Iceland: Arrival

          After a three-hour flight from England we approached Keflavik airport which is situated some 40-50 km west(ish) of Reykjavik, about an hour's journey by airport coach. It was late afternoon as we approached Keflavik but it appeared to be a rather surreal early evening. At first, very little could be seen of habitation, except a bright orange rectangle in the midst of what appeared to be a white, irregular ice cap floating in the ocean. (The picture below I have borrowed from Lucy's photograph collection. I didn't take any pictures at this stage having chosen not to take the window seat.) I later discovered that the bright orange rectangle, not shown on the photograph, was a very large greenhouse.

Approaching Iceland

Food is relatively expensive, a fair amount of it needing to be imported. Their animal feed, however, must be grown locally because of the risk of imported disease, and that presumably reduces their ability to grow other foodstuffs. One other feature stood out as we came into land, and that was a large, darkening lake, but more of that in a later post.
          Only some three or so days prior to our arrival, "Storm Desmond" had swept across Iceland. The local people were still clearing the roads the day before we arrived. Thus it was that Iceland presented a snowy, cold and bleak aspect to a traveller. As we were transported to the capital where we were to stay for our three-day break, it appeared as though the buildings were huddling close to the ground, gripping on for dear life, and not daring to raise themselves against the chilly wind. Gradually, as we approached the gently undulating suburbs of Reykjavik, the buildings seemed to begin to find courage and raise themselves up. And whereas closer to the airport, lights seemed to be struggling to climb any available piece of sloping land, closer to the city the lights seemed to cascade down the slopes as if joyful defiance of the of the rural winter.
          Our apartment was situated behind a church, and although close to a frozen, snow-covered lake, was very comfortable and warm.

Church Betwixt Apartment and Lake

Our Ground Floor Apartment

One of the many joys of Iceland is its wealth of thermal energy which supplies the central heating and other hot (and I mean hot!) water needs. Now I was unable to check directly, but I swear our shower room sat atop its own private, mini-volcano. It was beautifully warm underfoot. However, rest and relaxation was not our highest priority at that moment. First we needed to find a supermarket, and then a restaurant.
          We found the first after wandering around feeling vacantly lost, being rescued by a couple of locals. We had previously been advised to "go to the square," a location that was similar in size to our living room at home. Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you get my point I hope. Having stocked up with the necessary provisions, we then set off to find a place to eat an evening meal. Eventually, we happened upon a tall, barn-like building which served the best fish 'n chips in the world. Well that's what the restaurant said, and they should know! Shouldn't they? Anyway, we entered this rather uncompromising place which seemed to hail from an earlier era, when life might have been a little harder. The range of food on the menu certainly surprised me. What surprised me even more was the excellent, fresh quality of the cod and chips, washed down with a couple of glasses of excellent white wine.
          Finally, we arrived back at our apartment, duly fed and watered,

Shopped, Fed and Watered

and prepared for our first night of comfortable sleep. The wintry countryside seemed a very long way away by then, and we drifted off thinking about what the morrow might bring at the "Blue Lagoon." But that was to be another day.
          And all the while there was a not quite, almost indefinable sense of the liminal.........