Page 52 - 2000 ICELAND

We decided to walk to the enclosed shopping mall about a mile from our
place. It took about 20 minutes to walk it because we were pushing against

the strongest headwind we had ever felt.

The tri-level Kringla Mall had mainly Icelandic stores, but there were some
familiar European and American names as well, like Hugo Boss and DKNY.

The mall is modern and contains a food court with McDonald’s and Subway,
but it was too early for either to be open for business.

We wandered about window wishing for a couple hours and then started

back so we could catch the bus that G-J was providing the take us to the

airport (the airport motor-coach driver strike was still on). Stopped along
the way at the Hotel Reykjavik to see what a more upscale tourist facility

would look like and to warm up as we were thoroughly chilled from our
walk in the rain, wind and cold. We enjoyed their comfortable lobby for a

bit.

We had to leave our room at the Guest House by 1 PM so we waited in the
lobby for the bus. Got to Keflavik at 3 PM where we shared a hamburger

with French fries and a tiny pepperoni pizza because the very American

looking airport facilities fooled us into thinking we were at home. Actually,
they weren’t totally authentic but they tasted pretty darned good, especially

the ketchup.

Weather conditions obviously do not matter to Icelandair because even
though the weather deteriorated steadily, we kept hearing the flights take

off. So despite awful weather, howling winds, dashing monsoon rains and
nearly 0 visibility, our flight also took off in timely fashion and landed in

Baltimore on time. Flight home took about 6 hours and we had very little

time between arrival and departure for Jacksonville on the Metrojet. My
Iceland dream of probably 10 years came true and was more wonderful

than I had ever imagined!