Today marked our first day in Iceland as our flight landed on time around 6:30 a.m. Our plan for the day was to get to our hotel to drop off our luggage then walk around outside to get some sunshine to offset the inevitable jetlag.

And boy, did we ever execute that plan to perfection.

We were fortunate enough to have seats near the front of the plane, which we thought would help us get off the plane before most others, to and through customs, and on our way quickly. Our plan was thwarted when instead of deplaning by jetbridge, we and everyone else walked down a stairway to the tarmac and onto a waiting bus to take us from the tarmac to the terminal, jumbling everyone together. Instead of being first in line for customs, we were near the end.

After a brief walk through the duty-free shop on the way to claim our bags, we went to the Hertz counter to pick up our rental car. Rental cars are quite expensive in Iceland because they sustain a lot of damage due to road and wind conditions. Cracked windshields and other damage are quite common. In my pre-trip research, I had heard some horror stories about Hertz Iceland coming up with bogus damage charges after vehicles were returned. I decided to take a chance on them for a couple of reasons. First, I have had Gold status with Hertz for years dating to my time when I traveled frequently in my IBM career. Second, I found an offer where Hertz included the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) at a discount.

Alas, I learned that Hertz Iceland (which apparently is managed separately from the Hertz corporate organization I’m most familiar with) was not as forthright with their discount as I thought. The woman behind the desk explained that of course, I had the offer with the CDW included, but it was a very basic and minimal CDW and didn’t cover many of the types of damage one might expect. Using one of the oldest sales tricks in the book, the young woman offered me three choices: keep the minimal coverage, which she indicated wasn’t that good even though Hertz had sold it to me in the first place; upgrade to a more standard CDW; or get the premium CDW. Jetlagged, wanting to start my vacation, and in no position to research other options, I upgraded to the standard CDW. This interaction colored my perception of Hertz Iceland to the point where I would actively discourage others from utilizing them.

Around 8:00 a.m., with car keys in hand and pulling our luggage behind us, Nancy and I moved outside the terminal and began a time-consuming search for our rental car; the directions to the parking lot weren’t very clear. Although I had requested a sedan (I like a vehicle with a trunk to keep our luggage out of view), we received a station wagon, a Kia Ceed. It was tight, but we were able to get all our luggage into the vehicle. Based on Hertz’s reputation and stories I had heard, I walked around the car with my phone and documented its condition with my video camera.

Shortly before we left for Iceland, I learned that some hotels near the airport had what they called a nap-and-go option where after a red-eye flight arriving at Keflavík, a traveler can essentially get a day room at a hotel and nap for a few hours before proceeding on an Icelandic journey. I checked into this for ourselves, but the hotels didn’t have any availability for the program, so we just got on the road.

As we drove away from the airport, the weather established a pattern we would see frequently for the next two weeks: it was gray and raining, and today’s high was 57°F. We headed toward Reykjavík, just a 45-minute drive from the airport. I had mostly recovered from the previous day’s vertigo but I was definitely sleep-deprived from our red-eye flight. Nevertheless, we had planned a detour to see Fagradalsfjall, a volcano that had erupted in 2021 but had since been inactive. Once we arrived at the trailhead parking lot, we realized it was quite a hike still, plus it was still cold, gray, and raining, and we were tired and not prepared for such a lengthy hike. So, we decided to drive on to our hotel instead.

Before our arrival in Iceland, I had read up on driving in the country. According to what I had read, speed limits are strictly enforced in the country by both patrol officers and speed cameras, with a maximum speed limit of 90 kph, or about 55 mph. Not wanting our vacation to become even more expensive, I was very cautious to drive the speed limit during this first portion of the trip. Most motorists around me did the same. I was definitely groggy however and was glad we didn’t have far to go.

We arrived at the hotel in a late morning drizzle but to some good news: our room was ready for us! Another couple checking in about the same time was not so fortunate, as their room was not ready for them. We decided to take a shower and two-hour nap before heading out.

