London, England to Reykjavík, Iceland

I’m going to make this short because I’m behind on writing. Today was a travel day. We went by car from our apartment to Gatwick International Airport. Then we flew to Reykjavík. It was only a 3 hour flight and 1 hour time difference so it wasn’t bad at all.

We had planned to rent a car and drive to our hotel, but mom’s driver’s license expired on the 17th. The man at the car rental office was very nice and gave us tickets on their bus into town (I guess they are both part of the same company). He said that we would take that bus and then a shuttle would take us to our hotel. The bus ride went fine, but when we arrived at the place where we were supposed to get the shuttle, the lady said that they don’t take people to our hotel. We told her that the man at the car rental place had said we could, so she phoned the car rental office. She came back and said that the man was mistaken, but said that since it was their fault they would pay for a taxi. We were very surprised, especially since we hadn’t even asked for anything, the man at the car rental place had given us the tickets just to be nice. A few minutes later, she came back and said “a taxi would take forever to come so this lady will take you herself”. We got our own private 15 passenger van and she took us to our hotel. Her English was very good and we asked her some questions about Iceland, what things she recommends we do tomorrow and the like. We gave her a hefty tip on arrival at our hotel.

The hotel is called Hotel Kruines. It’s a small hotel by a lake (by Colorado standards, it’s huge, but that’s not saying much). The hotel is a family operation, the lady who greeted us is very pregnant (the baby’s due in just a few days). Her father and mother, along with her grandmother all work at the hotel. We’ve seen other people who look related as well.

Our room is huge. We booked the family suite and it is very large. There are two rooms, a family room and then a bedroom with panoramic views of the lake. I think that our suite is the best in the hotel. I’ll post some pictures of the room here.

We then went to eat dinner which was cooked by the lady who checked us in and who we think is her mom. We had some delicious broccoli soup and then a ham and cheese sandwich with salad. It was very nice of them since they normally require reservations for dinner. (I didn’t feel too bad because another couple was eating as well.)

Tomorrow we are going to go on a tour of the Golden Circle, the main sites to see in this part of Iceland.