Our Final Day In Reykjavik

 Because we wanted a full extra day in the city to see everything, we had tacked on an extra day to our package deal with Nordic Visitor!  And of course we wanted to leave plenty of time for shopping!

We had a nice breakfast and had plans to go to the Perlan Museum - I had read great things about this place and even though it was expensive, I knew we had to go!  Because of the road conditions, we had no choice but to hire a taxi - we had originally planned to walk because it was only a mile but there was no way with all the snowdrifts!

The front desk called a taxi for us and he soon arrived and took us there - yes, the streets were a mess!

Perlan was AWESOME!!  It's a huge round place with so much to see - and many shows with special effects which included a lava show and a special movie that made you feel like you were right there at the edge of a volcano, watching it flow!  A new show will start soon so we got to see the preview of going down inside of a volcano - it was excellent!

They had an ice cave you could walk in and through - we enjoyed some pic taking there!

Then it was up the steps to the top floor - WOW - check out the ceiling!

There were windows all the way around this top floor - and a cafe and a restaurant!!  Naturally we had to have special coffee and a blueberry cream cheese muffin - so good!

As I said, the place is very large and what a building it is!

They have an outdoor area where you can circle around the entire museum - the views were outstanding!!

When we were finished at Perlan, we asked the front people to call us a taxi - the lady said she would call but the last person who requested one waited an hour and still no taxi so she walked to the bus stop!  Gosh, we really didn't want to have to walk to the bus stop so we decided to wait a little bit - soon a taxi pulled up with people in it so we raced out and once they got out, the taxi was free!  There was another couple waiting there for a taxi too and they asked if they could share it with us - sure no problem!

We stopped back at the hotel to regroup and then headed out - our late lunch was to be an Icelandic hot dog which everyone raves about!!  We walked to where the directions took us but still couldn't find the hot dog stand so just walked up by the church as we knew there was one by there - oh my gosh, the hot dog was amazing - some type of special sauce was on it along with onions and ketchup and mustard - it was delicious!

We FINALLY found Rainbow Street (which is painted in different colors) but because of all the snow, it was completely covered - oh well.......

Next up was shopping!  We had walked by this place a couple of times so took a picture of it - pretty wild looking!

It was fun to look in some of the shops for our souvenirs - we both knew exactly what we wanted!!  

I was originally looking for a round ball type ornament of the northern lights but most of them were fancy painted ones that started about $40 - I wasn't willing to pay that and in one store, found the flat glass type one and it was perfect!

We had a fun afternoon looking around and finally got back to the hotel - we decided to walk to a "Food Hall" which is a large building with several small places to grab food and lots of tables to eat at!  It was cold and icy out so we were glad we had our crampons!

Pizza sounded good so that's what we got - black crust pizza is very popular in Iceland - not sure if ours was that or not but it DID have black on the crust - we were hungry and ate the whole thing!

My crampons didn't always stay on well - it came off walking home and Patty noticed it as she was behind me - I leaned against a building and got it back on, only to realize on our hotel street that it was off again - Patty insisted on backtracking to where I put it last on so we did but still didn't find it!

Once we got in the little entry area of the hotel, we had to take the crampons off and when I went to take the one off I realized there were TWO on the same foot - OH MY GOSH!!!  We started laughing and couldn't stop!!

That night we REALLY bundled up to walk close to the sea to watch for the northern lights once again - we had scouted out the route while it was light but the parking lot we were going to stand in was just too bright so we ended up walking right by the ocean.  We were thrilled to see the Peace Column was lit up.

This light is a memorial to John Lennon of the Beatles from his widow, Yoko Ono  - it's a tall tower of light that is projected from a white stone monument that has the words "Imagine Peace" carved into it in 24 languages.  It was neat to see!

This is what we looked like completely bundled up - I had hand warmers in my gloves as we waited there about 45 minutes!  There were a few lines of light green that Patty could see with her camera but nothing worth taking pictures of - we finally just headed back to the hotel room!

One last breakfast at the hotel, a light lunch on the corner and then it was time for our driver to take us to the airport - we had gotten emails the night before that our seats were no more as they were looking for volunteers to take another flight, due to the cancellation of so many flights the day before.  The airport was busy (it's a smaller airport that really needs an expansion) but the line went quickly and we got seats - not together of course - Patty got an aisle seat (my favorite) and I got a middle seat - which I wasn't too happy about for an 8 hour flight!

