{"id":12,"date":"2025-11-30T22:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T22:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/?p=12"},"modified":"2026-01-20T21:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:18:47","slug":"little-food-little-sleep-cold-and-windy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/little-food-little-sleep-cold-and-windy\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Food, Little Sleep, Cold and Windy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s Sunday the 30th. About to go to bed (at the hotel in Reykjavik). We started our journey in the early morning on the 29th, so it’s been a long trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
TSA at San Jose flagged my bag for this. They found it, then decided it was okay. Merrianne got random-selected to remove her shoes, so was also delayed. Plenty of time until the flight, though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was no food except pretzels on the Alaska Air flight to Seattle. Wi-fi would have been $8 for the 2 hour flight. Pass. It was free when we flew on Hawaiian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had no checked luggage, so saved ourselves a trip to baggage claim, and a subsequent trip back through security. We simply met Susan, Marcus, and the rest of the group at the gate for the Iceland Air flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Iceland air was very strict about carry-on bag size. Mine fit the tester, but Merrianne’s didn’t, and she had to gate check it. Looking at the overhead bins, I see why. I think it was an Airbus A321 Neo Jet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Wi-fi on Iceland Air would have been 24 Euros for the 7 hour, 15 min flight from Seattle to Keflavik Airport (Reykjavik). Again, no thanks.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\"\"
For the price of wi-fi, we bought light meals. Merrianne got a tapas box. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And I got a hot ham and cheese on a baguette. Actually pretty good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, there were free movies. I watched War of the Rohirrim<\/em>, and Cinderella’s Wish<\/em> (pretty lame). Since we had cheap seats, it was hard to sleep. I did try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was, of course, dark when we got to Iceland at 6:15 am. They’re on GMT. The temperature was about 2 \u2103, which wouldn’t have been so bad by itself, except that it was super WINDY<\/strong>. So windy that they had to land the plane away from the terminal, and have us go down a ladder. Several of us fell, pushed by gale-force winds on the slippery airport ice. The wind was like the Pali Lookout on a strong day. It was about a 50 yard walk to the terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We clocked in with our passports at the kiosks, then exited through the “Nothing to Declare” path, which was just an unsupervised door, leading to an unsupervised gift shop with self-service checkout. There is high trust in Iceland. It took 90 minutes from landing to get out of the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I later found out that other flights to Keflavik (Reykjavik Airport) and been canceled on account of the wind – we had just made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the terminal to our bus was about a 100-yard walk. There were wind baffles, but not everywhere. More people fell. I almost slipped, but hunkered down into a “horse” or “surfer” stance to face the wind sideways. I still found I was slowly being pushed across the iced-over asphalt. 1 hour bus ride to the hotel, then a 5-minute walk to the hotel door. Would have been simple, except that we were tired, and the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The bus had a display alternating between time and temperature. It’s about 36 \u2109.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By then it was 9 am or so, and the hotel was not ready to check us in. We could check in “early” by paying an extra $35, which entitled us to go down to the breakfast buffet. The buffet closed minutes after we got there but I got a reasonable meal. Not a big one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our room was ready at 11:30. Room 766, on the 2nd highest floor. A view, but not of anything spectacular. The shower was not as small as some of the negative reviews would suggest. It was suitable for a wheelchair to roll into, and I think 10 people could have fit at once (tight pack). Marcus and Susan’s room, 742, had a fantastic view of the Plaza, and the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The room had a couple built-in USB charging ports, but they didn’t work. This was also the only convenient mains outlet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Three actually were other outlets in the room, but what are we supposed to do with something like this?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We walked around town a bit – gift shops aren’t really my thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of us took a nap in the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had dinner with Susan and Marcus. I searched for Fish and Chips, and one of the highest rated ones was just down the block. Despite what Google said, FishMkt was not really fish and chips, but an upscale restaurant; no fish and chips on the menu. Much of the menu was Japanese type food, which was nothing special to people from Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prices were Special, though. Merrianne got Black Sea Bass with Miso (Butterfish Misoyaki), and I got a Halibut Steak. Our portion of the check was 15.400 KR ($120), and that was without drinks or desserts. About double what Fish and Chips would have cost at other nearby places. Maybe 3x what it would cost at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Downstairs at FishMkt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We later met other tour group members who ate at other places. Bistro 101, where the F&C was about $40. At the Food Hall (Food Court), it was more like $30. Another place with all kinds of Icelandic food. A Tapas place a block away that supposedly had Puffin on the menu. That I want to try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We walked around town more at night. Still cold, but no longer so windy that it was hard to walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good thing I brought all my electronics. A USB wall charger is 5.500 kr at the store ($44).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Iceland prices are high. These plug adapters, simple pass-throughs, were $20 each. Compare to what I brought, below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
I brought a few of these. Same function as the above, less ground. These were at most $1 at the electronic flea market, but often found in free giveaway piles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A dozen eggs, 1.259 kr = $10.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No pictures, to post, yet. I’m taking them, but still setting up my environment here. For one thing, I need to install GIMP on this old netbook. UPDATE: Obviously, it’s working now. I continue to add pictures, even after the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Sunday the 30th. About to go to bed (at the hotel in Reykjavik). We started our journey in the early morning on the 29th, so it’s been a long trip. There was no food except pretzels on the Alaska Air flight to Seattle. Wi-fi would have been $8 for the 2 hour flight. Pass. … Continue reading Little Food, Little Sleep, Cold and Windy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}