We are staying in Keflavik down in the south west quite near to Reykjavik.The view coming in to land.
Saturday 1 March
View from hotel lounge window. It is a lovely little hotel - very cosy and the staff are very friendly.
No snow on the ground which was a bit of a surprise but you can see it on the high ground on the hills and mountains round about.
The harbour outside the hotel
Our first glimpse of the lights!
It wasn't very strong but we saw it - and it was just outside our front door! We only had to walk 50 paces. Bitterly cold though as we were up on a headland with a northerly wind in our faces - but afterwards we could go back in and get a warming hot chocolate. Lovely.
Not bad for our first evening!
These first three pictures were taken with my little camera as I went outside the hotel (the big white blob in the first picture) - I had a severe case of the shakes as I was so excited to see them!
These are the rest of our pictures taken that evening - the same picture twice - once with enhancement to show the colours and one without. Beautiful colours!
What gorgeous colours - we were very lucky!!
Sunday 2 March
Lazy day - walk on headland well wrapped up!
It was VERY cold and VERY windy with a bit of snow in the air when we first went out but the sun came out later so then it was just cold and windy!
The waves were wild!
When we got back we walked down to the cave of the Giantess. She is a huge troll-like figure based on a character from children's books by an Icelandic author about her and her friend who is a little girl.
In her cave she is sitting in her kitchen snoozing - and making lots of rude noises which children find very amusing!
There is a tree in her cave where children go to hang their dummies (pacifiers/dodies/num nums) when they have finished with them.
All very quirky but quite funny!
And she probably has the best views of the harbour and coastline from her cave!
We spent a quiet hour in the hot tub in the afternoon - very relaxing.
Well it was until you got out - you then had to move very quickly in the below freezing temperatures...
Then another walk along the sea front - these are more trolls looking out to sea.
Off to Reykjavik for the day - about 45 minutes away by car. One of the girls who works here - Olof Maria - took us in her car as it was cheaper than hiring a taxi. Still expensive but then everything is expensive here and it is probably about the same as hiring a car but without the hassle of driving.
Small city but very pretty...
This is the outside of the Harpa concert hall which was built in glass at great cost in 2011 (for their year of culture maybe?) It's an amazing building.
There is a small lake which was completely frozen except for a small bit at one end which was kept unfrozen for the swans and ducks. The ice on the rest of the lake is thick enough to walk on.
Or even cycle on!
This is at the Perlan (the Pearl) a big dome shaped building sitting on 6 water tanks. It's a museum and conference centre with great views of the city from the viewing platform. The girl with us is Olof Maria who drove us around.
The Hallsgrimkirka which is a 250 foot high church. It's very striking and has a very impressive church organ which we were lucky enough to hear when a man came in to practise. He was playing concert pieces which were lovely - even though I don't really like organ music!
We bought hot dogs from a small stand in Reykjavik - it was given the thumbs up on Trip Advisor so we thought we'd try it - they were delicious!
Random pics...
