Day 1: Journey to Iceland

Our journey began on a rainy evening in Cleveland with lots of gloom! We were happy enough to think of skipping town for a few weeks.

Iceland Air was a new adventure for us. The planes were new and fancy with a TV screen built into every seat.

So we were happy and excited but soon enough realized that the seats were also incredibly cramped.

We settled in for a six hour flight and it quickly became clear that none of us would be getting much rest due to those cramped quarters. So I got my groove on with a great 80s music selection (thanks, Iceland Air!) and did a bit of cat napping.

As we flew over Canada, night fell, but I knew that sometime before too long, the sun would be rising since the sun does not set in Reyjkavik this time of year. Sure enough, around midnight Cleveland time I noticed dawn breaking toward the front of the plane and tried to capture it in photos over 20 minutes or so. It was quite beautiful.

We landed on time and it then took quite a bit of time for us to gain our bearings and get the rental car, etc. Jonathan gets all the credit for being an amazing trip organizer!

We were excited to have arrived, but also super tired with no where to crash. We began wandering around Reyjkavik in 50 degree weather with wind. Then the rain started. Right about then our moods tanked, but we found a cute cafe and some food perked us up.

The day quickly devolved into a big effort of keeping various members of the family awake, and in fact we are still in that place! Thankfully we got into the Air B&B around noon so we were able to rest a bit, drop off our stuff and get out of the rain. We did have a chance to visit some sites as well: a lovely church (though we were all falling asleep during the free organ recital) and a museum about Icelandic history (I almost fell three times because I think I was falling asleep while standing).

Today did feature some delicious Icelandic foods of lamb soup, homeade bread and fish stew.

A final treat/staying awake strategy was to visit the local cat Cafe. Reyjkavik is loaded with adorable, friendly cats. This particular cafe had three rescue cats who were up for adoption. We had a great time.

And now....time for bed!