Morse

Morse
Morse & friend

Monday, 29 July 2013

Iceland Summer Dispatch II - Sunday, 28th July 2013




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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