I knew the minute the airplane's cabin door closed that this trip was going to be something extra special. All the seats in the airplane were filled except for the seat next to us. We were able to stretch out and sleep overnight on our way to Iceland. Since we were scheduled to arrive in Reykjavik at 7:00 am, I contacted our hotel hoping for early check-in but was told that the hotel was filled to capacity. However, as we entered the Hotel Klettur, the front desk clerk said "Mrs. Morgan, I have good news for you." Once again, I knew this trip was going to be exceptionally good.
While in Reykjavik, we visited Hallgrimskirkja Church where we were able to go the top of the tower and see a 360 degree view of the city.
We were able to participate in a free two hour walking tour of Reykjavik. Our tour guide, Marteinn Arteinn Briem, was a 25 year old history graduate of the University of Icland. Marteinn explained that prior to 2007 Iceland was a very expensive country to visit because of the high value of its currency. Due to Iceland's 2008-09 banking crisis, the country finally became affordable to foreign travelers. Iceland's tourism has exploded in the last few years; last year they welcomed over one million visitors. For the first time ever tourism brought in more revenue than commercial fishing.
After our walking tour we had just enough time to visit the Sun Voyager sculpture.
While visiting the sculpture, we got caught in our second rainstorm of the day. Little did we know that our entire trip would consist of drastic changes in the weather - from sun to rain to sleet to hail to snow to wind and back to sun all within minutes of each other. Since we didn't rent a car or use public transportation the weather made our walking very comical at times.
Next post - The Northern Lights
