Reykjavik part 1

The trip from Nuuk to Reykjavik was long, frustrating and exhausting. The HX crew had us up and leaving the ship from 7am onwards. I was lucky enough to be on the first bus ie 7am. This meant breakfast at 6am am & all the early times required to be organised. It had snowed in Nuuk overnight so it was cold and wet. The bus ride to the airport was short. The scene at the airport was shambolic to say the least. It’s a small airport, only 3 counters to manually check in luggage and long queues. Eventually one couple (Australian) went and asked a few questions. It seems that we were in the wrong queue, should be lined up in front of counter 1 which didn’t open until 8.15am. Hurtigruten had us all off the ship by 8am at at the airport by then and there wasn’t a HX rep there to help us as promised. This meant nearly 300 passengers with their considerable luggage queued up around the spaces and out the door. Eventually everyone going to Reykjavik were checked through and we were boarded by 10.30am (10.15 departure time). The plane then had to be de-iced so we were about an hour late leaving. Economy seats suck. That’s all that needs to be said about the flight here. At least when we landed in Reykjavik there were lots of HX people who eventually sorted us into the appropriate hotel groups for the bus ride to the hotel. Check in was easy as HX had our hotel key cards ready - I just needed to go to the desk to check in for the extra days I’m here to make sure I kept the same room. By now it was 9 hours since I had boarded the bus at the dock. Strangely enough I found a number of the group I had been associating with in the bar a bit later - the first beer was good. However, the normal price for a beer in the hotel is equal to $19.24 but there is a happy hour from 4 to 6 pm. That’s when I will be having a beer or two. Joyce and I decided to have dinner there - good food, great size serving and a salad, beer and cup of tea cost $80.
Yesterday Joyce and I decided to do the Hop on Hop off scenic bus tour of Reykjavik. She had an extra day before she flew home to Edinburgh. It was a good day to see the town and a good way to see the main attractions. We did a loop first to work out what we wanted to see and the, on the second loop, we got off at an attraction called the Flyover. This was fun once we got through some stuff about the early Vikings and Trolls. You do a ‘flyover’ of various areas of Iceland. It was very realistic. Excellent stuff. We also visited the Whales of Iceland display (life sized models), the main church, walked down a key shopping road and then came back to the hotel. It was after 4pm and the traffic was awful so this seemed to be a good idea. The church - Hallgrimskirkja - is the largest in Iceland and dedicated to the sacred poet of Iceland, Hallgrimur Petursson. Its architecture is in keeping with what I saw - modern, minimalist and still quite beautiful. There is very little adornment inside the church and there is a statue of the poet in front of it. We started and finished at the Hofoi House. This is where Reagan and Gorbachev met in 1986 to end the Cold War.
Reykjavik looks to be a very modern city with very ‘blocky’ architecture. Lots and lots of round-abouts though. The older style buildings are much more interesting.Leia mais