White-Out to Selfoss

We received a text message at about 8:00 am saying that our luggage had been located. There was not actually a restaurant at the hotel. It was more like a mess hall with a breakfast buffet in the basement. Iceland is above all practical and utilitarian. That is one of the things we love about it. After breakfast in the basement of the Center Plaza Hotel in Reykjavik, we called the airport around 10 am and were told that our luggage was being sent to the Hotel Laki in Kirkjubaejarklauster. We told them that we were still in Reykjavik awaiting our luggage. The airline representative said that the van sent out to deliver luggage was still in Reykjavik, and that they might be able to contact him before he left for Kirkjubaejarklauster. They were able to reach the driver, and he brought both suitcases around 10:45 am. We immediately hit the road. Even though we had checked weather and road reports, just southeast of Reykjavik we hit a blinding snowstorm with 40 mph gusts. We were totally in white-out conditions on two occasions, lasting about ten minutes each. Otherwise we could barely see and had to keep on the road either by looking at the truck ahead of us or at the “priests,” marker posts on the side of the road. Visibility improved considerably as we approached Selfoss.Read more