Some Favourite Things: Iceland: Day of Arrival

A year or so ago when we started putting together plans for our walking trip in England we decided to take advantage of the Icelandair stop-over offer on the way home. To be perfectly clear, since these blog posts are showing up in July, our stop-over took place May 30 to June 3, 2017.

Iceland has become a popular stop-over for vacationers on their way to or from Europe and for a small country, they have a good handle on "doing tourism". From an efficient airport to easily-booked bus services and taxis, restaurants and tours with plenty of choices, it was obvious that we were in good hands. (Easy for me to say - Wendy made all the Iceland arrangements, including booking a stellar Airbnb)

Just to express the size of the country from a Canadian point of view, the island nation of Iceland, at 103,000 Sq. Km is a quarter of the area of Newfoundland or twice the area of PEI. The population is about 320,000 people or equal to the number of immigrants to Canada in 2015. The size of, say, a city smaller than Halifax. About 2/3 of Icelanders live in Reykjavik and surrounding area

We had a busy 3-full day, 4-night visit to Iceland. The adventure began on the Icelandair flight from Glasgow with Elfis hosting a tourism video. I took a shot of the screen.

then, once home, found an Elfis-hosted tourist-aimed driving safety video. Seems to me a video like this would be useful in Canada too.

Our guide who met us at the airport was wonderful, a Lithuanian man, who gave us many useful tips about our visit. Maybe the best one was that Icelandic restaurants are expensive but serve a huge amount of food so plate-sharing and doggie bags are common. Sharing was so perfect for Wendy and I. All we had to do was agree on what to eat and that part was easy.

The following day we found a great restaurant just around the corner, Bergsson Mathus, with excellent fresh fish on the menu, not too expensive and served with tasty sides.

Each meal came with a bread basket and we fell in love with the artisanal bread served with basil-infused olive oil and Icelandic sea salt. We loved our first dinner there so much, we went back 2 of the next 3 nights. The only night we ate elsewhere was at the Reykjavik Fish Restaurant where Wendy tried the fish and chips and I went for the iconic Icelandic meal of plokkfiskur, fish stew - fish and potatoes mashed together and baked in an au-gratin dish. Yummy!

Another time we sampled (snack) what is an extremely popular (with Icelanders) snack/lunch: a hot dog, made from a mixture of organic lamb, pork and beef, served on a warm bun and topped with raw white onions, crispy fried onions, ketchup, a local sweet brown mustard called pylsussinep and a remoulade of mayo, capers, mustard and herbs, that's if you order it "with everything".

The famous stand we went to near the harbour has been serving hot dogs since 1937 and there's always a line-up. When we were there, the weather wasn't great and it seemed to be in the middle of a construction zone but business was brisk. Did we like it? Meh....it was ok. The wiener didn't really taste any different from a Canadian wiener and the sauce was a little overwhelming. I'm not a hot dog fan usually and I wouldn't bother getting another one.

Anyway, that was all in the future. To get back to our arrival day, the guide from the airport dropped us off right at the door of our B and B, our home for the next 4 nights. The top 2 floors of the home are occupied by the owner and family. The mother-in-law has a 1st-floor suite and the apartment is in the basement which is partly above-grade.

The house, located right at the edge of the historic district of Reykjavik was within easy walking distance of everything.

This was our street

and the house

We were so comfortable. There were 2 large bedrooms. Mine had two beds and with two windows the room was so was bright and welcoming. Somebody had thoughtfully left (or forgot? - it wasn't mine anyway) a plug adapter in the window

There was a very well-equipped kitchen and the host left us with some cereal, coffee and milk. He even drove us to the nearby grocery store for the few things we thought we might like for breakfast - fresh fruit and Skyr, the Icelandic yogourt which has become popular here in Canada too.

There was a spacious and bright living/dining room

and a generously-sized bathroom with tub/shower and clothes washer which we were extremely happy to see.

There was a ton of reading material, mostly tourist stuff and a TV which never got turned on during our visit.

We were pretty happy with this apartment and would have been comfortable in the long term, but alas, were only there for a few days.

By the way, did you know that the Icelandic First Lady is Canadian? Her name is Eliza Reid, from the Ottawa area and she's the wife of Gudni Th. Johannesson, a historian who took office in August 2016. They met when they were both studying history in England.

By the time we arrived from the airport and walked back from the grocery store it was late afternoon, so we did a short walk into the old part of the city to orient ourselves a bit, then had dinner and retired early so as to be ready for our first full day of Icelandic adventure.