Iceland

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Jo and I took a trip to Iceland for 4 days/3nights at the start of February 2008. I have been before, the previous March, and found the place unlike anywhere I have been before, so decided Jo had to see it as well.

OIn the way out we were delayed by 5 hours at Glasgow airport due to appalling weather conditions facing the preceding flight which was leaving from Reykjavik to collect us. That boded well. While we should have arrived at 1pm and had the large part of the Thursday ahead of us, we finally got into the hotel at about 7pm and just had time to change and get out for dinner and a couple of drinks.

That said, the sceneryt was incredible on that first day. It has snowed heavily for a couple of days beforehand so everything was the way that you'd expect Iceland to look - white and wintry. The first time I had been there was a bit of a thaw as it was late March, and the temperature had been above zero the entire time. This time it hovered below zero so the snow lay.

The drive from Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik is incredible for a first glimpse of Iceland. It is just frozen lava tundra with white hills in the background. You get a real impression of the ice part of the "land of fire and ice" which everyone talks about.

Reykjavik city centre is compact and retains an old world feel. Many of the building exteriors are in an old Icelandic/Scandinavian style, with a lot of wood. It isn't a built up city and feels very walkable. Our hotel was the Reykjavik Centrum, which was right in the middle of the city centre beside the Parliament building. Very nice and no complaints from us.

The first night we simply had a beer or 2 (at about £6-7 a time), had some food at Hornid (a very reasonably priced Italian tratoria) and then hit the hay for a decent sleep and a trip to the Blue Lagoon the next day.

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Photos

Hotel Centrum
The restored exterior of the modern Hotel Centrum.