Travel Blog: Meeting with Friends in Reykjavik

We arrived in Reykjavik to a day that was every bit as grey and dreary as May 29, the last time we flew here to board a ship.

Landing at Keflavik Airport

Our flight in Air Canada's premium economy class had been quite comfortable, but without having lie flat seats, trying to get a little sleep on the 5 hour overnight trip was a bit tricky. The flight was on a 737-800, which doesn't even have a business class cabin.

The airport was quite busy, but then there were at least 2 cruise ships in port for turnaround day and the airport is not very large. Once we had retrieved our luggage, we found our transfer driver and set off from Keflavik to Reykjavik, a 45 minute trip. It was such a heavily overcast day that we couldn't see as far as we had been able to on the previous trip. We were just hoping that the drizzle would let up, or at least not turn into rain, so we could wander around town a bit once we got there.

We were staying in a different hotel, the Iceland Parliament Hotel, which was just across the park from the Borg, where we were in May, with the Iceland Parliament Building between them. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and set off to see a few things until our room was ready.

After walking a little way along the Tjornin, the park on the other side of the Parliament Building, we headed up the hill toward Hallgrimskirke, the Cathedral. We couldn't get inside of it last time as it was the second day of Pentecost and a service was in progress.

Some of the buildings around the Tjornin. No wind,
no rain!

The interior of the cathedral - under
renovation!

After our brief stop at the cathedral we headed down the hill toward the water and a rather famous sculpture called 'Sun Voyager'. And what did we see on the way, but Crystal Serenity, having an overnight before the turnaround on the next day.

Serenity, waiting at anchor for her berth on
the next day, so guests had to tender to visit town.

The Sun Voyager, a stylized Viking ship
pointing out to sea

Okay, now that the sightseeing for the day was done, it was time for lunch! Larry was looking forward to having his Fish and Chips at the Bistro 101, so that's where we went....and duplicated our May lunch exactly, down to sitting at the same table.

The local fish and chips always
taste great!

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to see if our room might be available, and, thankfully, it was. We needed an hour or so of rest to catch up on the sleep we didn't get on the plane and to prepare for meeting our friends Terry and Kerry from Australia for dinner.

Yes, we had to go to Reykjavik to meet our Australian friends for a meal! They were going to board a different cruise ship on Saturday and were coming to Reykjavik early as well. As it turned out, we had a great time and didn't even think of getting a photo of us all in the restaurant. We went to one called Solos, which was very good.

On Friday morning, we made a return trip to the Laundromat Cafe for breakfast. It has been a travelers' award winner for many years and is very popular with the locals as well. Nothing in Iceland is cheap, but the food is very good and plentiful.