Dear Friends, we are sitting comfortably in
the Emirates Lounge this afternoon after a very long day. Wes has been writing
up critiques for Trip Advisor and now is having a well-earned break while I
catch up on emails etc. I left you at Budir, which was a beautiful peaceful
place to visit.
On Friday we decided to walk all morning
and tried to reach one of the many beautiful waterfalls within an hour’s walk.
Sadly we could only get to the little creeks that they feed, but we loved the
walk and after we retraced our steps back our hotel, we walked towards the
shore and eventually visited the little Church, which is very popular as a
wedding venue, but has a lovely little graveyard with a lych-gate entry.
We discovered this Church had only been
saved in the 1870s by a very determined woman, who is buried there and much
revered. Around the Church there are about 17 different varieties of fern and
some wonderful rock formations caused by lava many centuries ago. We found
caves, which Wes suggested could be homes for the Hidden People, which Yrsa told us about. They are the children of
Eve that she didn’t have time to wash when God came to inspect them, so she hid
them. He declared they would be hidden forever and they apparently live in
Iceland.
That night we enjoyed another lovely meal
in the restaurant and got talking with a lovely Swiss couple, who couldn’t
believe that we celebrate the Swiss-Italians in our little country town. They
are well-travelled and speak good English, so it was fun to share stories.
Icelanders are all taught English from early school and speak it very well,
with a slight lilt. They prefer you to speak English to them and if you try
Icelandic phrases they answer you in English anyway. There is no tipping, but
very good service.
Yesterday morning after getting our footy
results, we set off for the long drive back to Reykjavik, detouring into a
couple of interesting fishing villages and saving an hour or so by travelling
down a 6km tunnel under rocks. The toll is $10, which is in keeping with most
costs in Iceland…it isn’t cheap, but it is worth a visit, and we haven’t done
many of the usual tourist things.
We checked into Grand Hotel, which is outside Reykjavik and is basically a conference
venue. However, the very obliging receptionist was able to produce an Iceland phone
book (something no-one else has been willing or able to do) and I finally saw
for myself that Icelanders are entered by first names, not surnames. It was
this piece of information in the first book I read by Arnaldur Indridason that
made me want to visit Iceland and we are both so pleased we did.
Wifi was poor and only available in the
lobby, so our plans to watch our footy games vanished and we caught a taxi into
town ($20) and had a yummy meal at Iceland
Fish & Chips (no menu as the food depends on the day’s catch). We had
lightly fried fish with smashed potatoes and mango salad, and then walked back
to our hotel along the shore, past all the wonderful sculptures again.
We set our alarms for 2.30am today so be
ready for the coach to pick us up at 3.30am, so it didn’t arrive until 4 and by
the time we changed coaches mid-stream and picked up other sleeping passengers,
it was 5.30am by the time we got to Keflavik airport and joined the long
queues. One of the advantages of being in town around 4am was that we saw
everyone emerging from the nightclubs and stumbling into the waiting taxis!
Everything went smoothly at the airport, we
were able to claim our VAT and change our kroner back into Australian dollars.
The flight was much more comfortable than the one we took on Tuesday and we
were through formalities at Gatwick, had retrieved our stored suitcase and were
ready and waiting for our Emirates driver when he arrived at midday.
We took about 75 minutes to check in, go
through security and collect our VAT (mostly spent in the VAT queue with only
one window open), and finally collapsed into comfy chairs here in the lounge,
where Wes made me a pot of tea and a smoked salmon roll for breakfast/lunch.
When I finish this I’ll have a shower and start again. Our flight doesn’t leave
until 10.15pm, four hours from now.
Thanks again for all your interest and your
comments – they are all much appreciated.
4.30 am Sunrise this morning on our way to the airport
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