Iceland Holiday 3

You can tell it is December here and that Christmas is approaching. Over the last few days Christmas lights, trees and decorations have been popping up everywhere. On monday a road train with Santa in the back, blaring loud carols came around our neighbourhood with door knockers collecting money. The place I'm working at this week has been in a frenzy putting up trees. It is quite different from Australia, it feels more festive. I guess that is the difference the cold weather and tradition makes.

Most of you know, Gideon and I will be in Canada for Christmas. I'm crossing my fingers for a white Christmas - I've always wanted one of those. And looking at the weather forecast for this next week, I'd say there is a good chance. Today it's a max of -4dC and a minimum of -11dC! I can smell the snow already! : )

Anyway, back to our Iceland Holiday. Not really much left to tell. As most of the tours leave first thing in the morning, and we only found out about the cancellation of the glacier tour at 10pm at night, we were unable to book something else, and so we were left with a spare day. With the weather looking a little grim, and our enthusiam somewhat waning, we spent most of the day sulking in our hotel room doing nothing...or should I say relaxing in our hotel room watching crappy day time British TV. We did, however, go out for a little big of a pleasant walk around Reykjavik.

Hallgrimskirkja church
The largest church in Iceland, it's tower can be seen from almost everywhere in the city.

Gideon enjoys getting outside and a little ray of sunshine.

Despite looking a little foreboding from the outside, the church is well lit, warm and cosy on the inside.


A local milkbar

Sculpture Sun Voyager by Jon Gunnar Arnason


Freezing down on the waterfront

That evening we went out to a lovely little restaurant, VidTjornina. Strangely it was decorated with old American memorabilia such as newspaper cuttings and pictures of the likes of Shirley Temple and Lana Turner. Gideon ordered Codchins (still trying to work out exactly what they are, but bizarrely, I think they literally are the chins of cods) which were delicious, and I had a some fish (a type of which I'd never heard of) with a langoustine tail - very yummy. I think having a really good meal ended up turning the mood, it left me with a good feeling about our trip despite the disappointments of not seeing everything that we had hoped. Funny how good food can do that.

In the end, I recommend Iceland, especially if you like the outdoors. There is a lot to do (provided you have better luck with tours, and perhaps if you go in the summer) and it really is a beautiful country.