| 1:00am |
Esther and Thomas from Geneva arrived at
Keflavík International Airport.
They picked up the car and spent the night at a nearby Youth Hostel. |
| 6:00am |
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Emily and CK awaiting breakfast eagerly (airplane meals were not very satisfying.)
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Emily and CK flew in Keflavík from Baltimore.
Expecting the notoriously chilly Icelandic weather, we put on many layers of clothings
before stepping out of the airport.
To both our relief and disappointment, it was not that cold -- around 10°C.
Soon Esther and Thomas picked us up with the white 4x4 and we had breakfast together
at a nearby town.
Most everyone in Iceland speak English, so communication was not a problem, although
it took us some time to get used to their accent (and probably for them to get used
to our accent). |
| 9:00am |
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The Puffin Island |
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From left, Thomas, Stuffed Puffin and Esther |
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Arthus-Bertrand exhibition. After the trip, I read the Iceland tourbook and realized that the building in the background was the Icelandic Parliment. |
After breakfast, we headed towards
Reykjavík (Smoky Bay), the Icelandic capital.
From the Reykjavík harbour we took a boat ride to the nearby Puffin Island,
which as the name suggests was the home of thousands of puffins in the summer
breeding season.
After the boat ride, we had lunch at Kaffi Brennslan (try their seafood soup!) and had a leisurely walk around the northernmost capital of the world, including
at the city square where the stunning beautiful aerial photography of
Yann Arthus-Bertrand were
on exhibition.
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CK in front of Hotel Leifer Eiriksson |
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The interior of Hallgrímskirkja |
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Statue of Leifer Eiriksson in front of Hallgrímskirkja |
We checked in at Hotel Leifer Eiriksson, named after the first European
who discovered North America.
(Five centuries later Christopher Columbis managed to become the last
European to discover America.)
Just across the street is Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Iceland
and the most eye-catching building of the Reykjavík skyline.
The 73 meter high gothic structure extended two wings of concrete columns, which
resemble the basalt columns, a very common geological feature in Southern Iceland.
|
| 3:45pm |
The next stop was the Blaá lóniđ
(Blue Lagoon),
a thermal spa with milky blue mineral water.
An electric generating station cooled the water/steam from an underground hot spot from
hundred of degrees to a comfortable 40°C (the heat was converted to electric power)
before releasing it into an artificial lagoon.
The water was supposed good to your skin; there was a whole line of skin care product
under the blue lagoon brand name.
There was also a massaging waterfall and steam baths -- the best place to relax
after a long flight.
 |
 |
|
Emily, Esther and Thomas relaxing. The steam in the background was the water outlet;
the closer to the water outlet, the warmer is the water. |
 | |
Panorama of the Blue Lagoon. Icelanders love hot spas, especially in the bitterly
cold winter, when they soaked in the warm lagoon with snow falling on their heads.
Makes us want to come back in the winter too.
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|
| 7:45pm |
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A sculpture at Reykjavík harbor. A Viking ship or the skeleton of a whale?
|
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Pretty bookstore girl, we are forever grateful to your recommedation. |
Evening saw us back at Reykjavík harbor, looking for food.
The recommedation of a pretty salesgirl at a bookstore led us to
Grillhosid Tryggvagotu, where we dined on seafood and lamb,
the best of Icelandic cuisine.
After a couple of beers at Dubliner (an Irish pub), we decided to walk to
the harbor to watch the sunset.
It was almost 11pm, and the sun was just above the horizon, and the sky was clear --
ideal for a spectacular sunset, right?
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 |
|
Although these look like late afternnon, these pictures are actually taken at around 11pm.
Look at the long shadows. |
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Colorful little houses of Reykjavík; look at the clock, it was almost midnight. |
Wrong! We waited for fifteen minutes, and the sun did not set; it moved
horizontally along the horizon, but did not sink.
After all, we were near the Arctic circle, the land of midnight sun.
It was getting chilly. Time for a warm bed.
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