Iceland Day 10 - July 4, 2011

Checked out of the Capital Inn early today and went back downtown one more time.  Found free on-street parking near the Cathedral that was an easy walk to the pedestrian streets.  Grabbed a quick breakfast at Sandholt…finally a good Icelandic bakery (really I think I liked it better because there seemed to be more French pastries!). 

Our goal today was to check out Hallgrimskirkja.  The outside is probably the best part due to its interesting design and the huge statue of Leif Erikson out front.  We were disappointed with the inside, though.  Since this is not a Catholic Church, the inside was very plain with very little decoration anywhere.  It almost didn’t even feel like we were in a Church.  We did enjoy the view from the top of the church, though.  An elevator takes you up several stories to a small staircase that leads to the observation deck.  The rain held off while we up there so we got a great panoramic view of Reykjavik.

Back down on the streets, we spent the remainder of our time grabbing some last minute souvenirs.  Joe wanted to try pylsur from the famous Beajarins Betzu Pylsur so we made a quick stop there before heading for the airport.  I wanted to try Pizza King, but they only had pepperoni so I skipped it.  Go figure…I couldn’t even get regular cheese pizza here!

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time courtesy of the Blue rental car shuttle. Security was a breeze since there were no lines.  We were both shocked to see all the shops and food stands on the other side.  For a small international airport, Keflavik certainly had everything.  For once we actually turned in our receipts for the VAT refund.  Iceland makes it easy to do this since all the stores give out the forms and print out VAT receipts, and there is counter at the airport to turn in your receipts for immediate cash back or credit.  We got so caught up in using the last of our kronur that we ended up cutting it close on time for our flight.  We both forgot that we had to go through customs and get stamped out of Iceland before proceding to our gate, which turned out to be pretty far away.  Luckily for us, Icelandair did not start boarding as early as they had planned, so we had plenty of time.  It was just as well we were not at the gate anyway because the area was packed with customers going to Boston with us and NYC at the opposite gate.  Talk about poor gate assignments…couldn’t they have placed these two flights further apart?!  You could barely get through to the bathroom! 

Our flight home was another good one, with some minor bumps over New Brunswick.  This time, the cabin was a little more comfortable and not nearly as hot.  It took only five hours and fifteen minutes to get to Boston.  With the exception of being overdressed for the warm weather, it felt good to be home!  Cathy and John picked us up and the first thing we did was head straight to a restaurant for American food.  Finally something edible and familiar!  We even made it back to our house in time to catch the Pops concert and some of the fireworks on the Esplanade.  Although we had an excellent trip, I think we decided that next year, we’re staying stateside for the 4^th of July.  Traveling in July is fun, but we’ve missed the familiar traditions here.  

What an adventure this has been!  It’s hard to sum up everything we did and saw in Iceland.  I’m not even sure the pictures do it justice.  Iceland is a beautiful country with an incredibly varied landscape.  We saw so many natural wonders here that are different from just about every other place we’ve ever been.  We were lucky to have some beautiful weather, and I think we learned to deal with the rain.  I certainly won’t miss the food, but I will miss the nearly unending hours of daylight.  Seeing daylight out your window at midnight never gets old!  Besides all the beautiful things we saw, Iceland was even better because we traveled with good friends.  Special thanks to Chris & Laur for another fantastic trip and lots of great memories!