There are more photos on Flickr and still some others in Instagram (search for dbender54).

We had a 7am flight (got up at 4:30 am), which meant a 45 minute drive to the airport to get gas, return the rental car, go through the tax back queue, check the bags get boarding passes and walk quickly to the gate, where our flight just began boarding. The airport is really busy at 6am. Being the home base for Icelandair, their check-in lines in Reykjavik are long, but with e-ticket, just self-check your bags.

2 1/2 hr flight + 2 hours time change.

45 minutes into the city on Flygbuss. Pretty day, about 68 degrees.

In Iceland, we saw very few brands we’d know aside from KFC/Subway. But in the Stockholm airport, there’s a 7-Eleven outside the airport and a Shell gas station (not that either of these are US companies).

The airport bus drops us off near the Central train station, which is supposed to be near our hotel. Always a bit confusing in a new city until you get your bearings, even with GPS. But the hotel was actually just a few blocks from the train station.

Some closing facts about Iceland. I might have mentioned they have a few volcanoes. Between active and inactive volcanoes, there are 130 volcanoes in Iceland. There are about 30 active volcanoes, but only one recent eruption, between Aug 2014-March 2015. However, the creation and destruction of land by volcanoes is an on-going geologic process, not some long ago events. As late as 1963, a new island off the coast of Iceland was formed by a subsea volcano. Some of the currently active (Hekla, Katia), but dormant volcanoes, on Iceland are expected to become active again after many years of dormancy.

Reykjavik residents love their hot dogs. The hot dog stand located across from our hotel had a line at 5am. But the bars were still open from Friday night too, so hungry drinkers needed something.