Iceland Day 21 – Reykjavík to Bend

Monday September 15, Flying Home

And just like that, our phenomenal vacation in Iceland was nearly over. Our flight was not until 1700, so we had a free morning and early afternoon to catch some last minute sights in Reykjavík, or not.

The sky was largely still dark when I awoke in Reykjavík at 0530. There was no chance that I would go back to sleep. My mind was already running the checklist of things to do today: shower, pack, find coffee, buy sandwiches for the plane, take our suitcases to the car in the parking garage, return to the apartment to finish packing our carry-on bags, check out, take our carry-ons to the car, wander around until our lunch reservation, eat a leisurely final meal in Iceland, retrieve our car from the garage, drive to Keflavík, fill up the gas tank, return the rental car, shuttle to the airport, clear security, and locate our gate.

After our bad experience with coffee yesterday, we vowed to do something different and having time to kill before heading to the airport, we wanted to have a sit-down breakfast. I had already read about and seen Sandholt just a block or so from our apartment, so I suggested it. The sky was gray, but not raining, for our 3-minute walk to the family-run bakery on Laugavegur.

Immediately inside the door, we were intrigued by incredible looking pastries and breads as we waited to be seated. At our table in the comfortable space, we sat back to relax while waiting for our food and coffees to arrive.

Impressive Pastry Counter at Sandholt

Cinnamon rolls are a big thing in Reykjavík. Ann ordered one which she said was flaky and surprisingly not overly sweet. I was intrigued by a lamb tinga sandwich, advertised as sourdough bread, slow-cooked pulled lamb shoulder, mustard, chipotle sauce, cheese, pickled cabbage, coriander cream. I could not find any of the ingredients except the lamb on the sandwich. The lamb was fine but the bread was outstanding. The coriander cream was lacking color, character, and cilantro. It certainly was not a classic tinga where the meat is bathed in a smoky chipotle, tomato, and onion sauce.

Delicious Cinnamon Roll

Lamb Tinga Sandwich: OK Lamb, Dynamite Bread
Closer to Barbacoa Than Tinga

As we were eating, a young woman came in and requested a corner table. Ann and I watched slack-jawed as this apparent "influencer" reset the table to her liking so that she could take photographs. The nerve of some people. After we settled our breakfast bill, we went to the takeout counter and got two sandwiches to eat on the plane. They proved inexpensive and delicious.

After Sandholt, we walked around the block the opposite way going back to the apartment, There, I gathered our two bags and took them to the car a few blocks away, rolling them right down the middle of the pedestrian-only Laugavegur, keeping a sharp eye out for the delivery trucks servicing the businesses along this busy street.

Love the Iris We Spotted Headed Back to the Apartment

In less than 10 minutes, I was back at the apartment where we relaxed until check out time at 1100. We schlepped our carry-ons to the car on the way to see a few last-minute sights before our 1130 lunch reservation. From the garage, we walked down to the waterfront to see the Sun Voyager sculpture and then towards the port past the Harpa Concert Hall to the restaurant.

Sun Voyager Sculpture Evoking Viking Ship

Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center

I booked an 1130 table at Messinn thinking that we would have a long and leisurely lunch before hitting the road for the 45-minute drive to the airport in Keflavík. It was a difficult assignment to locate a sit-down restaurant near the parking garage that is open on Monday for lunch. Seafood restaurant Messinn seemed to fit the bill and had decent enough reviews.

Our experience started going south from the beginning as the server told us that of the eight fish species on the menu, they only had two: cod and char. Given that restriction, our order will be no surprise. We started with an appetizer of smoked char which we enjoyed. But we found the sweet brown rye bread (rúgbrauð) on which it was served to be too sweet compared to other versions we have eaten in the past three weeks.

Smoked Arctic Char on Rúgbrauð

For entrées, Ann ordered plokkfiskur, a mix of cod, mashed potatoes, and béchamel. It was fairly light as plokkfiskur goes and tasty enough but not the filet of cod that Ann had wanted. I ordered the char. The menu did not specify that the char was charred but that is how it came, fried into submission, dry and unappetizing, a sad end for a beautiful fish. All the other char on plates near us was similarly butchered. We left disenchanted long before we had planned, our last meal in Iceland not worth the money and detracting from our overall experience.

