Today we travelled a little further than yesterday and discovered that an Arctic wind can be, well, rather Arctic actually,
We checked out of our Heathrow hotel and drove for 5 minutes to Terminal 2 at London Heathrow airport. My minor panic about our 'meet & greet' arrangements came to nothing. The greeter met us at the car park slap on time. Although slightly more expensive, we've found this service to be excellent at LHR. Driving to departures and abandoning the car is rather nice. The car is delivered to arrivals on your return, no hassle of getting buses to car parks either.
It's the first time I've used the remodelled T2, it's rather splendid and has some interesting eateries too. Somehow too, it didn't seem crowded and there is plenty of seating. That said, if your flight is leaving from any of the B gates, it can be a 15 minute walk to the furthest gate. Guess which gate our Icelandair flight left from?
The flight takes about two and a half hours from London to Keflavik, the airport serving Rejkyavik. Sadly today, it was cloudy for most of the flight, so the view wasn't up to much. Icelandair operates a bit like a budget airline. No in-flight meals, food has to purchased, as do alcoholic drinks.
I knew that Keflavik was a huge airfield, a legacy of the British building the airfield in WW2 and the Americans expanding it subsequently into a huge NATO base, but it really is huge! It is also a very busy place. Icelandair has developed as a cheap carrier with connections to most European capitals and many USA and Canadian cities. Prices are significantly lower than direct trans-Atlantic flights. They also offer free stopovers for up to 7 days in Iceland.
We collected our baggage with little delay and headed for the car rental area to collect our pre-paid car. It took a little while to find the Sixt representative, who looked to be about 16 years old. He told to wait 'over there', wherever that was meant to be. Eventually another employee appeared an led 6 of us out to a minibus for our journey to the rental depot. Sadly, he was unable to get out of the car-park, despite repeated attempts with multiple tickets. After returning to the terminal and getting another ticket, we finally collected our Corsa.
After stowing our bags in the boot, we headed towards Reykjavik about 45km away. Our destination was a little closer, Hafnarfjordur, a fishing town. After a minor diversion in the town we found our hotel, named after the town, and checked into a nice ground floor room complete with mini kitchen!
After a drink at the nextdoor cafe, we decided to take a little tour as we have limited time in Iceland. We headed into Reykjavik and the turned south on the round that encircles Iceland. It was pretty spectacular heading into the mountains. The evidence of the island's volcanic nature is everywhere, from lava fields, to volcanic cones and sulphurous steam vents.
We got as far as Sellfoss where we crossed a fast moving river and then headed to the south coast. This area is very flat and had many horses and sheep grazing the fields. It was very windy too. On reaching the coast, we turned west along almost deserted roads. It seemed a very bleak area, but strangely beautiful too. Much of the volcanic debris here is covered in a thick coat of lichens.
At Krysuvik, we headed north again on an even more minor road. It was no surprise when it turned into a dirt track for about a mile. This road passed through some very rugged scenery. We passed several volcanic vents and stopped briefly at a bubbling hot mud pool. It was brief as the temperature had dropped to 8C and a northerly gale blowing!
Back in Hafnarfjordur, we eventually found somewhere for food. Lynn had fish and chips whilst I had a burger. The meals were about £9 each, a local beer about £1.50 and a Stella, a whopping £5.50!
As I write this it is 2245 and it is still broad daylight! Best we get used to the short nights up here!
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