OC In Iceland

[OurCreature]

First, I didn't take any photos because I had too much wobble in my right elbow, but there will be some photos that I didn't take myself.

22 June

Departure! Taxi driver and former waiter Fab arrived bang on time at 09:30 to whisk me to Heathrow where I arrived in plenty of time to check in etc. After clearing security I wended my way to the Aer Lingus business lounge, there to partake of some cups of hot chocolate and a couple of rolls with a self-administered filling of Double Gloucester; lord knows if it tasted like the real thing. While there I noticed a lady reading her copy of Spare; she looked as if she had reached something like page 20. I was sorely tempted to lower the tone by asking her if it was any good and had she reached any naughty bits yet.

The flight itself was delayed and left the terminal an hour late; but they allow so much time that by the time we reached Iceland he had made up half an hour. However there was plenty of time to enjoy lunch, which I preceded with a complimentary bacardi and coke. Then the lunch tray arrived, with proper cloth napkin and metal cutlery and earthenware crockery. Bread with whipped butter and Icelandic sea salt - very pleasant. Moroccan chicken with pickled red onion and wasabi dressing plus couscous; I had a tumbler of white wine with that. To finish I had a Basque-style San Sebastian cheesecake which was really nice. And then two cups of coffee. So I found lunch very satisfactory.

When I arrived my friend Baldur was there at the airport to drive me to Reykjavík to my hotel. Storm Hotel - here it is.

My room was at the front; it's the first window closest to street level after the lamppost that looks like it is growing from the black car outside the hotel. The parking on the left where the cars are doesn't belong to the hotel. Here's a room similar to mine.

And now to my main mishap of my trip. When we arrived a lovely black girl in Reception cheerily enquired 'Michael Smith?' When I said 'Yes' she replied 'You've got the wrong luggage!' And she was right. It looked like my suitcase, but it wasn't. At that moment Icelandair phoned again and I spoke with them, and we agreed that the person whose luggage it was was happy to come to the hotel and collect it there. They knew where to find me because I had put those details on my own luggage label on my suitcase. So later that evening the gentleman arrived and I was there to apologise for his being inconvenienced by my stupidity. It turned out he was from Israel and he could not have been kinder - don't worry about it, we're all human etc etc. I stayed in my room that evening as I wasn't hungry and I could make myself a cup of coffee which I did, and thought about what Baldur and I might do next day. And I watched BBC TV to while away the hours.

[Furby]

How did they know oc was the case stealer was it like at school with coats where have to wait until everyone else gone and see whose coat is left.

[OurCreature]

It was a bit like that Furby - I guess they waited until my case was the last one on the baggage carousel and then they knew where to find me.

[OurCreature]

June 23

I spent quite a lot of the day with Baldur. He arrived at 10:00 to take me first to the cemetery in central Reykjavík where Oddur and his wife Frú Kristin are buried. Usually I visit the graves of my departed friends but I didn't last time in 2019, so I had a little catching up to do.

As usual it took a little while for me to find Oddur's grave even though I knew its reference number in the cemetery. However I found it, and the headstone (it looks like a small boulder with the letters cut as a relief) was completely covered with moss, as was the headstone of his parents who are buried in the same plot. Baldur scraped off the moss on his parents' stone, but I told him to leave Oddur's, partly because I wasn't sure if his letters had simply been stuck on the stone instead of being carved on the stone. All that part of the cemetery is covered by trees so the stones are hit by both rain when it falls and water dripping off the trees which moss clearly loves.

I knew that Oddur and Frú Kristin had a daughter as well as their son Gunnar (father of my friend Oddur) and that the daughter was either stillborn or died shortly after her birth. The little girl was buried in a different part of the cemetery almost as far away from the family plot as she could be, almost as if she was being banished. This time I wanted to look at her grave, and I found the reference for where she is buried; you can look up where people are buried in Iceland if you know their name and the relevant cemetery. She took a little bit of finding but we found her, and I asked Baldur to take a picture of her grave. Kristbjörg Maria Oddsdóttir actually died aged 6 days. I was very pleased to find her grave and here it is.

I was due to have dinner with Oddur and Habba in their home that evening but Habba hadn't given me a time so we went round to their apartment to find out. Baldur got on very well with them, and we had a coffee and a few Belgian chocolates. As I hadn't got my hire car yet it meant Oddur would have to come and collect me and take me back to the hotel, so we sorted out the time.

