Running… in Iceland
First day in Iceland. Landed in Keflavik (KEF) at 9:30AM. Pretty easy through Passport/Customs and to the rental counter for Budget. If you go to this rental counter, don’t forget to grab a ticket from the kiosk! This is your place in line. We got what we paid for, a rather crappy, small, gutless Suzuki something or other “midsize” SUV. It will work great. Besides that, it’s actually a little hybrid, so it should do great on fuel economy. By the way, the cost of fuel in Iceland is around $3 per liter. Do the math, pretty pricey. Must not be many oil reserves on the island.
Overall the drive into Reykjavik isn’t all that spectacular. Skies were gray, there isn’t a tree in sight, and the land is rather blah for the first 20 kilometers (everything in metric from here til London I suppose!). There is some greenery on the ground, and trees start to pop up as we approach Reyjavik. There are some volcanoes (?) or dormant volcanoes in the distance. And some water to the north. The town of Reykavik itself is very colorful, full of people and eateries and stores. The downtown is all walkable and part of it is even closed to cars. The temperature on June 14th is a somewhat chilly 57 degrees with a little breeze. Overcast skies for the most part. Probably somewhat like the Pacific Northwest, just cooler. We found a nice little restaurant called Sandholt right on the main thoroughfare. Fin had pancakes and bacon, Nans had an Icelandic version of yogurt called “Skyr” – which was quite good, Cheetah had a waffle with some skyr and berries, Erica had the Soup de Jour (some type of squash?) and I had some Sourdough toast with jelly. Overall, solid food, good first meal.
From, Reykjavik, we headed southeast to our first lodging stop in Selfoss. It’s a small town, but has some restaurants, grocery stores, bars, and all the other regular things. We found the public pool – which was actually 3 pools and 3 hot tubs and 1 cold tub – and spent the early afternoon there. Great for kids. Pools were downright warm and the hot tubs were, well, hot. Good times. We checked into the Bella Apartments Penthouse Suite – room for 6 sleepers – after a slight challenge with the check-in codes. Nice place, plenty of room, dark shades, windows, everything is in order.
Went for a run along the River Olfusa.. First impression, windy! Especially as I headed south / southwest along the river toward the open sea. Other than that, nice paved path out of town along the river. Not a lot of changing scenery, but also no cars and few people. After a couple miles of wind battling, decided to turn around and try the other side of the river. Crossed the main bridge in town and found a nice dirt road which eventually turned into a trail. Quite a few gnats out there, more annoying than anything else. I only went out another 1.5 miles due to time. Will try more tomorrow.
First impression: Iceland seems very much like most American states – nothing really odd or different for us tourists. Everyone speaks English and many signs and prices are in both Icelandic and English. Going to try a hike to a natural hot spring river tomorrow.
And as of right now, it’s 8:40PM and the sun is still rather high in the sky. My weather app says the sunset is 11:50PM and sunrise is 2:58AM. Hope those curtains keep some light out.
