Europe 2013 : Iceland

This years overseas adventure took me (and Dave finally!!!!) to Iceland, France, Italy and the Czech Republic. We had a phenomenal trip which was a highly successful business trip as well as a great 10 day get away with my husband. Here is a quick recap!

Seattle to Reyjkavik, Iceland:

What a wonderful country beginning with the amazingly friendly and hospitable people, the beautiful diverse landscape, the most incredible lobster and the best water I have ever tasted! We arrived early morning on a red-eye from Seattle…obviously exhausted, we were so happy to be able to check into the Reyjkavik Marina Hotel early and get a quick few hour nap! We explored around the city, met Sigurdur “Siggi” Hjorleifsson who is the first person I met in Iceland when my agency was getting it’s feet wet. It was so nice to meet that man behind the voice and emails! He took us to a restaurant where his beautiful daughter works and I had the best chai latte I had ever had! Lots of “bests” in Iceland!

After a city tour courtesy of Karl West Karlsson and a quick visit to meet Bragi Magnusson with Stjarnana, we headed to the restaurant “Fjorubordid” with Finnur Stefansson, Johannes “Joey” Arnason, Hrafn Kristjansson, Agust “Gusti” Bjorgvinsson and Hallgrimur “Haddi” Brynjolfsson. Now that’s a mouthful!!

The menu consisted of lobster in a bucket, lobster soup and desert! Amazing meal and so very nice to meet all the guys I have done business with over the years! This crew all has ties with the club KR where Ebone Henry is now playing:-) Dave was excited to learn that Finnur is a fisherman as he is anxious to get back to this amazing country for fishing and golf!

Friday morning we stopped for a tour of Joey’s law office & a few KR momentos and then headed to the Golden Circle to tour the countryside. Within a few hours you see volcanic black landscape & beaches then a drastic change to lush farmland…then to amazing waterfalls and eventually glaciers! The most diverse country I have ever seen. We chose the drive around the Golden Cirlce instead of spending the day at the Blue Lagoon so we will have to do the spa next trip! The Gullfoss waterfall was spectacular but we gave it the Clark Griswold gander as it was absolutely freezing! We were told the weather was usually mild unless the wind was out of the north and lucky us, it was out of the north that day!!! We also had a chance to meet up with Sverrir Sverrisson (Grindavik men) and Nigel Moore (Njardvik) in Keflavik and had a great lunch at a Thai Keflavik.

We ended the evening with a visit to Baddi Magg’s (Haukar) practice and topped it off with another great meal and early to bed as he were to leave for Paris early morning! Iceland was phenomenal and we are anxious to visit again soon. I don’t think I will even try with their language as they have the longest words ever and rarely use consonants 🙂 plus they all speak English better than most Americans!

Thanks again for all the wonderful hospitality, my Icelandic friends.