An All Too Short Visit to Iceland - Day One

If blogging was my job, I'd be fired by now. I'd like to think I had a good excuse, like jet lag or other stuff going on or being so overwhelmed from the incredible time I had in Iceland. Let's go with #3. I had four and a half days in Iceland, and it wasn't enough. Don't get me wrong, I've been telling people since I got back that you can do a lot in four days, and you can, but then you want more. I'll be breaking these posts up a bit, to give us all a break, but also to balance enough informational text with what I hope are amazing pictures. I flew Icelandair direct from Minneapolis, and contrary to my first visit in 1990, there are a lot of options to get from the US to Iceland. It's around five and a half hours from MSP, I left about five in the afternoon and got there around 6:00/6:30 in the morning. This was a rare occasion where I had a travel companion, and we met up at the airport in Keflavik. There are a variety of shuttle options to get you to your hotel if you're not renting a car, but we took a cab. My friend had actually been traveling for almost a full day. Since we had only four and a half days, we packed it full, starting on Day One with whale watching and an attempt at seeing the Northern Lights. We did see a humpback whale, close enough to see it blowing, but too far away to get any great details. It was freezing on the boat, but I had my new blaze orange jacket and I wasn't too discouraged by the cold. We didn't see too much of anything else, a little seal, but no minke whales, orcas or porpoises. We were slated to see the Northern Lights that night, or at least trek outside of the city hoping we would see them. But, Mother Nature is a fickle lady, and even though it was pretty clear out, there was not enough solar activity. Sigh. Here are some of the pictures from the first day, with the rest to follow.