OK Plokkfiskur

Charred Char, Dried Out and Terrible

From the restaurant near the harbor, we walked the few blocks up the hill to the parking garage to get our car out of hock and start for the airport. Paying the fee was a non-event. Once we exited, the license plate reader did its job and our ticket was closed out and paid automatically via the Parka app. The trip to the airport was uneventful, but I was surprised to see so many vehicles driving at 120+ kph. I suppose it is no different to the road to any American airport, but in a country where most people kept within 5-10kph of the speed limit, it was a bit of a surprise.

After getting gas near the rental car center, we went to drop off the car. The instructions I got about returning the car were "behind the building, you'll see it." So, driving behind the building past the garage bays, we did see a sign that indicated returns to the right. After turning right, there was no apparent or signed return area, so I pulled to the sidewalk and left it there for them to figure out where to put it, no employees in evidence. We retrieved our bags and headed for the office, leaving the keys in the car as is common practice in the U.S.

In the office, the young guy behind the counter said, "keys?" when we told him we were returning. I got the biggest eye-roll and attitude, like I am the dumbest human alive, when I told him they were in the car. Apparently he had more attitude with Ann while I took my time in retrieving the keys. Anyway, what do I care what some barely-old-enough-to-shave kid from Croatia or Slovenia or wherever thinks of me? His problem, not mine. After handing him the keys, he said, "That's it." so we walked outside to wait for the next shuttle to the terminal. The shuttle driver was a really charming guy from Firenze and the direct opposite of the kid at the counter.

We left the rental car center at 1400 and we were through security at 1430. Meanwhile, I received an alert that our flight was delayed 30 minutes, from 1700 to 1730. Because we were so early to the airport, our gate was not posted, so after going through outbound Passport Control, we looked for a place to sit out the wait. Oddly, KEF does not have seating at each gate, rather it has a few waiting areas scattered throughout the terminal. Those waiting areas do not have enough seating for the number of passengers, nothing close to sufficient.

Boarding at KEF is a damned chaotic circus. Each gate has a line and the order in which you are in line is the order in which you board. There are no boarding groups or other means of filling the plane in an orderly fashion. So, it is a rush to get on line long before the flight so that space for carry-on luggage will still be available on boarding. Worse, after scanning boarding passes, passengers merely move from a line in the terminal hallway to a sardine can-sized preboarding area that is too small to hold all the passengers on a modern jet. We stood on line for an hour and then another 15 minutes before they let us climb the stairs and enter the jetway to board, an infuriating process.

The plane, a brand new A321, pushed back 40 minutes late, but arrived in Seattle only 10 minutes late thanks to a decent tailwind. We cleared Passport Control, Customs, and TSA to arrive at our gate 30 minutes before boarding for Bend. The TSA lines were vacant thanks to our 1800 arrival. The trip home was uneventful and our shuttle dropped us off at the front door at 2200, 0500 by our body clocks used to being on GMT. It would take me a week to get back on PDT, the jetlag worse coming back than going.

And that, save a final wrap-up post, is the saga of our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Iceland.

Iceland Day 20 – Free Day in Reykjavík

Sunday September 14, Lazy Day in Reykjavík

Just a day before we were to return home to Oregon, I scheduled a full day in the capital city. We were here for a day three weeks ago but I planned nothing for then, expecting jetlag, and truthfully, we were too tired to see much of the town. Today, I hoped to walk the city, photograph whatever caught my eye, hit a brewpub, and eat out at a restaurant.

Obligatory Photo of Hallgrímskirkja
on Skólavörðustígur

Last night was not the greatest night of sleep I have ever had. Women shrieking and howling at a nearby bar woke me at 0020. Reykjavík has a reputation for partying long into the night, often just getting started after midnight. The women certainly kept at it until I finally fell back asleep around 0230. It was silent once again at 0300 as the gentle sounds of rain woke me, having ended the fun or chased the party indoors. In either case, good for me. When I woke up for good, it was still raining, albeit gently, day number 19 of 21 days with rain while here.

