Long haul to Reykjavik

A quick blog from the excellent Solon Restaurant in Reykjavik, which also has excellent wifi. It has been rather a long haul to get here. James, Davie and I got up at the ghastly hour of 4.30 a.m. and flew down to London, then waited about Gatwick until our Icelandair flight - we then flew over Strathclyde Park Loch (5 miles from our house) as we headed back northwards at about two o'clock - a mere nine hours after leaving home! I slept during most of both flights, my sleeping on transport skills are finely honed after the Germany trip last week. 

So here we are; we checked into our hotel then walked ten minutes into the centre of Reykjavik. First impressions - I'm not sure really - it's very modern and utilitarian looking but quite pleasant, all fairly low level and with lots of shops and restaurants, bars and cafés. We have done a wee walking tour of the historical sites that we found in the guidebook; these consist of the few old buildings like the "oldest timber building" and Government House (which used to be a prison so some people say that the criminals still haven't left the building ha ha!). We have also visited Hallgrimskirkja cathedral which is modern and bright (coincidentally I happened to read on the BBC news website that today Iceland has repealed its antiquated blasphemy laws in response to the Paris Charlie Hebdo attack.) Outside the cathedral stands proudly the statue of Leif Erikson who discovered Vinland aka the USA five centuries before slowcoach Christopher Columbus, in fact the statue was presented to Iceland by the USA to say thanks!