Then we went off to have a snack for lunch, and ended up in the Icelandic equivalent of a food court where we each had a calzone thin crust pizza, and Baldur paid for that. Time-wise it was running into mid-afternoon by then, so Baldur took me back to the hotel so I could get ready for Oddur to collect me at 18:00.

Oddur and Habba have a very nice 2 bedroom apartment in a very new part of their town Garðabær where construction of apartments etc is still going on. However they have a very good view from their balcony which they have turned in effect into a conservatory with sliding glass panels for windows. You can just about see the sea from their balcony.

We had a lovely dinner - barbecued lamb chops with those very thin chips and a coleslaw salad and a nice Rioja to wash it down; I had a cognac with my coffee as well. And after coffee and good conversation I was taken to Storm Hotel where I could think about what I was doing on Saturday.

[merry]

I am enjoying this, OC!!!!

Easily done with the suitcase. Glad it was sorted out ok

Looking forward to more

[OurCreature]

June 24

Once again I spent quite a lot of the day with Baldur. He picked me up at 10:00 and the plan for the morning was for us to go to where we had scattered Mum's ashes; Baldur and his wife Ólöf were abroad in 2019 and they had never been to the site. So I was all set for this, and then around 3 km away from the little track we found - LOKAÐ - the road was closed. So I couldn't pay my respects to 50% of my dear Mama so that is one for next time.

Slightly miffed by this we decided to go on a drive in the country. We went along the side of quite a big lake near Reykjavík and then joined Route 1 at Mosfellsbær. Here's a pic of Lake Hafravatn.

We went past the main road to Þingvellir where the Alþing first met in 930 AD because Baldur wanted to show me some nice scenery. Miraculously the rain held off (as it did for most of my stay) and we rejoined the Þingvellir road a bit closer to the historic site.

When we arrived I became a bit cross to see that at least one local road had been closed, thus stopping a nice drive to join the main road to Selfoss, and the car parks had become pay parks instead of free. Loads and loads of tourists - quite unlike the old days when you could just drive there and have the place mostly to yourself. Still, Iceland needs the money but I think it is a shame all the same.

So off we went to Selfoss which is the centre of the south Iceland dairy industry. The locals have renovated a small district in the centre of the town, the district consisting of old houses and they look really good.

We had a coffee and cake to put us on to dinner that evening.

Then we drove to Eyrarbakki which I love because the town is old buildings, and it is where they filmed the original Arla Skyr advert which I stole from Youtube. I never tasted the stuff because it was a Danish company and they made it in Germany. And Merry knows that the stuff I take for them when I visit is no longer made in Iceland but in Denmark; but at least it tastes the same, presumably the Icelandic bacteria make all the difference. And then we returned to Reykjavík.

Baldur dropped me off at the hotel to leave me time to get ready for dinner, to which I was treating him and his wife, and also his brother Bassi and Bassi's wife Fjóla - her name means Violet. In the event Bassi didn't join us because he was on his way home from Tenerife; Fjóla had come home a day or two earlier. We went to what turned out to be a very good restaurant called the Thai Kitchen, literally 5 minutes walk from the hotel; very convenient. Baldur and Ólöf dropped by the hotel, having parked their car, and we walked down to the restaurant; Fjóla joined us a few minutes later.

We had a jolly good meal. For starters we had things you could share, like spring rolls and satay chicken. Then most of us went for more chicken in a mild curry sauce with rice and veg while Fjóla had some soupy concoction in a big deep bowl. Fjóla and Bassi have a shop selling baby gear like cots, buggies etc etc which his younger son Þorleifur mostly runs now. Fjóla said at one point that she was so stupid in the shop these days, so I replied Only in the shop, Fjóla? I'm stupid all the time! and went on to tell her about the wrong luggage. I was just about beginning to see the funny side of it and we had a good chuckle about it. As to the meal the price per head was considerably less than what I pay at Bella Vita, but then we didn't have dessert or wine or coffee. But it was excellent.

So that was my Saturday in Iceland.

[Furby]

Its not the same without pictures. How sad to go all that way and a road be closed so you can't even see what you went to see. And that car park horrors spread to even Iceland these days. How were they paid for in UK is a row that car parks are moving to mobile phones only.