Our hotel, the Canopy by Hilton Reykjavík City Centre, was eclectic in nature. It appeared to have been constructed by reusing some existing buildings in the area and then completing additional construction to connect them and add a lobby. The location was great, just a block from the main shopping and tourist district but relatively quiet and away from high-traffic areas. The view out of our window was of the Danish embassy.

Now fed and rested, we began our planned walking tour of the shopping district near our hotel. Two streets make up this area: Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur. In addition to the shops themselves, many of the buildings have murals on them. I’ve heard that one reason for the murals is to prevent graffiti on the walls: blank walls usually end up with graffiti on them, but muraled walls do not.

One of the more touristy things we did in this area was visit the Lebowski Bar. I don’t know why there is a bar paying tribute to the movie The Big Lebowski in the middle of Reykjavík, but there is and it’s fairly well-known. I made the most of the visit by ordering a White Russian for myself. (If you’re unfamiliar with the movie, a White Russian is the favorite drink of the movie’s protagonist.)

Skólavörðustígur is more commonly known as Rainbow Road for obvious reasons. The road was originally painted this way for the Pride festival in 2015 and is now painted this way year-round as Iceland is very supportive of LGBTQ rights. The street leads to Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Iceland. Getting a photo of the street without having anyone else in the photo was pretty much impossible at mid-afternoon.

From here we chose to visit Hallgrímskirkja. The parish church of Reykjavík, Hallgrímskirkja is part of the state-supported Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. Its design is intended to reflect some of Iceland’s columnar basalt lava formations. The statue out front is of Leif Erickson, believed to have been born in Iceland and to have reached America 500 years before Columbus. The statue was a gift from the United States in 1930 in honor of the 1000th anniversary of Iceland’s parliament.

Inside the cathedral was simple but pretty, with an immense pipe organ. We were so fortunate to arrive when a regularly scheduled recital was occurring. Here is a brief excerpt that also highlights the immense pipes.

In addition to viewing the interior, we climbed the tower to view the bells and get an overview of the city.

From Hallgrímskirkja, we chose to walk 3/4 of a mile to Harpa Concert Hall. You can see Harpa in the overview photo above, on the waterfront on the right side.

The hall also hosts concerts by touring artists and local acts. I watched the hall schedule before our trip to see if there was anything of interest because I would have enjoyed seeing a show there I think. For example, the American band Greensky Bluegrass played a week or so before our arrival. Unfortunately, not much was going on during our visit, except there was a reception of some kind with food for guests going on. I was tempted to crash it but Nancy wouldn’t let me.

As an alternative to crashing the reception, we grabbed a snack at the bar to fortify ourselves before pressing on. We also had our first experience using a credit card to pay to use a bathroom here. This is actually quite common in Iceland, tapping your card on a device to pay 200 Icelandic Króna (about $1.50 in US currency) to pass a turnstile. In fact, cash is very rare in general in Iceland. We took $200 in US cash with us; we hardly used it.

After the visit to the concert hall, we began heading in the general direction of our hotel, with a brief detour to visit the Solfar, or Sun Voyager, sculpture at the water’s edge. The steel sculpture is in a beautiful setting and also attracts a lot of tourists. The photo here appears to be tourist-free, but they were digitally removed. According to the Iceland Travel site, the sculpture doesn’t represent a Viking ship; instead, it is a dream boat and an ode to the sun. This design was selected in a 1986 competition to honor Reykjavík’s 200th anniversary.

Back near our hotel around 7:00 pm, we were hungry. With jetlag due to a four-hour time difference, our internal clocks were a mess and our bodies had no idea what time it was, just that we were starting to get hangry. Of course, many other tourists were in the same situation – or at least hungry, if not hangry – so restaurants and pubs were filling up. We found a pub that wasn’t too busy just a block or so from our hotel, the Ægir Brugghús. Although ordering tacos was not what we had in mind for a traditional Icelandic meal on our first night, they were surprisingly good and the beer was acceptable.

In any case, you need to keep track of the time so you don’t accidentally stay up all night.

Tomorrow, we will continue our walking tour of Reykjavík.