May 24-25 - Both Janet and Odette finish school May 23. This frees us up as a family for awhile, at least until school starts again. We’ve chosen to fill this time with a short trip to different parts of Europe.
The route and reservations (flights, hotel, and some rental cars) was completed by early March 2024. This gave us the best chances of obtaining a decent selection and price during what I expect to be high season in most places we are going.
For the first part of the trip, we coordinated with Mike and Debbie, our friends from Costa Mesa, California. This will hopefully reduce the total expenses for accommodation and car rental in a relatively expensive destination like Iceland.
The common way to experience Iceland, if one has at least a week, is to circumnavigate the island, either clockwise or anti-clockwise. This can be done by either (1) a guided bus tour, (2) rental car with hotels, or (3) rented camper van, sleeping inside the vehicle. We chose (2). Option (1) is well above our target budget, and (3) not practical for five people.
The trip starts in Phoenix with a quick flight to Seattle. Here, we have little time, but with a lot of hustle, we transfer to our Iceland Air flight. The trip from there to Reykjavik is about seven hours.
The one thing I have been concerned about has been the eruption of Sundhnúkagígar. This ‘volcano’ (more like a long crack in the island) became active in December 2023 and has been spewing out lava since. This is not the same as Fagradalsfjall, a more conventional eruptive center that ceased activity in August 2023. Both are just southeast of Keflavik International Airport. Fortunately for us, it did not affect our arrival by air, though, over the past few months, its activity caused the evacuation of a nearby town.
Once again, like in Finland two years ago, I am asked several questions about my intended stay in the Schengen Area (destinations, length of trip, etc). At least this time I am not lectured about what will happen if we overstay.
It takes a long time to get our rental car. Only four agencies have desks in the outer terminal building. The remainder are housed off-site, and there are many of them. Every ten minutes or so someone comes in with a sign denoting a list of rental companies, and collects the people waiting for those agencies. It takes about an hour for ours to arrive. I would note that several agencies are geared solely toward renting camper vans or minibuses that can presumably sleep people in the back.
Our car is a Dacia Duster (manual shift, diesel). Dacias are manufactured in Romania. It just barely fits us and our luggage. Central Reykjavik is about 40 minutes from the airport. But we are not staying there! Our Airbnb (all our accommodation is Airbnb here) is in a district called Hólar to the east, about 20 minute drive from downtown.
There is a store nearby, so we get some food next door. Food is predictably expensive: a pack of sliced cheese costs $7, and a loaf of bread costs $5. Our first meal of shawarmas in a simple take-away cost $8 each.
Mike and Debbie go to sleep in the late afternoon, and we (Janet, Odette, and I) drive downtown to see the sights. Though things close in the evening, it doesn’t really ever get dark, and seems like normal daytime until midnight.
The Hallgrimskirkja was closed at the hour we arrived (about 8pm), but we followed a side street past the restaurant/bar avenue (Laugavegur), down to the edge of the bay.
We return to the apartment, attempting to sleep and adjust our biological clocks. The place is warm inside, which reminds me of nearly every place we stayed in Finland. It is only semi-dark for a few hours.