[OurCreature]

It's mobile phones mainly for parking in Iceland as well these days.

As to pictures, Furby, I agree with you. I am going to raid the Internet for pics to accompany the text and I shall update earlier posts in this thread. Google Streetview will be my main source though I have got some pics that I think will be OK. In places the Streetview pics (eg of Þingvellir) are 10 years old.

Here´s a pic of Eyrarbakki where the old houses are.

The blue house dates from 1921 and the house opposite dates from 1907. Here are some more old houses in Eyrarbakki.

As to our Saturday night dinner, here's the restaurant and an example of what we had to eat - a satay dish as a starter; ours was chicken satay.

[merry]

I love the look of Eyarbakki! That blue house.... I would love to live there!

Isn't Fjolá a lovely name?

Bread with whipped butter and Icelandic sea salt - very pleasant. Moroccan chicken with pickled red onion and wasabi dressing plus couscous; I had a tumbler of white wine with that. To finish I had a Basque-style San Sebastian cheesecake which was really nice. And then two cups of coffee. So I found lunch very satisfactory.

That sounds absolutely lovely.

I have made a Basque cheesecake. It was lovely, but the size of a bowler hat when it came out of the oven and I was eating it for days.

I loved your quip about 'only in the shop? for me it's every day'

[TRavine]

Oh OC these pictures look absolutely stunning!! What a beautiful country indeed.
No womder you keep going back.

The story with your luggsge could have happened to me.

So nice that you were able to visit your friends' graves. That is very meaningful.

The food looks and sounds great!

[OurCreature]

June 25

Today Baldur collected me at 12:30 to take me to his apartment.

It is the bottom apartment to the right of the front door. His older son Stefán was there and Stefán's daughter. We had a light lunch, more like a breakfast buffet, because they knew I was taking Oddur and Habba out to dinner that evening. So I refrained from being greedy, delicious though the food was. We had a good long chat.

At 15:30 Baldur took me to collect my hire car, which turned out to be a small-ish Hyundai around the same size as my Honda Jazz. We agreed he would collect me there on Tuesday when I returned the car. Enterprise had their place at the long distance bus terminal, and I drove the car back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and drive to Oddur and Habba's apartment. I was able to park the car behind the hotel - just! I arrived there just in time before somebody else arrived to be disappointed.

I had already arranged to be with Oddur and Habba at 18:30, so set off in good time and I was able to park my car on a big forecourt in front of the entrance to the apartment block's communal garage. All these apartments have been built with an EV charging point for each parking space in the communal garage - one space per apartment. They confirmed my car would be all right where I had left it. At 19:00 we set off in Oddur's big SUV for the restaurant in the next door town of Hafnarfjörður. Here it is on a nice day with one of their dishes.

We went there on a wet evening but at least it wasn't raining at the time.

Oddur and Habba fancied a dish for two called Saumaklubbur. This translates as sewing club for two which leaves me none the wiser as to what it really means. It consisted of crispy shrimp (actually tempura prawns), duck on a waffle (I liked this but there were other things on the waffle and I didn't know duck was one of the goodies), Korean wings (those were good), lobster and date skewers (delicious), buffalo cauliflower (a big cauliflower floret in batter), garlic aioli & sweet&sour sauce. The dish was supposed to be bumped up for 3 people but they didn't, and so Habba reminded them about having it for 3 and in due course a portion for one appeared. It was a very good meal but Habba was disappointed because it wasn't as she remembered it. I was the only one of us to have a dessert - chocolate fondant with ice cream and very good it was too. When it came to the bill it was a little more than our dinner for four at the Thai restaurant. So off we went back to the apartment for coffee, chat etc.

I arrived back at the hotel just before midnight. Consternation! Parking spaces at the hotel fully occupied! At that time it was free parking at all the public spaces, so of course they were all occupied. I ended up parking in the almost empty car park here, just down the road from the hotel.

It's full in the pic but it was almost empty at midnight; I parked in the right-hand row in front of the building where the white car is. When I arrived in the hotel I told the night receptionist where I had parked and he thought I would be OK there until 08:00 next day when they would start checking the cars. So I retired to bed, hoping I would wake up next morning in time to move the car before discovery of my heinous crime.

