February 2010 Jim and I had the opportunity to attend an in country trade show promoting Iceland and the Scandinavia countries. We spent a week in Reykjavik as our base touring this wonderful and exciting destination and yes Iceland is a year round destination.
Iceland was fabulous! It was beautiful in the winter but from the pictures we saw it’s absolutely spectacular in the summer months. We want to go back to see the contrast in person.
The summer season runs from the end of May through the beginning of September. Everything I read prior to going indicated June was the best month to go but everyone there indicated that July and August were the warmest months with temperatures reaching to the 70s and have gone as high as 80s. June I suppose would be like spring so everything is coming into bloom and it also may not be quite as crowded with tourists at least in early June as it is still a school month. July is when you have daylight pretty much all day and night. In February it was sunup around 10 – 1030am and sundown around 4 – 430pm. There are street lights everywhere though.
We stayed at the Hilton Revkjavik Nordica, a beautiful 4 star property with a 5 star restaurant, which was in the business end of Revkjavik about a 15 to 20 minute walk to the down town. It was actually a great location as the walk was not bad at all and you were away from the street noise of the downtown which some of our fellow convention attendees complained about. We thought the Hilton was among the best of the suburban hotels, good service, great breakfast, good size room and bathroom, nice lounge and restaurant and easy access for day tours. Since all of the hotels are heated including the hot water by natural thermo energy you can expect a sulfur smell when running the tap water. We did not really notice it at our hotel and no one else complained of smelling sulfur in the water they drank and showered in.
Food in Iceland is wonderful. With the exception of fast food places or noodle cafes restaurants are required to have a Master Chef on staff. A Master Chef has a minimum of 6 years of education before attaining that title. And, they make about as much as a doctor, so meals out are not inexpensive even in the off season. But, there are restaurants in varying price ranges and lots of noodle shops and coffee houses, etc. suitable for lunches or light dinners. We ate in one of the more expensive restaurants in Reykjavik called The Lobster House, that ran about $100 for two but the food was well worth the price. The dinner rolls were crusty and warm, the butter sweet and creamy. Their dinner salads were mixed baby greens with hot house tomatoes they grow in Iceland. I had the lobster bisque that was very good, creamy, a bit spicy with lots of lobster chunks. For our entree Jim chose the catch of the day, Icelandic cod that he really enjoyed while I had Icelandic lobster au gratin which was to die for. Unlike the large north Atlantic Maine lobster we are accustom to Icelandic lobster is only 3 to 4 inches long but wide and you only eat the tail. But lack of size is made up in quantity in Iceland. I was served 7 lobster tails and I couldn’t finish it.
We also ate in another small restaurant that ran about $40 for two and I had steak fajitas that rivaled any of the really good Mexican restaurants we frequent and pay about as much or more.
We went to Fjorugarourinn, the Viking Restaurant. Here, the emphasis is on the Viking Era and as you enter you step into a world of the past. the decor is in the Viking style and you enjoy a true Viking feast with a traditional meal served on wooden trays while Viking cad minstrels serenade you while you dine. the recommended feast consists of dried salt fish and fermented shark hors d’oeuvers, delicious mountain lamb and Skyr, a frozen yoghurt dessert with fruit and of course Mead, the real Viking drink.
There are many tours to choose from and it was hard to choose because we wanted to fit in as many as we could. But everyone we talked to loved whatever they did. We took a small plane flight on Eagle Air that flew us over the glaciers, the geysers, the volcano craters and the Faeroe Islands. We visited a salt fish production village and had lunch in the company restaurant, the Viking museum where we saw a replica of a Viking ship, we drove through the wilderness of lava fields and stood with one foot in Europe and one foot in North America on a bridge that spans the fault between the Europe and North American Tectonic plates. In Iceland you have the opportunity to walk on glaciers and jet ski or four wheel drive through the ice and snow and my favorite experience was bathing in The Blue Lagoon, a geothermal heated lagoon spa in the middle of the lava fields where you can bath outdoors in 40 or below weather.
Iceland is truly a destination that should not be missed.
Mary Ann Devery
