It was once again quite a production getting from one place to another—Copenhagen to Reykjavik. We took the train to Kastrup Airport (Mike and I keep thinking it says Catsup on the signs) with plenty of time to spare, so we had a bit of a wait for our flight. We were finally on our way, though, and it was fun catching our first glimpse of Iceland after many miles of ocean. The shore was completely black from lava and we then passed over some snow covered ridges.

View from the bus

As we neared Keflavik Airport, the terrain had switched to brown and barren, with some buildings visible along the coast. The airport is quite small with not a lot of flights so we soon had our bags and needed to find a way into Reykjavik, which is about 30 miles away. The only real option is the shuttle bus, which was fine, but we sat on the bus for 30 minutes before we finally headed out! And believe me, there’s not a lot to see or watch sitting in front of Keflavik Airport. We were just very antsy to get on our way and see more of Iceland.

We drove through lots of empty land that looked a lot like Eastern Washington, or even the lava fields in Idaho, with brown, snow-streaked mountains in the distance. As we finally neared the coast, we saw a few sparse settlements, and then finally more civilization as we hit the outskirts of Reykjavik.

Moonscape views on the drive into Reykjavik

The shuttle bus was nice because it dropped everyone right at their destination, so we took quite a circuitous route. But then the bus pulled into the parking lot of a rental car lot and the driver told everyone with certain destinations, including ours, that we would have to get off the bus and into one of two minibuses because the streets were too narrow for the big bus. So most of us got off that bus and onto our minibuses, which took us only a little farther on to our hotel for the next few days. At last! We were in Reykjavik! And it was cold!

It is far enough north here that it never really gets dark at night, and there is broad daylight until very late. While we did not finally get to our hotel until nearly 6 pm, we had lots of time to wander and acquaint ourselves with the town. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, which will be the subject of a separate post, but also put some more miles on our feet just exploring the town. The hotel was also a pleasant surprise because while it looks pretty non-descript from the outside, it is filled with a lot of interesting art and our room is very comfortable and spacious.

Evening stroll- notice the long shadows

One small part of the art in our hotel