ICELAND RING ROAD, part 9 (July 14-25, 2018)
It was hard to begin our drive away from the great outdoors, but the big city was calling our names. We decided to spend our last 2 nights in Old Town Reykjavik, which is about a 45 minute drive to the airport.
Once we turned into Reykjavik we all high fived and let out a hearty woop wooooop! We all grinned having just officially circumnavigated Iceland via The Ring Road!! Oh no..the trips not over, we still have 2 nights and a full day to do some more exploring, but first...we need to find a parking space and our AirBnB?!!
We had actually conducted a drive by of our unit on our first morning in Iceland, so that made it simple to find. The street parking was a breeze, free on the weekends and evenings and during the restricted times we simply purchased passes from a convenient machine on the street. It's funny how we talked about elves along our journey and now found ourselves stepping down into our apartment 33 through a very tiny door, ha!! The AirBnB was perfectly cozy, 2 nice bedrooms, living room, bath with walk in shower and kitchen,,,and yes, 8 foot ceilings! We got cleaned up and started walking the very interesting streets of Old Town, cool place.
After window shopping and getting our bearings we continued down towards the waterfront. We found the Government House that contains the Prime Minister's office, most interesting was a statue of Hannes Hafstein, he was the first Icelander to hold office as Minister of State in 1904 under Danish Rule. We unknowingly visited his birthplace on the Moorvellir Farm outside of Akureryi, cool! Another interesting tid bit is that Iceland falls under the Althing Parliament, which is the world's oldest parliament dating back to 930, get ready Jeopardy! Enough history I'M HUNGRY, so down to the waterfront!
With our bellies filled with more Icelandic cod we walked back towards our apartment and decided to stop for a "quick beer". We poked our head in The English Pub and there was live music, cool but there were only a couple patrons at 9pm. At the door I shrugged my shoulders, the ladies looked around and of course the 2 band members enthusiastically waved them in, OK! Bellied up at the corner of the bar the bartender says "band says first round on them", OK...I'm good with that! Soon the bar was filling up with people, they start late in Iceland. The 2 guys were very good musicians with great voices and had everyone rocking their heads and singing along. We got to meet several people, travelers and locals alike. One dad and son travelled solo to celebrate his high school graduation, another couple just finished the Ring Road via a camper and the local gang of guys were just blowing off steam after work, great time! Now, the bar has this wheel that they spin if you choose to bet $25... you have less than 30% chance of making back your money in beer or shots, but it was a blast watching people play. My wife, non gambler, kept refusing to play until I finally took out the cash and said "we must spin", only rule was that she has to hand the money over since she's the one with good luck....Spiiiiiiiiin!....the crowd grows deafly silent.......then the wheel slowly comes to a stop...8 BEERS!!, the bar tender enthusiastically rang the bell and the patrons cheered!!! Luckily we had some new friends to help drink the pints! By the way, the local guys won the 1 meter prize, 12 pints...woop woooop!!
After a "quick beer" and a couple shots of the local Brennivin it was time to head home. It's not often that we stay out after midnight, fun people and good times!
To be continued...........
It was hard to begin our drive away from the great outdoors, but the big city was calling our names. We decided to spend our last 2 nights in Old Town Reykjavik, which is about a 45 minute drive to the airport.
Once we turned into Reykjavik we all high fived and let out a hearty woop wooooop! We all grinned having just officially circumnavigated Iceland via The Ring Road!! Oh no..the trips not over, we still have 2 nights and a full day to do some more exploring, but first...we need to find a parking space and our AirBnB?!!
We had actually conducted a drive by of our unit on our first morning in Iceland, so that made it simple to find. The street parking was a breeze, free on the weekends and evenings and during the restricted times we simply purchased passes from a convenient machine on the street. It's funny how we talked about elves along our journey and now found ourselves stepping down into our apartment 33 through a very tiny door, ha!! The AirBnB was perfectly cozy, 2 nice bedrooms, living room, bath with walk in shower and kitchen,,,and yes, 8 foot ceilings! We got cleaned up and started walking the very interesting streets of Old Town, cool place.
After window shopping and getting our bearings we continued down towards the waterfront. We found the Government House that contains the Prime Minister's office, most interesting was a statue of Hannes Hafstein, he was the first Icelander to hold office as Minister of State in 1904 under Danish Rule. We unknowingly visited his birthplace on the Moorvellir Farm outside of Akureryi, cool! Another interesting tid bit is that Iceland falls under the Althing Parliament, which is the world's oldest parliament dating back to 930, get ready Jeopardy! Enough history I'M HUNGRY, so down to the waterfront!
With our bellies filled with more Icelandic cod we walked back towards our apartment and decided to stop for a "quick beer". We poked our head in The English Pub and there was live music, cool but there were only a couple patrons at 9pm. At the door I shrugged my shoulders, the ladies looked around and of course the 2 band members enthusiastically waved them in, OK! Bellied up at the corner of the bar the bartender says "band says first round on them", OK...I'm good with that! Soon the bar was filling up with people, they start late in Iceland. The 2 guys were very good musicians with great voices and had everyone rocking their heads and singing along. We got to meet several people, travelers and locals alike. One dad and son travelled solo to celebrate his high school graduation, another couple just finished the Ring Road via a camper and the local gang of guys were just blowing off steam after work, great time! Now, the bar has this wheel that they spin if you choose to bet $25... you have less than 30% chance of making back your money in beer or shots, but it was a blast watching people play. My wife, non gambler, kept refusing to play until I finally took out the cash and said "we must spin", only rule was that she has to hand the money over since she's the one with good luck....Spiiiiiiiiin!....the crowd grows deafly silent.......then the wheel slowly comes to a stop...8 BEERS!!, the bar tender enthusiastically rang the bell and the patrons cheered!!! Luckily we had some new friends to help drink the pints! By the way, the local guys won the 1 meter prize, 12 pints...woop woooop!!
After a "quick beer" and a couple shots of the local Brennivin it was time to head home. It's not often that we stay out after midnight, fun people and good times!
To be continued...........