Iceland Day 1: early start to Reykjavic

So we left JFK New York last night at 8:40pm, were to fly 5.5 hours and arrive at 6:15am. We were 40 minutes early…hmmm usually early would be a good thing but when you calculate how much sleep we got in there….the day was off to a *strong* start!

After the usual flurry of airport activities – immigration (took 2 minutes – impressive!), finding our bags, buying essentials (snacks + drinks), finding the hire car, getting local cash out and buying a local sim with a data plan for a cell phone – we were off!

The first stop was the impressive Gulfoss waterfall…

Luckily they had a yummy cafe their too so it was time for brunch – mmm local lamb soup for mum and sandwiches for NE+L. Lachie took a liking to the soft animal fur in the gift shop…

The next stop was Geysir – which it turns out was the original geyser after which all geysers are named. The active one we saw was called Strokkur which erupts every 4 – 8 minutes and can reach a height of 40 minutes. Eli & Lachie weren’t fond of the sulphur smell!

The next stop was Thingvellir National Park a historic rift valley where the North American and European plates “meet” but are drifting apart an inch a year. This is an important historical site where the first Icelandic Parliament met in 930AD.

Then to our hotel to shower and for a quick nap. We were a *little* tired after the previous night’s (lack) of sleep.

Then we were off to meet our friends at the Phallological museum but unfortunately we were there at 5pm and they were there at 4pm so we missed them 😦 We had a look around and saw that the sperm whale is the winner in the pack (larger than the blue whale’s member and longer than Nathan is tall!)

Next a little drive around town…

Fish and Chips dinner in the old port in Reykjavic Harbour, before heading home.

A great first day!