When we finally loaded and I got to my seat (at least I was in row 13), I discovered it was an exit seat so LOTS of leg room - and the man sitting by the window asked if he could sit in the middle by his wife if I was interested in the window seat!!  YES YES YES!!!!!!  So the flight was not bad at all - we had ordered dinner in advance and it was OK - and I even slept a little bit on the plane!

Of course when we landed in Denver, we had to switch times for 6 hours earlier!!  We caught our shuttle and got to the hotel - unpacked enough to get a good nights' sleep and both of us slept well!  Patty had a 6:30 shuttle back to the airport to fly to Omaha - I headed to Jessi's for coffee and an adjustment before I headed home!

The Iceland trip exceeded my expectations - I had no idea how beautiful Iceland is and I can see why it is the "going" place for vacations!  The people were so friendly and polite (and most spoke English) and we had no bad experiences anyplace we went - it truly is a wonderful place to visit!

Skogar Museum & A Snowstorm

 By this time, we have packing down to a science!!  We never unpack clothes - just put back in the suitcase what we wore the day before and laid out what to wear the next day!  NOBODY ever saw what we wore under our coats except at meals!  Once again, I was SO HAPPY we only took 4 pairs of pants and 4 tops and just wore them over and over!  Made packing each day pretty easy!

Another wonderful breakfast and one last picture in the bathroom of our cabin!!  Have you ever seen anything like this before?  I was totally in awe of this water heater on the wall!

Today will be a shorter day - mainly because our guide has informed us that snow is coming and we must make sure we get over the mountain pass before it closes!  HMMMMMMMMM

We stop at a really nice shopping center that has a bakery/coffee area - we're supposed to pick up our lunch again - which we do - but I can't help buy this cinnamon roll - oh my gosh it was good!

Remember the church up on the hill that our guide told us we might have time to stop at?  Well it was first on the list today!!  Unfortunately the wind was crazy up on this hill - we didn't stay out very long - just time enough to grab a couple of pictures!

This is looking down from the church - you can just tell that snow is in the air!

We saw beautiful coastline views today on our way to the Skogar Museum!  Our guide told us we would have to make this a quicker than usual stop because of the weather!  The inside museum was wonderful - we had a nice tour guide inside that spoke to us in several rooms of the museum - I was thrilled when she talked a little bit about Christmas!  And told us the story of the trolls/elves/gnomes whatever you want to call them that make up the story at Christmas time!  And I DID know a little bit about it as I had actually watched a Hallmark Christmas movie set in Reykjavik and a little was told about this story!

We breezed through the inside as we sure wanted to make time for the outside!  Here are replicas of what the early Icelandic people lived in!  Most of them you had to duck to get into!

They were cute as can be on the outside but the inside of them told the complete story!

Here is one of the beds!  Part of the sideboard actually comes off during the day and the bed becomes a bench to sit on - at night, there could be several people sleeping in one bed so the sideboard is put up to keep the people in the bed!

There was no heat except for body heat!  Iceland does NOT have many trees at all so wood couldn't be burned - sheep dung was used to cook but the smell and the smoke of the dung was strong so a kitchen was always in a separate place!

We could have spent a lot more time here but we needed to leave to get over the pass!  We were actually supposed to go to the exhibition of the Lava Centre but that had to be cancelled!     Not far from this museum is another beautiful waterfall - this one is famous because it's the one from Game of Thrones - I have never watched it!  

And then it was time to head towards the capitol city!  By this time it's snowing, the road is snow packed and the wind is bad!  I wasn't too concerned since we live in Colorado and snow and blizzards happen quite frequently!  

This is what it looked like out the window!

Everybody else was heading for the city also - I couldn't watch the road as people drive WAY too close to each other, especially when one had to slam on the brakes!  So I did fine by just looking out the window or getting on my phone!

We finally made it to the city - the streets were an absolute mess - and later we found out that this was a historic snowfall coming this time of year - the last time Reykjavik had gotten snow in October was back in 1921!  And because the snow season doesn't usually hit until the end of November, nobody had their snow tires on!  There were cars stranded all over and people pushing buses, etc.   What a mess!

We were back at our original hotel, The Skuggi and this was the scene outside our window!

I never did get the exact amount of snow - some places said 10 1/2", some said 16!  However much it was, it basically shut the city down!

