As usual, the first day was just a travel day with little to report, except that Denver's airport has VASTLY improved the TSA experience. DIA was fairly busy, but it was only about 15 minutes from the start of the line until we were out.
Sadly, our favorite restaurant on A Concourse has closed, but we made do with Qdoba and ended up with a pretty tasty steak bowl. We weren't sure if our 8PM flight would be serving dinner....so then of course they did. Lars had beef tips with a yummy brown gravy, and Sheila had a barley/maize salad with caesar dressing...both were quite tasty.
Lars had an Icelandic beer, and Sheila tried a gin & tonic with Lundey gin, which is infused with "butterfly pea flowers". This gives it the unusual characteristic of being bright blue until you add the tonic, whereupon it turns light pink.
We DID expect that there would be breakfast, but were disappointed when there was only a glass of orange juice. Not even coffee! Rather dreading the thought of facing Passport Control in our uncaffeinated state, we went to a self-serve coffee stand in the airport, only to learn that everything before you pass Customs is duty-free and only intended for departing passengers. The guy let us have our coffee, though, since we had already poured it.
Passport Control was interesting--they're in process of switching over to self-serve kiosks, but the hundred or so that have been installed had red lights indicating the weren't working. There were so many people in the "Other Passports" lines that they summoned some of us over to the EU lines. Then, just as we were about to step forward, they brought up a group of 6 that had a connecting flight and needed to get through. When we finally got to the window, the officer thanked us for our patience and was unexpectedly jolly, making several jokes as he processed our documents.
The added coffee stop meant that our suitcases were circling the carousel in solitary splendor, so we were quickly on the Flybus to downtown Reykjavík. Being used to switching to a shuttle that would deliver us directly to the door of our hotel, we were surprised to find ourselves getting off at Tjörnin, the duck pond, with a 7-minute uphill walk ahead of us. With suitcases. Thankfully, the streets aren't cobbled, but the sidewalks aren't exactly smooth, either. But it was actually kind of nice to stretch our legs, and Lars was happy to recognize the Hotel Holt once it came in sight. It's in a neighborhood with several embassies...the German Embassy is about a half block away
Lars stayed in this hotel back in the 70s when he was working in Iceland for some weeks. He says it looks pretty much the same, although the rooms have been much updated in the past 50 years. I'm sure the rest of it has been updated as well, although with an eye to preserving the character of a bygone era. Can't wait to see the breakfast room in the morning!
The elevator, however, has NOT been updated in the slightest! 2 people, with 1 backpack and a suitcase each, is a snug fit, and when you reach your floor, the door doesn't open until you push on it.
We paid a bit extra for early check-in, so were able to go right to our room on the 4th (top) floor. Then we wandered off in search of lunch. We've been told that our long-time favorite, Kaffi Loki, has become overly popular and that the quality has fallen off, so we walked over to the familiar street Skólavörðustígur (SKO-la-vord-thu-Stig-ur), the "School Cairn Street", better known today as Rainbow Street. This is the main pedestrian street going up from the city center to Hallgrimskirkja (HALL-grims-Kirk-ya), the landmark visible all over Reykjavík.
This street and the cross-streets make up the main shopping district (and major tourist area), so we knew we'd be sure to find something to eat. After walking almost all the way back to Tjörnin, we landed on BakaBaka, a bakery cafe. Jet-lagged tummies weren't really sure what time of day it was, so the grilled ham and cheese sounded like a nice medium between the breakfast we never got and lunch, as by now it was 1PM in Iceland. They took a while to come out, but were made with crusty sourdough and had a nice remoulade sauce for dipping. And then, of course, we had to order some pastries to take back to the room, where Lars promptly went to sleep.
He woke after about an hour, and we experimented with the in-room coffee machine. Would you call this cup a Small, or a Large?
It turns out that you need to run the machine twice on Large, AND once on Small, in order to get about 6 ounces of coffee. Lars' chocolate/almond croissant disappeared quickly, along with 2 cups of coffee, and then he went promptly back to sleep.
Once he woke up, we headed back to Skólavörðustígur, and were please to find that at least one of our favorite restaurants was still going. Neither of us was terribly hungry, but it's important to make an effort to convince one's bod that it's in a new time zone. Luckily, Salka Valka had a couple of lighter dishes....Lars got fish soup in a small size, and Sheila had the plokkfiskur tapas. Plokkfiskur used to be translated as "mashed fish", but this year we're noticing many places call it "fish stew", which sounds more appealing. Here it was served on very dark rye bread and topped with Bearnaise.
What an amazing set of sublime images. "Lars has NOT actually fallen asleep in his soup" looks like a vignette from a music video. Very glad you could identify your hotel. The Hotel Holt, quite the avante garde hostelry. Minimalistic elevators coupled with variable dispensing coffee machines. Looking down the hall I would not be surpised if Henry Kissinger or Jimi Hendrix just suddenly appeared. I assumed at first that modernizing the TSA experience was an oxymoron. But your alternative route
ReplyDeleteyet refined use of the duty free caffeine was quite impressive. I was gutted that your suitcases were circling the carousel in solitary splendor. Personally I have never personally experienced Luggage Solitary Splendor (L.S.S.). Is L.S.S. anywhere close to the splendor of the Northern Lights?
I do worry about the fact that your room number is "409". Formula 409 has used several iconic slogans over the decades. The most famous taglines include "Giddyup 409", "Just spray and wipe with 409", and "Tough problems call for a powerful formula". Definitely inspirational, but hopefully the parallels cease there. Your luggage has already paid the price. Trying to do the math on the coffeemaker left me in shambles, truly broke me. A true "NESTED IF" of disconsolate, moronic, euphoric, acrobatholithic, acoustomagnetic, bliss. I cannot wait to read and see more of Nomads version 7.0!