What to do on a dreary and rainy Sunday morning in Reykjavík? Laze around in bed was our answer. With the forecast for the rain to end by noon, we felt no urgency to go out in it. We can see sights in the afternoon or tomorrow before heading to the airport after lunch. Or not at all.

Coffee Not Worth the Wait

We finally got motivated to get coffee, electing to try Kaffibrennslan, a block away on Laugavegur, as recommended by our somm at Port9 last evening. On a rainy Sunday morning, the place was packed like a sardine tin, but fortunately, Ann scored an empty table upstairs. While we sat waiting for our coffees which were promised in 10 minutes, we devoured excellent croissants. Then we waited some more for coffee from the backed up espresso machine. Then we waited some more. At long last, our coffees appeared, more than 30 minutes after I ordered. And it was not even all that good coffee.

After coffee, I dropped Ann off back at the apartment and grabbed my camera for a wander about downtown in the light drizzle. My first stop was about three blocks away at Hallgrímskirkja which from close range seemed to owe its inspiration to the columnar basalt formations so common in Iceland. Later in the afternoon this was confirmed when I overheard a tour guide telling his group that the architect took his cue from Svartifoss, the waterfall coursing over a columnar cliff that we saw at Skaftafell earlier this week. From the top of the hill, I wandered in a big circuit back to the apartment.

Colorful Houses on our Street

Tour Guide Outside Hallgrímskirkja

Door Decoration at Hallgrímskirkja

Window Display at Brauð & Co

Back at the apartment, I spent some time pulling all my gear and clothes together for the flight tomorrow. It was time to fold up the shopping bag and day pack so they would fit in my suitcase. Also, it was time to put all my camera gear except one camera back in its box. I could feel the clock ticking away on this vacation.

Ann and I did a bit of poking around on the internet trying to find a place for lunch today and a place for lunch tomorrow before our flight home. Many restaurants that we might have wanted to try are not open on Sunday and even fewer on Monday. By some means now long forgotten, we came to a decision to visit Le Kock for lunch today and I found some positive reviews for a seafood restaurant called Messinn for tomorrow.

Once we got hungry, we started down the hill in the direction of the harbor to find Le Kock, which is situated right across the street from where the cruise ships dock. The area was fairly busy with cruise ship tourists scrambling to find a bite before they had to reboard. Le Kock is an interesting concept, fine dining technique applied to pub grub from three chefs from Matur og Drykkur (Food and Drink) who worked under Gísli Matt.

Located on the first floor of a hotel, the restaurant has three separate counters labeled Deig (dough), Tail (cocktail), and Le Kock (chef) all surrounded by communal seating. You order food at either Deig, doing a rocking business with sandwiches for the time-pressed cruise ship crowd, or at Le Kock. Then you can order from the bar at Tail if you want alcohol.

I ordered at the Le Kock counter then went to find Annie who had claimed a table and was jamming out to “Shimmy Shimmy” by Prince Fatty. I went up to the bar to get us a couple of beers to sip while waiting on our food which turned out much better than average pub grub.

Beers at Le Kock

Starter: KFC Wings

Left: The Big Red Machine Chicken Sandwich
Right: Fried Potatoes with Chipotle Sauce

We started with KFC wings which were really good wings, but not Korean fried chicken as I understand how to make it, missing that ultra-crispy crust and the nose hair-singeing sauce for which KFC is renowned. We also ordered the sandwich called the Big Red Machine, a deep-fried chicken thigh with hot honey glaze, bacon, cheddar, red cabbage, pickles, and Japanese mayo, on a Deig-made potato sesame roll. I do not know if the name of the sandwich has anything to do with the 1970s Cincinnati baseball dynasty of the same name, but it was delicious. To accompany that, we got a bowl of fried halved tiny potatoes with guacamole, chipotle sauce, bacon, and green onions.

After lunch, we wandered around gradually making our way up the hill to Hallgrímskirkja, which Ann had not yet seen. The rain seemed to have disappeared while we were eating lunch.

If the Fake Raptor is Supposed to Scare off Birds....

