Not an auspicious start, but after a two hour delay (thanks Delta) we were off. A bumpy, but otherwise uneventful flight. Between sleeping and enjoying Blake’s 7 (as recommend by this post), the flight was over and we were in Iceland. We had like two hours to burn and Jodi had found a travel blog that recommended staying in the gate area as it was more comfortable. What it did not say was that of the airport is not busy they might not staff the border crossing between flights and you have to wait as they rustle up a border guard. Slight oversight there. Anyway we made it through customs without any international incidents.
Keflavík Airport is small and light on accruements normally, but there was a ton of construction and even the coffee shop was closed. But, we only had a short wait until the shuttle from our overly joyous outfitter picked us up. He was not overly joyous the outfitter itself was. “Happy Campers” all of their brightly colored vehicles read. Colored in primary yellow, green, or red, ours was yellow, they absolutely scream tourist. The color might have been a good idea, given the length of time since I last drove a stick shift.
Without grinding any gears, or stalling, we drove across Reykjavik to Costco. Kid passed out on the way. Jodi and I were left to our own devices in the store. Sadly, given how tired we were and how hungry we were the only bad choices we made in Costco were many more bags of chips than we needed and slices of pizza.
We chowed down on the pizza and I am perfectly comfortable in saying that we made a decision that greatly improved the traffic safety of the entire Reykjavik region, we joined the kid and took a nap.
After the nap we raided the Bonus grocery store, while the kid continued to nap. Groceries are always a bit different in other countries. And we ended up with a number of items we had to hope for the best on, but with enough meals for most the trip, we were off.
The first night was at a camp areas called Hverinn. Nice campsite. Simple, and the front desk was a restaurant and pub. And it was close by our other event for the evening: Krauma hot springs.
Now? I have to say after a long day of travel and more travel, there is nothing like a soak in a hot spring. This one was pretty built up, not blue lagoon or anything, but well appointed and with drinks if we had wanted. We had more than enough of a day so we just soaked up the hot mineral water and then went off to bed.