In the background you can see the Höfði where Reagan and Gorbachev had their summit and very profitable it was too for Icelandic taxi drivers. The Höfði was built in 1909 without planning permission from prefabricated sections made in Norway for the French consul; it soon went into private ownership but in the 1940s it became the British Embassy but ceased to be when in the 1950s the Embassy moved to premises in Laufásvegur closer to the centre of Reykjavík. The city of Reykjavík bought it in 1958. Höfði is said to be haunted.

[eccles]

You left a cliffhanger OC. Did you get a parking ticket?

[OurCreature]

26 June

'Twas on a Monday morning when..................I woke up early-ish and decided to move the car before breakfast. During the night a couple of other cars had also parked outside the office building so some other folk had had the same idea as I had; I was able to find a public parking space much closer to the hotel and the car was safe until 09:00, by which time I planned to be well on my way doing my various little jobs. I think I have got away with that overnight parking; I haven't heard anything yet from Enterprise about fines etc.

After breakfast and just before 09:00 I decided to head for the cemetery at Grafarvogur where several of my folk are buried. I found Oddur's parents Gunnar and Erna and paid my respects to them; Gunnar was always very jolly and joking and they were good company - and Erna was an excellent cook. Gunnar died quite young aged 67 and Erna survived him for quite a long time; Mum and I were fond of her but we knew she could be a tough cookie when necessary. Then I went on to pay my respects to my Mama and Pabbi in Iceland, Lulla and Maggi. Maggi also died young - coincidentally 67 the same age as Gunnar - of a heart attack but his treatment for prostate cancer had made him very fat around his middle. Lulla survived him by 17 years and passed away just before I was due to fly to Australia for Lynsay and Dani's wedding; I could have attended the funeral and then gone to Australia but if anything had gone wrong with the travel to and from Iceland it would have had a knock-on effect. Fjóla said 'Too much stress for you, Mike!' so I took her advice and contented myself (just) by being with them in spirit. Here's a picture from the graveside committal and you can see Maggi's headstone on the right of the pic; Lulla is on it as well now.

Just above Maggis's brown headstone is a group of three headstones - the white one flanked by 2 grey ones. That is a young family who died in an avalanche which hit Flateyri (a fishing village in the North-West Fjords) in 1996. 20 people died in the avalanche which hit their homes and 5 of them were this young family. Some others who died in that tragedy are buried nearby, including Bassi's brother in law and nephew and a friend who was sheltering in the brother in law's house because it had been deemed to be safe. Whenever I pay my respects to the Flateyri people I think before I arrive at the cemetery that this time I shall be OK but I never am when I contemplate this young family. There are two graves there; one for the mother whose coffin also contains their two little girls, and one for the father who has their little boy in his coffin. I'm blinking back the tears even while I type this report. I used to think that if I had my way every tourist to Iceland would be dragged here to look at these graves to learn that the land can be cruel and life in Iceland isn't about having a good time all the time, and if you are so stupid as to take chances with the land and weather you stand a very good chance of being caught out. And then I change my mind because that would risk turning this part of the cemetery into something like a tourist attraction. So it is best to leave it to people like me who want to visit the place because they already know about the avalanche and want to pay their respects to those who died.

After visiting the cemetery I went to visit Margrét at Icelandic Search And Rescue; she is my contact there and is their finance person.

There is visitor parking right of the building as you look at it. I wanted to buy some caps but they don't have those any more so Margrét gave me a navy blue woollen hat (no bobble) with their logo on the front. Shortly after I arrived she had to go out but had primed a colleague called Óli to keep me chatting. He was a big, generously proportioned chap and we had a good conversation. Then Margrét returned and it was time for me to depart. So contacts renewed there and I had had a cup of coffee in their coffee area.

I then went to Bassi's shop to see if he was there; I was dining with him and Fjóla in their apartment and I wanted him to give me a lift there and back from the hotel where I hoped to have parked the car safely. Bassi's son Þorleifur and Þorleifur's wife Sigrun run the shop in the main, and they were there when I arrived.

That photo was taken in 2012 with Mum still healthy. Bassi wasn't at the shop so, after a short chat with Þorleifur because they had customers I went off to see if Bassi was at home; he and Fjóla were not at home, in fact 5 minutes after I left the shop they arrived there. So after a little bit of wondering what to do next I drove back to the hotel behind which I was able to park (rejoice! rejoice!), waited a while and then phoned Bassi and arranged my lift for that evening.

