Sadly, our last day in Iceland is upon us. Last day, but we aren't done yet! Up and out the door nice and early for some serious shopping and sightseeing. First comes getting all our luggage out of the rooms and into a storage area which basically is a closed off staircase. Serious shopping for the ladies; sightseeing for the guys. That is, except for Arnold who has some business in Reykjavik to deal with. First stop is the Roma Café for a little breakfast! They have these misshapen croissants here but delicious so I forgive the baker. After a quick bite, we made our way to the center of town and not all the shops are open! Some open at ten am and others not till noon. Tammy and Dar get into a power walk with their target of a wool shop in their minds. Tim and I do our best to keep up but give up soon enough. It doesn’t take long for Tammy and Dar to leave us way behind so Tim and I decide to do a little exploring on our own. We walk around town for about an hour and a half or two just checking out the buildings and waterfront. Along the way, we see a guy offering two hour walking tours but we figure Reykjavik isn’t very big so we can handle it on our own. Lots to see and really old and cool looking buildings to see here.

Pretty soon we find ourselves at the waterfront and the Maritime Museum. We chose not to go in since there is so much to see out on the waterfront. Lots of old boats and some are made of wood. We passed a couple of buildings with giant murals on them. Someone had a lot of patience to do all that work! At the harbor we found a bunch of signs split up by decade showing all the ships and boats that have gone down off the Iceland shores. Some decades had fifty while others had over a hundred boats gone down.

We have no real idea where we are going but somehow end up back on the main drag at the bottom of the hill. Here we see what I consider the first misfit I have seen in Iceland. It is a young guy maybe late twenties of early thirties. This guy is on some serious drugs because he is walking around crying and yelling Strum at the top of his lungs over and over. He walks out right into the middle of traffic still yelling Strum and traffic stops to let him wander through. Still no honking! Anywhere else, people would be honking, trying to run him over, or at least opening their windows and yelling at the guy. Not here, everybody just sits calmly in his or her car waiting for the drama to be over! We ran into Lee a couple of times as he is shopping for souvenirs for his kids. We also run into Tammy and Dar a couple of times. Tim and I opt for a beer at a local tavern and tell the girls we will catch up with them. We have our beer and head out to find they made it one door down! Now, that’s a shopper! I saw a sign over the main street that says Velkomin on it just like we have here in Ketchikan and I am instantly tempted to step into the middle of the street for a picture but after all the complaining I do about tourists thinking downtown Ketchikan is Disneyland, I don’t dare.

We walk about and the beer kicks in. Time for a restroom break! We found a public restroom right out in the open that looks like a round telephone booth!

Time to eat again so the four of us head for the "Noodle Shop". This is a tiny little shop where you line up and get these funny looking but good tasting noodles with a broth and chicken. We ate our concoctions and out the door once again. Along the way we remember a bakery that we passed and then decided to head back to. Good stuff these bakers come up with! Tammy and I shared a strawberry tart and a small chocolate molten cake!

As we sit there, Tammy tells me of this fantastic quilt she almost bought. She and Dar were shopping when she happened across this hand woven quilt that is made from Icelandic wool, dyed with native Icelandic plants, no machines involved in it at all, and absolutely beautiful. She thought the price was 20,000 krona which would be a little under $200 US. Well at price, she thought "I can't pass this up. I'll splurge this time!". When she took it to the counter to make sure she had the price right, she found out the actual price of the quilt was 200,000 Krona which roughly converted to between $1600 and $2000 US dollars! Wha......? We were both disappointed because she showed me a picture and it is gorgeous! I included a picture of it in here.

Well, enough eating and shopping! We get back to the hotel at our required time and get our luggage from storage where we had to leave it early in the morning. It starts lightly raining by the time the bus shows up and we are on our way to the airport. The airport, of course, has opportunity for more shopping plus a duty free liquor store! More Icelandic sweaters to admire and plenty of booze to choose from. Tammy and I chose a bottle of crowberry liqueur and one of Rhubarbara liqueur. Rhubarabara is what they call Rhubarb here. We find some comfortable seats to wait for our boarding and when they call for us to board, they put us on a small bus to go to the airplane since this is a new section of the airport. I have to say that going through their security and passport checks was just as easy as it was coming into the country. I have to mention how nice and polite their TSA people are, one even apologizing for having to inspect Tammy’s bag. So, we get to the airplane and we are stuck on the bus for a while as they wait for the pilot and flight attendants to arrive, board, and get ready to welcome us. Finally, they let us out and some folks head for the front of the plane while we head for the back since they board us from both sides. Take off comes pretty quickly and I am looking out the window for our last look at Iceland.

On board the plane, we get the earphones we bought on the way up and plug in for the long flight. I look up and notice a cool feature of this plane. They have lights above the overhead storage that move and change color, lust like the northern lights! I had to stare at that for a while, as it was so calming! Watched three movies on the flight that really helped pass the time. Funny but because of the time change from Iceland to Seattle, we left at five pm and arrive at five forty-five pm. Our son picked us up for dinner and delivered us back to the Red Lion hotel for the night.

Since the rest of the trip just covers going home, I will list it here. Next morning we get up bright and early. We stuffed our liqueur bottles into the middle of the sleeping bags for the flight and we are ready. Our flight isn’t till after noon so we walk over to Denny’s for breakfast, back to the room after a short walk and off to the airport. We load up and an hour and a half or two later, we are home! Yea! Fun trip but glad to be home and normalcy.

All that’s left now is a quick wrap up and some tips to remember for next time!

Details on the photos:

Pic 1 -The Gang
The only two missing are Elaine and Lee. Elaine had to fly out super early and guess who has the camera? This is from left: Arnold, Nancy, Monica, Geri, Tammy, Me, Tim, and Dar.

Pic 2 - Quickie Breakfast
Tammy had this roll and I had a deformed croissant. Both tasty!

Pic 3 - Tim and I Walking Around Reykjavik

Pic 4 - Tim and I Walking Around Reykjavik

Pic 5 - Tim and I Walking Around Reykjavik

Pic 6 - Tim and I Walking Around Reykjavik
Cool huge mural of Marilyn Monroe on a building.

Pic 7 - Wooden Boat
We found this at the harbor.

Pic 8 - Wooden Boat
I guess it's dry docked after all.

Pic 9 - At the Harbor

Pic 10 - The shipwreck Boards
Tim checking out the board showing the shipwrecks off Iceland.

Pic 11 - More Cool Murals

Pic 12 - Seamen
These guys look more lost then I do!

Pic 13 - Iceland's Only Locomotive
This was used to pull boats and whales up from the water.

Pic 14 - Interesting Architecture

Pic 15 - Velkomin
A sign over the street like we have in Ketchikan!

Pic 16 - Public Restroom
Just like a phone booth out in the middle of the sidewalk!

Pic 17 - City Work Truck
Flowery, isn't it?

Pic 18 - Tammy's Almost Quilt
Hand woven, Icelandic wool was hand died with Icelandic native plants. No machine involved with this beauty!

Pic 19 - Noodle Station
Quick stop for odd noodles with chicken. Good stuff!

Pic 20 - Bus Selfie
On our way to the airport and home!

Pic 21 - One more Chance to Shop
Airport shopping; we ain't done yet!

Pic 22 - Northern Lights
This was above the overhead storage. The lights danced around and were very calming.

Pic 23 - kveðja Iceland
Goodbye Iceland! Our last look as we leave Iceland.