By late afternoon it had quit snowing - we had to go out to eat dinner and most of the places were uphill so we bundled up good and headed out with a restaurant in mind!  It was slow going, deep snow in places that had NOT been shoveled and of course ice underneath!

I would always put the address into my phone and we finally decided after we made it to the restaurant, that the directions they would give were NOT the best ones at all!  We wanted to walk down the "shopping" street and it never took us that way!  Dang!  I got quite good at following my instincts instead of the darn directions and we did just fine!  And anyone who knows me, knows I have NO SENSE of direction so I was pretty proud of myself!

At the restaurant we ordered this and split it!  Absolutely delicious!  It was a flatbread with medium rare steak on it along with spices and tomatos and lettuce and truffle oil - we both loved it!

It was fun to FINALLY walk on the shopping street!  And we both decided we needed to buy a pair of crampons because we were so scared we were going to slip on the snow or ice and fall!  One store sold them for $80 - HA!   But I had checked online and it said the BONUS grocery store had them - we found it, actually found the crampons on an endcap and they were $8.00 a pair - can't beat that!  We opened them immediately and put them on!

We stopped for gelato at a place (and yes, crampons have to be taken off each time you walk into a store) and Patty had a good kind but I didn't care for mine!

It was absolutely gorgeous outside in spite of the cold!  Patty snapped this picture on the way home as it just reminded us of Christmas!

We made it back safe and sound to our hotel!

Glacier Lagoon/Diamond Beach

 Another great nights' sleep - and no hurrying to have everything packed up this morning!  We headed over for breakfast and I took a few pictures to show what a typical breakfast in Iceland looks like - because this is a smaller place, there weren't as many choices but still plenty! And this place DID have cooked eggs at the end along with bacon!

The bottom croissants were my favorite and they were served everywhere we went!

Most of the time they had regular orange juice - here they had a "multi-vitamin" orange juice - tasted a little strange but it was OK!  And the black box to the left of the juice was a WONDERFUL coffee machine - lots of choices and of course they had "mocha" which is what I drink so I was happy!

We saw this at every breakfast - CASTOR OIL!  Oh my gosh!!  I guess a lot of people take a shot of it to keep themselves healthy in Iceland!!  Tom and Matilda each took a shot and said it wasn't too bad!  I declined!

And when I went back to the room, the horses were right outside grazing in the snow!

Today was glacier day!!  And it was pretty chilly and gray outside - wind chill was 17 degrees!

We stopped to take a peek at this skinny waterfall - a far cry from some of the magnificent ones we saw but it was still very pretty!  As gray looking as it was outside, I knew most of my pictures would look black and white!

This glacier is HUGE!  It covers 8% of Iceland!!  We had to trek out to it which took us about 45 minutes each way!

The ice was so unique in places!

We were almost the first ones here so had the glacier to ourselves - lots of warnings about NOT stepping out on the ice!

After the journey back, we were to eat at the restaurant by the glacier - the view was unbelieveable!  Patty and I split a bowl of lamb soup - it tasted like a vegetable soup and was good!

Next up was the oldest church in Iceland, still being mowed by sheep!!  It was cute as can be!

The cemetery was right next to the church - note all the bumps!  Apparently the caskets weren't buried deep enough and the cold weather pushed them up!  

Then it was off to the other side of the glacier - can you tell this side was a LOT more busy?  Again, it was cold and very icy to walk on - yes, we had our crampons on!

Here's some of the steps we had to descend - good thing there were ropes to hang on to!

It was beautiful at the bottom - a definite icy wonderland!

Our final stop of the day was to Diamond Beach - oh my gosh - the beach was just glittering with ice and I can just imagine what it would look like on a sunny day!

The black sand against these "ice cubes" was beautiful!  This is one of my favorite pics as it looked like a huge diamond against the black sand!

Out in the ocean, there were a couple of huge "blue" ice chunks that had broken off the glacier!

This piece of ice kind of reminded me of a Chirstmas tree!

One more picture of the back side of the glacier!

It was a wonderful day, despite the cold and I clocked 20,633 steps that day - I was one tired gal!

Dinner that night was lamb - I had tried it in Greece and didn't care for it at all - but I did try it again - no change in my taste buds, I just couldn't eat it!  But it was placed on a nice bed of mashed potatoes and wonderful gravy along with carrots so I still had plenty to eat!  Dessert was a chocolate lava cake with chocolate syrup and whip cream - yummy!