Ireland and Iceland Day 5 (19 June 2018)

We started the morning off bright and early. We went to breakfast in the hotel this morning. I had a piece of toast, a cooked tomato, a hasbrown, and an egg. I thought the yogurt and fruit sounded like a great option too. Except tre yogurt was pretty tart, and what I thought was a pear turned out to be a grapefruit. 😕. Overall, breakfast was pretty decent!

We drove the 1 1/2 hours back to the Dublin airport. We weren’t sure if we were going to hit traffic or not, so we gave ourselves ample time to return the rental car and take the shuttle back to the airport. Except, we were five hours early for our flight, even after all that. So, we went up to the food court and hung out for a bit before we could go check in. I had the Yorkshire pudding and roast. 

We were finally able to check in on WOW airlines. They only had two gate agents working, but we eventually got our bags checked and we checked in too.  I’m not sure who owns them, but they have a fun color scheme. 

As we were flying into Iceland, you could tell how vastly different the landscape was from the plane. What a dynamic setting!   I looked at the rental car agreement, and figured out we didn’t schedule our rental car until tomorrow. 🤨

So, we took the shuttle over to the rental car place, but probably could’ve walked over across the parking lot ourselves. The two gentlemen helping us, were very helpful and even gave us a WiFi connector in our car for free too! They explained that Icelandic is the closest language to what the Vikings spoke. It is an impressive language to hear. It also has all sorts of unusual letters in its alphabet. There are only 330,000 people in the country!

Why don’t I have one of these in my car?!?  Super handy tool, that’s for sure!

After we got situated, Tami was able to get us checked in to the hotel. The receptionist was helpful and gave us all kinds of great suggestions on what to do near the hotel. She even mapped out a three hour road trip with some great sights along the way!

Iceland is unlike any place I’ve ever been. It is such a wild and rugged landscape. Some areas look like purple lupine flowers have created a royal carpet for you to walk on. While other areas looked like a giant had rocks in his pockets, and they slipped out along the way. There are other areas where black volcanic rock dominates the landscape, while the green moss and some grasses are fighting for some space to grow too. 

There are so many birds everywhere too!  While we were driving, there were a few areas where the birds were warming themselves in the pavement, and didn’t seem to believe that we needed to drive on it.  However, they hesitantly gave up the blacktop long enough for us to pass through. 

In Iceland, you’re not allowed to stop on the roads, as they have no shoulders, you have to find a driveway or turn out to pull over.  However, the nature is gorgeous here!

Can you see the ducklings in the water?  I’d bet there were dozens of them all over this area right by two lighthouses. 

We continued down the road and found the bridge between continents.  I’ve heard of standing in two states at the same time, but not two continents. What?!?  Pretty fantastic! 

It kept getting colder the further down the road we went. It was raining and windy for most of our experience tonight. At one point, it was 5 degrees Celsius. (Approximately 40 degrees). Welcome to summer in Iceland!

We saw so many amazing things tonight. Tami was an amazing tour guide and had us seeing some pretty incredible sights. It is so different than any other landscape I’m familiar with, but I love it!

We followed the sun the whole journey. At midnight, we found a fantastic place to pull in to watch the slowly turn everything gold and then pink!  It really was a delight. 

I’m excited to see what tomorrow has in store!  I’m supposed to wake up I’m four hours to go to Reykjavík, the Blue Lagoon, part of the Golden Circle!  We are going to have a wonderful time here. 😊