DAY 3 ICELAND

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD & RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD

Thank you Jo for your comment and we are glad you are enjoying the Blog.

Let’s talk groceries. Say what?  Yes, groceries. 
 
If you are up to a 12-minute walk as we, are we have found not one, not two but three grocery stores adjacent of each other. And just as you thought three is enough, or was the show called eight is enough, you learn there is a fourth store close by.
 
By USA standards, these are considered small, yet they are like the size many of us experienced back in the day when everything seemed large because we were young and small.
 
They don’t carry tons of each item which in many ways is a blessing. Sometimes, less is more or should I say less makes grocery shopping simpler.
 
Stores are clean and well organized.
 
The shelves are well stocked and some might say packed. Thankfully, you won’t feel like you are in New York City trying to navigate your shopping cart all around to avoid crashing into boxes all over the floor or worse yet running into employees stocking the shelves.
 
The produce and fruit selections are amazing that if you didn’t know better you would think the fruit and vegetable gardens were right outside each store and picked minutes ago.
 
Some items normally found on grocery shelves back home, are chilling in the in the refrigerators even though they are sealed tight. This includes milk in a box and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

These stores are everywhere as if they have multiplied. If we walked 15 minutes in the opposite direction we would find several more grocery stores.
 
If this wasn’t enough, there are several convenience stores who when they grow up maybe they will become grocery stores because they carry many items you could find in grocery stores plus other items and often cooked food to go such as Pizza.
 
For us this works out well because these hotels are basically apartments disguised as hotels as they come with an apartment layout and amenities, with hotel-like services. It’s like getting two for the price of one. Well, maybe two for the price of one-and-a-half.  

Speaking of food:
 
Time to chow down! Every morning, like clockwork, a breakfast lands on our doorstep. Just like at last year's spot and back in 2021, this breakfast is a multi-tasker: it feeds us in the morning, provides fruity snacks for an afternoon snack, and even sneaks in some goodies to jazz up our dinner. It's a breakfast with ambition!

​In addition to the breakfast items shown below, we could add to this traditional Icelandic yoghurt, juices, vegetables, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, bacon. 

 

Speaking of food, right near where we are staying is a bakery and the driver who picked us up at the airport pointed it out before dropping us off at the Apartment Hotel. He said it's the best bakery in the city. While we didn't try their pastries, we decided to taste a pretzel bagel. We each have had a variety of bagels over the years and soft pretzels, but never a pretzel bagel. It's never too late in life to try something new.  We enjoyed it for sure.

We knew today would be the coolest, as in temperature, since we arrived and there would be intermittent rain showers and the weather forecast was spot-on. After all this is Iceland in August. The weather elements didn't prevent us from enjoying a glorious walk as we sang raindrops keep falling on my (our) head. We changed this with it's raining, it's pouring, The old man is snoring. He went to bed and he bumped his head, And couldn't get up in the morning. It's sunny, it's shining, The old man is whining. When he woke up he dropped his cup, But all clouds have a silver lining.

As to the silver lining less people were out and about and we had the opportunity to view several pieces of art by ourselves and enjoyed walking as far as our feet would take us.We were prepared with our waterproof jackets and it only rained for short periods of time.

At one point we could see from a distance a cruise ship making its way to the larger of the two ports and we spotted another cruise ship already in port. At the same time there was one ship in the downtown port which accommodates smaller vessels.  

It's been another great day in Reykjavik and we still have another full day to look forward to tomorrow.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith