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Feeling a little groggy after our four hour naps (yep, Iceland is only
four hours from BWI), we deboarded at Keflavik International Airport and proceeded to follow the Recovering Sorority Girls’
Standard International Destination Party Arrival Plan:
Restrooms
Duty free purchase of maximum alcohol import
Money exchange
Luggage
claim
Tourist information desk
Airport shuttle to the hotel
Given our late arrival, we had the airport all to ourselves and we were able to make
all of our stops and board the bus in one seemless flow of motion. The ride from Keflavik to Reykjavik is a little bleak,
but we had been warned about that. We all sat quietly, looking out the windows trying to get a feel for where this destination
party would take us. Brooksie voiced her hope that it would not be the NATO base we passed.
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| Hotel Odinsve |
Although we made it into the city at 9 am we were able to check-in to our hotel upon
arrival and rest. How often does that happen? Pretty much never in Europe. Chalk it up to fate, the excellent staff at Hotel
Odinsve or our fabu travel agent Bob but we were set. Brooksie and Marshall had scored a luxury suite. It was
spacious, it was clean, it had a loft with a sitting room! The room totally rocked out.
The plan was to meet in the lobby at noon and seize the day from there. Marshall
and Brooksie and Morgan and Joe used the time to nap, stretch, shower and generally settle in. So imagine our surprise to
find Carie and Dave already addressing postcards in the lobby a few minutes before the assigned meeting time. They’d
already scoped out the surroundings and bought souvenirs.
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| The Hallgrimskirkja Church |
Dave led us up to the Hallgrimskirkja Church where we checked out a panoramic view
of the city from the bell tower. Like Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Hallgrimskirkja is the city’s most recognizable tower.
Unlike the Eiffel Tower you don’t have to sift through throngs of smelly French people or Russian tourists to make it
to the observation deck. The elevator ride is short, but the admission fee is low and the views are breathtaking.
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Next we set out for lunch and some unstructured city wandering time. At lunch, we
began our own personal taste test of Icelandic beers, starting with Viking. Given that beer was prohibited in Iceland until
1989, their beer technology is a little behind their European neighbors, many of whom now export their offerings to Iceland.
Luckily, Brooksie’s Copenhagen favorite, Tuborg, was abundant. At lunch, we learned two important lessons 1. stick to
what the locals do best– seafood and lamb 2. everything else will be covered in thousand island dressing.
After lunch, the couples went their separate ways thoroughly exploring Laugavegur,
the shopping street, the city centre and most of the streets around our hotel. From our watches, the evening hours were drawing
close, but it still looked like 3 PM because of the daylight! Jet lag was starting to catch up with us, so we opted for an
early dinner and bedtime.
That night, we all got our first taste of the midnight sun phenomenon. At 10 PM,
it looked like 4 or 5 PM outside. Simply witnessing and enjoying the midnight sun remains one of the highlights of the trip
and a memory none of us will soon forget.
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