PHOTOS will be posted when I find more reliable WiFi

The animals seemed sad when we left…maybe…

The flight was fine getting to Reykjavik – we should have slept but we ended up watching movies and unable to sleep. We had woken at 6ish on Monday morning; we had to get our last long run in before the marathon in Reykjavik so we ran 21.1km. We were already packed for the most part, only some last minute touch ups to take. Jim and Tammie had put on the web that it was chilly in Iceland and we reconsidered adding some warmer clothes. We took public transit to Linda C’s where a ride was waiting and Stephen kindly took us to the airport. Getting through to the gate was uneventful and we were able to have enough time to grab supper at the “playwright bar and grill” at Pearson Airport.  For some reason it was very busy with many small children who screamed playfully. Hmmm…

The plane was hot and didn’t get much better on the flight over…the playful children were on our flight as were some fidgety folk. Linda Y slept a couple of hours at the beginning but Linda C and I were up the whole way to Iceland. I watched 3 movies and did some crosswords.

Reykjavik airport is interesting as once you pass through passport check you have to board a bus to get your luggage. So when we boarded the bus I looked back as we were turning the corner and there was Iron Maiden’s world tour plane at a gate and couldn’t get the camera out fast enough to take a photo for here.

Linda Y had booked us tickets to the Flybus that takes people from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik and we took that the 40 or so minutes to town. We were going to take a taxi in from bus terminal to the centre of town but thought the walk would do us good. We had to wait around for 5 or so hours before our flight to Hiemaey. Walking to downtown we found a nice breakfast place that was not used to tourists. There were construction workers in there and people were so very nice as was the food. We had a lovely breakfast and coffee…much needed as by this point we’d been awake for 22 hours. We thought that we might be able to leave our luggage at the hotel we’d be staying at on Thursday and they were kind enough to oblige. We were then able to walk around the city unencumbered. We had a 2011 city guide and decided to do one of the walking tours of Reykjavik. Oddly the tourist information office is beside the hotel and this was the number 1 spot and we checked in there and found some interesting information for another trip. This one is fairly full. This was also on the oldest street in Reykjavik – Linda C found a knitting shop – we went there before moving onto item number 2. We also saw these 2 columns in the middle of the square and I can’t remember why they were there. We went to the oldest wooden house in town and this was now a boutique store – floors were beautiful pine and now Linda Y want something similar too  – and we kept going to the parliament buildings passing numerous statues along the way. There was a tree that had been wrapped up in some knitting that we photographed then Up some narrow and interesting streets with small and beautiful houses on them. We were supposed to find a gossiping ledge but we think it had disappeared and as the guidebook said most of this stuff is now carried on in hot pools everywhere. We then passed the old prison – still being used as a prison – then went past old government buildings and then the museum where we found some fantastic old books from the 13^th and 14^th centuries with the Saga’s inscribed – handwritten in some of the neatest writing I have ever seen. Just fabulous! Lunch was in order and we went to a place near the hotel and a sandwich and more coffee – 26 hours now – picked up our luggage and started to walk to the Reykjavik airport across from the Bus terminal. We saw a sign that said domestic flight and followed that – a couple told us 10 min – to the terminal only to find that this was not the right one and we had to be on the other side of the airport. TAXI!

Jim and Tammie had already checked into the Eagle Air and passed on their luggage but had left for a tour. We had to wait another hour and we were at 28 hours of wakefulness and though sitting around for the hour was a restful thing to do. A short while later Jim and Tammie arrived and introductions were made – there was a flying tour about to go and the pilot explained where the plane was going to travel with some history of the places – our time was almost up and I took photos of the Jetstream 32 that was about to take us to the Westmen islands. The sun was shining, the weather cool, a good wind and a small 19 seat plane. We all piled in and the propellers started up and away we went. A bumpy flight but only 25 min of airtime. The sun was shining and the island was beautiful with lava flows from as new as 1973 that when you fly in look amazing. All we could think of was – “we have to hike here, we have to hike there “ – when the plane landed and we picked up our luggage, everyone decided that we should walk to town – only 10 minutes someone said – we have now become very weary of anyone telling us 10 min. It was more like 30 minutes and we were pulling our luggage behind us, now having been awake for more than 30 hours.

We found our hotel – the owners were waiting for us and we had our rooms – the bed looked very tempting – food on the other hand called. We changed and had a quick wander of the town and went to eat at Café Maria – cute name and tasty and expensive food. A very busy place and we were seated upstairs “the football (soccer) game is on but you can sit up there” was what they said. Loud but bearable. We ate and drank – the Linda’s back at the hotel – we were told to go on a boat tour the next day – Tammie, Jim and I went to harbor to find out more information and see what the place looked like. It was a pleasant harbor with a good view of the “home rock”. We stayed for a little while and found that the tours were to be at 11am or about 3 in the afternoon.  We’d be back.

Close to 36 hours after waking we went to bed.

I will try to get pictures posted tomorrow when there is better WiFi at the hotel – I am finding it difficult to find the time to get all this in.