The flight was six hours from Minneapolis which isn't bad by Asian and African flight standards but neither Devin nor I really got any sleep. We arrived at 6:20 am which is broad daylight here and were met and bussed into town. Iceland uses the old US air force base in Keflevk as it's national airport now and is located about 45 minutes from the capitol.
One of the first things that hits you is how clean everything is here. Even the airport seemed so clean and pristine. Just outside the front door is a modernistic sculpture of a giant dinosaur egg.....and Reykjavik has literally hundreds of sculptures and statues everywhere.
Most of the statues in the city are of poets, writers and famous politicians which is different than most places where the heroes are all generals or soldiers. Of course, since the Viking era, Iceland hasn't really had a military legacy and since the Cold War, doesn't even have an army today.
There are 117 of us in all with this tour and we're staying in three different hotels, so the group has already broken up into three separate groups but we travel together and it's really neat meeting these people and hearing their running stories which are from all around the world. There are people in the group doing the marathon, several of us--including myself--are doing the half marathon and a considerable number are doing the 10K and 5K. It's a really neat mixture about half male and half female and young and old. I'm by no means the oldest in the group (today was my 66th birthday) and most of the older ones are doing the full marathon Saturday.
Reykjavik has only about 100,000 population which is 1/3 the population of the entire island. The city is very open, slow paced, quiet and, like I said earlier, very clean. Because of the geothermal springs, every house and building is heated by the underwater geysers. There are basically no hot water heaters here and they have run pipes below the streets so in the winter they stay free of ice and snow (and warm).
The building construction is basically wood covered by corrugated iron and the downtown area is really small with narrow streets but very well maintained and beautiful.
On this, our first day (Thursday) we met as one large group and had lunch together before setting out on the city tour. We ate at a waterfront restaurant in the harbor area and, as I anticipated, fish is the most popular food over here. That's just fine with me and lunch today consisted of ocean trout.
In the afternoon, we joined one of the three buses and did a tour of the city. The first stop was the Hofol House which was made famous in 1986 when President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev held their summit meeting here that is generally credited with bringing about the end of the Cold War. The architecture is typically Icelandic and the house stands kind of isolated along the shoreline.
From there we went to the Saga Museum which celebrates the Viking heritage here. Iceland is very proud of their history--as are all nations--but the Vikings and especially their seafaring traditions are really prominent here. It is claimed that the modern Icelandic language, which is somewhat close to Old German, has changed so little over the centuries that modern Icelandic children can read most of the old Viking manuscripts.
In true Icelandic tradition there are geysers here as well. One is outside and is basically a tourist attraction.
From there we went to the Saga Museum which celebrates the Viking heritage here. Iceland is very proud of their history--as are all nations--but the Vikings and especially their seafaring traditions are really prominent here. It is claimed that the modern Icelandic language, which is somewhat close to Old German, has changed so little over the centuries that modern Icelandic children can read most of the old Viking manuscripts.
In true Icelandic tradition there are geysers here as well. One is outside and is basically a tourist attraction.
But the other is located INSIDE the museum and basically provides all the heat for the building.
After that we visited the National Museum but I think at this point half the group was falling asleep from jet lag. Devin and I had gone about 36 hours without any real sleep.
After returning to the hotel, we showered and changed clothes and felt better so we walked the ten minutes or so back downtown. There are two large lakes in the city center and our hotel is located just above one of them.
We walked around a bit and met up with some of our group that were staying at our hotel and ended up eating hot dogs of all things! Believe it or not, this hot dog stand is listed as Reykjavik's most popular restaurant--I'd even read this in guide books. It's just a little shack that dates back to 1937 but people are lined up to buy his hot dogs. Drivers were literally blocking the street by parking to get in line. The guy uses lamb for the hot dogs--which was a first for me--and covers them with caramelized onions that have been sauteed in brown sugar then saturates the hole hot dog with dark German mustard and mayonnaise. Believe it or not, they were pretty good. As we got to the front of the line to place our orders, the guy had a picture of Bill Clinton in front of the shack eating a hot dog! Reagan comes here to negotiate an end to the Cold War. Clinton comes here and all he wants to visit is the famous hot dog stand....
After that, we split up and Devin and I hit the Dubliner Soccer Pub to see if I could stir up any trouble since I was wearing my Dynamo jacket. Funny, but the only guy who took exception to it was a sailor from Boston who was a New England Revolution fan--and he was good natured about it. We had a pint of Iceland's local brew--Gull Beer--and headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
Was this a great birthday or what? Tomorrow it's off for a tour into the countryside and Saturday is race day.....
No comments:
Post a Comment