Two red-eye flights in four days is really not conducive to clear, creative thinking processes; hence the delay in my posts. Our schedule will be more reasonable from here forward with regular intervals of restorative sleep! Now back to Iceland.
Tuesday, September 3: As noted in my previous blog, we arrived in Iceland as people were just starting their day. Not yet able to check in to our hotel, Sue and I opted to take a bus tour that would offer up as much of southwest Iceland that we could cram into one day. Simple, right? Not so. Because our hotel was located at the airport, rather than in Reykjavik (47 Km to the east), there were additional logistical considerations. So…a 3-hour city tour of Reykjavik was the better option.
I didn’t know much about Viking history (and, no, I have not watched the new cable series either) prior to this trip, but have been enlightened recently about their legacy. Before the Vikings settled in Iceland, Irish monks were its first inhabitants. However, the hardy, saga heroes that settled in Iceland in 871 A.D. were much more organized, self-sufficient, and fiercely independent. After several generations, the Vikings had reinvented themselves into literary scholars and historians. Icelanders are proud of their cultural history — even the societal and personal hardships they endured for 600 years up until post-World War II. They are tough, hard-working people. We encountered not one homeless, panhandling person in our roamings in the old city center that, because this area is swarming with tourists, would be a prime location for the down-and-out of society.
We now leave Iceland (the second red-eye flight) and continue our journey.
Globe Crawler 