Day 14 Welcome to Iceland

Our breakfast lecture today was presented by Wayne Ranney: Iceland: Its Geysers, Volcanoes, and Glaciers Through Time. This gave us a primer to the country we were about to visit. Our private jet landed in Keflavik, Iceland at 10:30am after a 3 hour 30 minute flight from Estonia turning our clocks back 3 hours. After clearing customs, we were bussed to Reykjavik (rake-a-vick) about 20 minutes away. The airport at Reykjavik is for domestic flights and not well equipped for larger aircraft. Our guide took us on a tour of the city situated on a volcanic peninsula overlooking the sea. Iceland’s capital was first settled by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arriving in Reykjavik, the northernmost capital city in the world, our guide took us on a tour to the old town center, Parliament building and unique Hallgrimskirkja (church), the country’s tallest building. Aerni suggested the best view was at the “Pearl” a dome structure built in the middle of 5 huge hot water storage tanks located on a hill overlooking the city—a panorama for pictures. Checked into the Radisson in the late afternoon and attended Terje Leiren’s lecture Sagas and the Deomcratic Heritage – Iceland in the Viking Age. On our dine around for this evening, we went to the Café Reykajvik—A large restaurant with a nightly buffet of Icelandic spectalities where we visited Ice Bar #2. Unlike the one in Finland, this Ice Bar had no place to sit. Obviously no one stayed in the “freezer” any longer than necessary for pictures!