Welcome to Iceland

And what a welcome it was. As you fly into the airport you could be forgiven for thinking you had flown straight into a lord of the rings film location, baron, rock and ice in every direction. Landing was text book and uneventful considering the 30mph winds that were starting to make their presence felt. We were first off the plane through passport control, fourth bag round the carousel, grabbed it and we were off.
Now to pick up the hire car. We found the sign that said this way to Hertz, Europcar, Avis, Budget, Alamo and Enterprise "Feesy sweetie which ones our booking with?" I ask "Sixt"
After 10 minutes of wondering around being sent from one end of the airport to the other Fiona finds our shuttle to their office located a short drive from the terminal. You can imagine our surprise when we are served by Iceland's version of Robbie Williams! (Photo attached). This all goes very smoothly and we even get a free car upgrade as they didn't have a golf, so we got a Chevrolet. I did the manly thing and took charge by handing the keys straight to Fiona.

Reykjavik

First stop capital of Iceland about 40 minute drive from the airport. Thought we could have a wander around and a bite to eat before heading off to our hotel. After parking up we got wrapped up the best we could considering all our really warm clothes were still in the case, then headed off in search of food.
We didn't get far before finding a little Italian place where Fiona had garlic bread and me, being in a try new food mood, had deep fried calamari. Tried it, won't be having it again. Main meals consisted of pan fried cod with slow baked potato and broccoli in a tomato sauce and chicken stuffed with Parma ham and cheese with the same sides, very tasty.
With full bellies we wrapped up again and headed for a brief sight seeing walk before heading back to the car. We went to see the imposing church of Hallgrimskirkja (see pictures) very unique outside, beautiful inside, and bloody freezing at the top but a fantastic view of Reykjavik. After that it was down to see the Solfar (Sun Voyager) Sculpture on the waterfront (see pictures) before jumping back in the car to defrost on the way to the hotel.

The Mountain Pass

Another car journey of about 50 minutes to the hotel but what a hell of a 50 miles it was. It started off with a leisurely drive out of Reykjavik and towards the pass. If there's one thing about the weather in Iceland it's that it changes in an instant. The blizzard we found ourselves in was frightening. The higher we climbed the worse it got, even to a point where Fiona, who was doing an amazing job of driving in it had to stop completely as she could no longer see anything. No cars, no road markings and no verge. The snow was coming at you sideways at about 40mph and I can honestly say it's the first time I've seen it snow up. This went on for at least 20km with speeds that ranged from 0 to 50kmph. Then as we reached the top and started to descend it cleared again just as quick, but the wind stuck around and is still here as I type.

Anyway got to the hotel in one piece which is lovely and have booked ourselves in the restaurant for a meal later.

Will be venturing out tomorrow for some more sight seeing, will let you know how we get on.