Dinner that evening was a Fjóla special - fish with slices of banana and a few other things in a lightly curried sauce, with rice. Yum! Mum liked that dish as well. Then we had a generous slice each of chocolate cake, and then coffee and conversation. Bassi's older son Maggi arrived after dinner with his younger son Baldur and so some more good chat. Maggi came with his grandmother Lulla to England when he was 12 or thereabouts and they stayed with Mum and we took them out to places.

Quite lateish Bassi took me back to the hotel. And so ended a lovely day.

[Furby]

Glad to hear that oc was allowed to leave the country and not detained for parking crimes.

Its quite a dark tale this holiday isn't it. Here's a grave here's another grave and 20 people were exterminated in an avalance etc.

[OurCreature]

Its quite a dark tale this holiday isn't it. Here's a grave here's another grave and 20 people were exterminated in an avalance etc.

I suppose it is, Furby - you're not likely to get my perspective on televised travel shows......................

[eccles]

you're not likely to get my perspective on televised travel shows

[merry]

What a wonderful write up on what sounds like an unforgettable trip. I loved that you remembered all the meals for me

I liked the parking story. I get very anxious about parking in 'the wrong place'! or 'forgetting to leave a ticket visible'! it is all done on apps nowadays, I have three different apps for just our local car parks, it's silly.

All these apartments have been built with an EV charging point for each parking space in the communal garage - one space per apartment.

Iceland are way ahead of the UK I think!

[OurCreature]

June 27

My last full day in Reykjavík; raining and damp weather so I decided to stay in until it was time to return the car, buying petrol en route. I was starting to feel tired anyway so I thought the rest would do me good and I knew I wouldn't be disturbed because I had decided I could do my own housekeeping in the room. And I am much tidier when I am staying in hotels than I am at home.

So I idled away the morning and part of the afternoon, reflecting occasionally that had Mum still been alive it would have been her 95th birthday that day, and then I set off to buy my petrol and return the car. I found an Orkan filling station; I hate those because they are unmanned so you are on your own if things go wrong. But I didn't feel like finding another filling station so I decided to use it anyway. Here it is in its former guise as a Shell filling station.

Sure enough I hit a problem when I couldn't find the slot for my credit card. But a kind young gentleman was filling his car at another pump and helped me find the slot, so that was sorted. I had used only 9 litres so there wasn't much to pay.

Then I continued to the long distance bus terminal to return the car, and committed a traffic violation en route. I found myself at a crossroads and I could see the BSI over the other side of the road and the painted arrows on the road indicated I could go straight across the big road - so I did. Oh dear. I found myself in a single carriageway with a traffic light which was stuck permanently on red. While I considered what to do next a truck stopped behind me and after a minute peeped his horn at me. So..............I drove through the red light. Then I arrived at the BSI and parked my car in the one remaining space for returned hire cars. Here's the BSI.

I had to wait for someone to arrive at the Enterprise counter and when they did I explained about the red light to the chap. As we went to check my car over he cheerfully told me he drove through that red light a few times every day, and that I had used the bus lane by mistake. The buses have sensors that trigger the red light into moving on to green. 'Don't worry about it - you're safe!' he declared jovially. By then Baldur had arrived to take me back to the hotel, so I told him about my escapade and we had a chuckle about it.

Back at the hotel I dozed in my room but about 17:30 I began to feel hungry so, despite the rain, I went to the Thai restaurant to have something to eat. I kicked off with tempura prawns with a mild sweet chili dip, and very good they were.

Then I had chicken fried rice which tasted exactly like Nancy's prawn fried rice, so Nancy is getting it authentically right! I told her that when I got back to the UK and she was pleased.

I think that's seafood fried rice in the pic. The service was very quick and within 45 minutes of entering the restaurant I was on my way back to the hotel, where I asked for a wake-up call at 04:30 next morning because Baldur was coming at 04:50 to take me to the airport. I then retired to my room, did all my packing etc and got myself as ready as I could for next day.

[Wildrover]

Interesting seeing other countries' cuisine - you certainly packed a lot into your stay OC.

[Furby]

Cant the hotels bring food to your room rather then have to trek out in the rain.

Ic is having an exciting holiday isn't he trespassing in car parks, jumping red lights and driving in bus lanes. In UK we make a good income from bus lane fines so they might catch up and ask to pay later unless car hire firm have that built into fees and will pay it themselves.