Best Laid Plans…

“Your plane is now departing at 2AM instead of 9PM”.  You have got to be kidding!  And how am I supposed to stay awake until then?  And, by the way, the Polaris Lounge closes at 10:30 so you will have to wait at the gate with the ‘regular’ people. 😱. Best laid plans as they say…

Finally we arrive in Iceland; luggage even makes it and we are whisked off to our hotel which is a 45 minute ride.  What time does our walking tour begin?  In 45 minutes.  How big could Reykjavik be?  We’ll find our friends who we are meeting and the tour.

We literally were off and running and just as we thought, we didn’t miss much of the tour.

A few photos from the town center: 

Reykjavik has a population of 200,000; the whole of Iceland has 382,000.  Nobody lives in the center of the country for obvious reasons…there’s nothing there.

Iceland had the world’s first woman president who held office for four 4-year terms in the late 1980’s-mid 1990’s.  The office is mainly ceremonial, a diplomat and figurehead.  The prime minister is really the head of the government along with the cabinet. 

For the 14th consecutive year Iceland ranks as the world’s safest country, followed by Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Austria. Don’t crimes usually occur at night?  Well, the sun rarely sets here.  As a matter of fact, during the summer there are weeks of continuous daylight.

Just because there’s mostly daylight doesn’t mean there’s actual sunny days.

Here we are on a typical summer day:

So before we crash from lack of sleep, after our 3 hour walking tour, we eat at a suggested fish restaurant, aptly called Reykjavik Fish Restaurant.  We had a delicious meal of Arctic char with roasted carrots and potatoes that was delicious.

Walking back through town the rain is now assaulting us and so after finding a Starbucks type place, we grab coffee to go.

Tomorrow we will explore more of the city and waterfront.  Stay tuned.