Hello Again Reykjavik

 

Outside the iconic church in Reykjavik

Blogging should not be this much trouble. More on that later; yes, later.

Our last day in Reykjavik (several days ago now) could have been spent in the airport. We were kicked off the ship at 9 a.m., and our flight did not depart until 4:45 p.m. Instead, we took a taxi to the Fly-Bus Station, put our luggage into lockers, and went out to explore downtown. We could see the church (above) at almost all times, so we walked towards it. 

Walking around was fun even though it rained. I think it rains every day in Iceland, and I was just happy to be, as usual, in the low-50-degree windy weather. We did a bit of shopping and ate in a local restaurant. Or I ate in the restaurant. A little personal quiche, all made from scratch, very delicious. Keith and Judi decided to wait to eat in the airport. Really?

I'm sorry I don't have a photo of the two of them. My laptop refuses to download the ones that were offered to me. I could hardly stand blogging on my phone because I'm not good at texting. My blog posts were full of misspellings and mistakes and were really too small for me even to read. 

The photo above is of the rainbow street in Reykjavik. Iceland is very open and accepting of everyone, and the rainbow street honors gays. Despite the lovely church at the top - its name is "Hallgrimskirkja," most people in Iceland are not religious. There aren't many churches, and almost all of them are Lutheran. One tour guide told me, "We don't care if people go to church or if they don't. Most of them don't." Ironic for such concerned, kind, patient, helpful citizens to not be Christian. In fact, I remember reading that when the United Methodist Church splintered, Iceland made a point of saying the Global Methodists were not really welcome in Iceland because of their prejudice against gays. 

The organ pipes inside Hallgrimskirkja

We left at noon for the airport via Fly-Bus (it takes 45 minutes to get there as it's in the next town over, Keflavik), and boy were we glad we left early. The airport is too small for all the tourists, and it was a madhouse. We had to print out our own boarding passes and luggage tags and put our own suitcases on the conveyor belt after weighing and measuring them ourselves. This took a long time. The rest doesn't matter; let's just say the flight home was uncomfortable. We were greeted with 93-degree weather and suffocating humidity. 

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about our vacation. I loved Iceland. I loved Viking Cruises somewhat less. Keith and Judi went to some of the steam-bath lagoons; I did not. I did not see puffins or lava. Keith and his sister fell into a weird family pattern I'm not sure I can explain. 

Also, I have more photos, so I plan to go into my blog posts and expand.