Iceland Stopover

Icelandair is iconic for their stopover program - and this time, we took advantage of it. Dozens of flight flew through the night from the United States, landing in Iceland first thing in the morning. Many passengers continued on to Europe, some stayed for their whole vacation and others did a short stopover.

We (Wendy, my mom and myself) arranged for a 3 day stopover. The first challenge is that we arrived in the predawn darkness at 6:30 am - after a night without sleep. Low sleep and jet lag combined is not fun! But we managed to find a wheelchair for Wendy, get through customs, find our luggage, and find our rental car. Then I lost the rental car keys. I went back and forth looking for them - they'd slipped out of the pocket I put them in and had fallen into our duffles. All good. 

Our host graciously allowed us to check in at 9 am, which allowed us to settle into our place, and take naps. By afternoon we were ready to venture out to see Iceland! This was mom's first trip, Wendy's second, and my third. But this neighborhood was new to all of us! Our first stop was Viking Village in Hafnarfjörður. It was cute - and a good spot to walk along the waterfront (which was right across the street).

Next up was Álftanes Beach, a lovely but windy expanse of sand, rocks and seaweed. The waves were very tame and I walked right up to them to touch. The clouds were gorgeous - it's a beautiful place. 

Then a stop at Bonus foods. I explained to Wendy and mom that it was likely to be a difficult and overwhelming stop - and once we got inside - I remembered why. The prices are listed on little tags on above or below or not very near the right items - in Icelandic! So matching the price to the item is almost impossible - at least at first. But the eggs, cheese, butter, bread, mushrooms and onion were delicious - if expensive. 

We headed to bed early and slept a LONG time. The beds were wonderful, with nice warm duvets - the only problem was being way too hot at night.