Ken and I started our Nordic trip with three days in Reykjavik, Iceland. It's interesting; definitely part of Europe but feels somewhat American, open and friendly and culturally omnivorous. Worth a visit; a few days in Reykjavik if it's convenient or a couple of weeks to explore the whole country.

Reykjavik is a small town but quite pleasant, particularly the cafe area in the middle of town. The Hotel Borg was quite nice and we had a fine, world class dinner at Sjavarkjallarinn. The new concert hall is a stunning piece of architecture. I could take or leave the Blue Lagoon, but it's a nice way to wash off the jet-lag if you arrive too early for your hotel room to be available.

A real highlight for us was renting a plane and going on a sightseeing flight over the Þingvellir. Fun to put BISR and BIRK in the logbook, also a great way to get a sense of the land. The flying was easy; TF-GUS was a familiar 172SP and with an instructor handling the radios and navigation, we could just fly. I'd like to do more plane renting on trips; not nearly as complicated as I feared.
Lots more photos on Flickr
culturetravel
  2011-08-06 19:33 Z