of Reykholt (the one in the north). Apparently, Iceland tends to reuse names for their towns, meaning that there are at least 2 Reykholts in the country. After stopping at a grocery store and coffee shop for supplies, we began our trek. Tomorrow night, we plan to stay in a town called Akureyri. Our goal today was to get a couple of hours closer to Akureyri. That, we did. We drove through to the town of Reykholt. Honestly, there's not much between the airport and Reykholt. There's nothing in Reykholt either, except for the guesthouse where we are staying. Really, this town, if you could even call a handful of buildings on the side of the road a town, is just a place to spend the night. There are no tourist attractions, and there's nothing much of interest here.

On the drive to Reykholt

Until tomorrow...

New Trip

It's that time again. G and I are setting out on a new trip. This time, we are headed to Iceland, land of waterfalls, the aurora borealis, and Icelandic horses.

It's a straight flight from San Francisco to Reykjavik, just about 8 hours in the sky. The next you hear from me, I'll be in Iceland!