Friday, May 29 – After I signed off and published Thursday’s blog at 11:15, Pam stepped out on our hotel room patio and snapped the cover photo for today. That is an 11:30 pm sunset and the sky never got any darker.
We enjoyed another fantastic breakfast buffet at our hotel, but discovered after leaving that we missed an experience. We didn’t realize that you could cook your own egg over the steam vent in the parking lot. The kitchen provides a raw egg and a small mesh bag. The bag is attached to a stick and you lower it into the steam vent to cook it. It looks a little like fishing from a distance.
Our flight home didn’t depart until nearly 5 pm, so we had time to take in some of Reykjavic before we headed to the airport. Our first stop was to fill up the car and we decided that was a good excuse to visit the local Costco. Gas was “only” $6.12 which was way cheaper than we had experienced in England. But Iceland has recently intoduced a mileage tax on rental cars that added another $28 to our 404 kilometer drive.
After filling the car, we decided to go into Costco to see how it compared to shopping at home. It seemed remarkably familiar – except for all prices being in Icelandic Kronas (123 krona to the dollar makes for some big prices). The store had nearly the exact layout of my Costco in Tigard. The food court had a few local variations, but the infamous Costco Hotdog was there for only 299 Krona or about $2.44 USD.
The main thing we wanted to do before heading to the airport was to visit the Perlan Museum, Reykjavik’s natural history museum. A relatively new facility, it features some amazing multi-media/multi-sensory exhibits to help understand the tectonic volatility of the country. Photos were not allowed in some of the exhibits, but we were able to shoot while walking through a 100-meter long ice cave. For anyone considering a visit to Iceland, I highly recommend going to Perlan on your first day so that it can prepare you for some of the amazing natural wonders you will see.
Our only issue with getting home was getting through border control at the Keflavik airport. We fortunately arrived early because we hadn’t seen the warning email from the airline that the border agents were short-staffed and that we should expect long lines. Long lines indeed! It took us over an hour to get cleared and by then the “extra” time had been burned up.
For the second time this trip, I had inadvertently booked seats in the only row without a window. This didn’t seem like a big deal until the pilot came on the PA as we flew over Greenland that it was one of the clearest days he had seen there. We were able to snap a photo via the window in the row behind us.
We are now home safe and sound. We had a wonderful time and I plan to post one additional blog entry about some of our observations and things we particularly enjoyed.
I hope you’ve enjoyed following along with us.
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