...It Does Not Work

I Think This is a Juvenile Herring Gull

Icelanders are Rightfully Proud of Their Wool

Leif Ericsson Statue at Hallgrímskirkja 
Gift from U.S. on 1000th Anniversary of the Alþing

Ann Found a Friend

In the late afternoon, we returned to our room to take showers, relax, and get ready for our visit to Skál for dinner. Ann had really wanted to dine at Skál, but we could never score a reservation back at home. We were fortunate to get the sommelier at Slippurinn in Vestmannaeyjabær to book a table for us (Slippurinn chef Gislí Matt is a partner in Skál). Skál, which means cheers but is pronounced like scowl rather than the Scandinavian skål pronunciation which is our skoal, started in a food hall closer to the harbor, but has moved to its own space up the hill. We were looking forward to their take on local Icelandic dishes.

At 1829 we set out for our 1830 reservation at Skál. The restaurant is at number 1 and our apartment was at number 5 on the same street, with just number 3 between us. I do not know if this is coincidence or destiny or just dumb luck.

Dinner Here Tonight

As at Slippurinn, we ordered the tasting menu. When I asked if wine pairings were available, I was told that they were not but they would bring us their short list, which for a restaurant of this caliber, needs an awful lot of help from a sommelier.

One of the staff recommended Dope, a basically still pet nat (pétillant naturel, naturally sparkling) rosé from Claus Preisinger, Burgenland, Austria. This wine that leads with red fruit (earthy cherry, pomegranate, and rhubarb) was balanced and worked well with our meal. Pet nat is bottled while it is still fermenting such that it lightly carbonates the wine though this one was still. I am not a big pet nat fan, having tasted too many rustic beery bottles of cloudy wine. However, this one worked.

As an aside, in a former life, I used to wrangle wine labels through the approval process at the TTB which has a laundry list of things that must appear on the label and another list of verboten items. I imagine Dope falls squarely on that latter list.

Pet Nat Blaufränkisch
Imagine TTB Approving This Label!

I say "one of the staff" recommended the wine because, like at Slippurinn, everyone seemed to do just about everything and I do not know that we had one person in charge of our table. I do know that it was a team effort. I saw the expo run food to tables and once when our microgreens were dying in the pass under the heat lamps, one of the line cooks gave up waiting on a runner and ran the plates himself before the greens wilted. The staff was not as on point, however, as at Slippurinn, but the A team may not have been working on a relatively slower Sunday.

Radishes, Smoked Crème Fraîche, Rye Bread Crumbs, Cress Sprouts

Raw Scallops, Red Currant Granita, Horseradish Cream, Dill Oil

Mini Loaf of Bread with Garlic Herb Butter

Charred Leeks, Mashed Potatoes, Chervil, Flaked White Fish
A Line Cook Ran This and Did Not Describe The Dish

Beef Tartare, Cress Sprouts, Freshly Grated Horseradish
on Tarragon-Flavored Mousse


Lemon Sole, Kale, Sauce Blanquette
Kale Inedible and Tough

Lamb Prime, Grilled Babygem Lettuce

Deconstructed Cheesecake
Blueberries, Skyr Mousse, Hazelnut Crumble, Sorrel Granita
Skyr Has the Perfect Cheesy Flavor for This

I enjoyed this dinner but the experience was likely colored by our visit to Slippurinn where the dishes were a bit more soigné, a bit more focused, as were the staff. The staff here were not communicating among themselves as well as they should have. Also, there was a 30-minute delay between the sole and lamb courses. I hesitate to blame this on the kitchen (often when this happens, the server has forgotten to fire the dish), but it seems that the expo in the kitchen was pacing the meal.

For the food, a downside was the almost inedibly tough kale served with the fish. Also, the tough connective tissue in the lamb shoulder made it hard to cut and eat gracefully. I do not mind eating ungracefully, but this is fine dining. Highlights were the entire radish dish, the mini loaf of bread, the tarragon-flavored mousse under the beef tartare, and the entire dessert.

All in all, I was pleased with our dinner and I stumbled fully sated the 50 meters to our apartment for our final night in Reykjavík.