Day 2 – Reykjavik in the Rain

Another rainy day in Iceland!  We did decide to get out of the hotel and do some exploring and shopping in the city of Reykjavik.  We had  an OK breakfast which came with the room.  It was  typical Scandinavian fare – several kinds of meat, smoked salmon, some fruit, cheeses, croissants and home-made brown bread, cakes and coffee and tea.  The coffee was a French roast and very good.  I enjoyed the smoked salmon the most.  There were scrambled eggs but we are pretty sure they were powdered eggs and were not very good. We had to wait until 11am to catch the bus back to the city from the Blue Lagoon. The hotel provides a shuttle to the Blue Lagoon on the hour.  The bus arrived soon after we were dropped off at the Blue Lagoon reception area.  You can’t really see the lagoon until you go through the reception area.  Anyway, we got on the bus, bought our one- way  ticket which was about $30.00 for both of us.  It cost a bit more on the return trip.  The trip was uneventful with only a few people on the bus.  Shawn and I sat in the front and I took a few photos in between the windshield wipers.

Once in town, we were dropped off at the bottom of the main shopping street. Most of it was closed off to traffic. We meandered from shop to shop.  We saw lots of little gift shops, restaurants and clothing stores. There were many  high end artistic gifts to purchase but nothing was less than $20 or $30.  T-shirts were all $30 each.  Even cute mugs were more than $45 . There were also tons of shops with Icelandic woolen clothes and all kinds of cold weather wear.  The price of goods  was a bit discouraging but at least we got some idea of what we liked.  We will probably buy a few things at the end of our tour when we spend the last two days in our downtown hotel. The rain continued and after so much walking, we were getting tired.  We were dressed well for the weather and I was happy we were so well prepared.  We saw so many people get off the plane in flip flops, shorts and short sleeve shirts.  I don’t believe they had a clue about the weather conditions.

We finally decided to look for a restaurant.  After much menu reading up and down the street,  we ended up in a typical Icelandic restaurant.  The food was reasonable and we enjoyed it.  It was good to sit down and get out of the wet weather.  After lunch, we decided to go back to where we started and find the Glass Building.  It was a huge building constructed out of green glass.  We didn’t go past the first level.  It was a large area with various tourist information centers and lots more high priced souvenirs to buy. It was getting late and we were ready to head back to the Inn.  We had had enough shopping and went to find out  where to get the bus back to the Blue Lagoon and our hotel. After asking directions along the route, we finally found the bus station past the lake and the park – a good 30 minutes of walking.  Thanks goodness the rain had stopped but it was still cold and windy.  We got our bus ticket which for some reason was more expensive than our one-way ticket we bought on the bus when we were coming.  We again sat in the front and I took a few more shots out the Driver’s window.  It took a bit longer to get back because of city traffic and we were the last ones to be dropped off. It was raining much harder at our hotel.  We were very happy to be back and took the time to repack and rest.

Well, it is almost 10 pm and I just looked outside and it continues to be miserable.  Shawn and I ate a very light dinner and have spent the rest of our time in our room.  I have been at this for an hour or so and now winding down to read and go to bed.  We have another big day as our tour actually begins tomorrow at breakfast when we meet all the people who are just arriving from the airport.  We did meet one lady from Florida who was on her own.  She seemed very nice and was looking forward to the tour but not the rainy weather.  Just hope it gets better tomorrow…….