Last week, I traveled to Iceland with my son, Simon. The reason for our trip: We had a wedding in the UK and decided to lay over in Iceland along the way … plus, I’d heard so many great things about the country (which is quite green despite its name) that I was itching to visit. I have so much to share about this family-friendly destination, so rather than cram it all into one looooooong post, I plan to write four shorter ones instead. To help me plan the trip, I worked with a lovely woman named Iris from Iceland Travel. We focused on a self-drive tour with lots of culinary stops along the way, so that’s what you’ll be hearing about in my posts 🙂
From the minute we boarded our Icelandair flight, we were greeted with island hospitality … a bottle of Icelandic water, which tasted clean and fresh for lack of a better way to describe it, and fun facts about the country like this one posted on the back of our seats.
Simon got busy with his summer reading before taking a break to watch a movie. The flight was about 4 1/2 hours from Boston. Not bad …
We arrived around midnight — 7pm our time — and it was still a little bit light outside. As you’ll see in the coming posts, during the summer months, there’s only a few hours of darkness each night. On our first morning at the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina, we were starving (and needed a lot of coffee), and this breakfast hit the spot. What impressed me about the Icelandic breakfasts we ate during our visit were the savory versus sweet offerings: hard boiled eggs, roasted vegetables, rye bread, smoked fish, tomatoes, and just a bit of fruit.
We walked from our hotel over to Hallgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland at 244 feet. A short elevator ride to the top revealed views of the colorful rooftops of Reykjavik, the country’s capital. Notice the bright green rooftop in the photo below ….
It’s impossible to miss …
… and here’s what the house looked like from the street level.
Simon wanted to buy this giant stuffed puffin as a gift for his UK cousins. I think you know what I said …
Outside the church is Cafe Loki where they serve traditional Icelandic dishes. We each ordered a small bowl of the Icelandic Lamb Soup for 1,450 Kroner. By the way, there are a lot of sheep in Iceland, hence the abundance of lamb-based dishes.
Here’s the menu from Cafe Loki.
After a long walk along the waterfront, we decided to go on a whale watch. Yup. You can cram a lot into an Icelandic summer day …
I think it was 9pm by the time we sat down for dinner. Isn’t this Spring Salad gorgeous? Here’s how it was described on the menu at Slippbarinn, located at the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina: Roasted salsify, sunchoke and celery crudite, melted cheese, pesto of spring onions, salted hazelnuts, herbs, aged apple vinegar and thyme oil. It was lovely and filled with interesting textures and flavors. (There were some local strawberries tossed in there too.)
We hit the road the next day for the Golden Circle (thank goodness for my GPS) and lots of beautiful waterfalls. Check back soon for Day 2 of our Iceland adventure. (Waterfalls at Gullfoss.)
Leave a comment!