Hi Donna, I'll start with answering your flight questions and some first day stuff:

Left from SFO to Ryk on Icelandic Air - 11pm departure. fine flight, lousy in flight food from SFO, asked for Vegetarian but did not get it - everyone got the same thing, no choices, but this was also a late night flight so food was not the big issue then as we had eaten a nice Japanese fast food meal at the airport. Service and amenities were basic but adequate. Screens for visuals were limited and did not use any of the inflight entertainment options.

Odd in-flight orientation presentation telling all of us in coach what services the "Saga" class passengers ( a business type class - did not see a true first class option) were getting - arrival drinks, meal choices and free alcohol, which we were pointedly not and would have to pay for. No need to make this announcement since those in Saga Class already knew they were getting these features and no reason to let us know we were not.

The plane was very comfortable, much more leg room than most flights and 2-3-2 seating in a Boeing 757 (or something). All went well until we arrived in Reyk and had to wait an extremely long time for our luggage - another flight from Copenhagen's baggage came and went on our assigned carousel and still no luggage for many of us who checked in early at SFO. As we were grumpily standing in the service desk line, the luggage finally came in. The flights are few and the airport small, so this seemed like an inefficient delay.

(More problems later when we left - place left half hour late with absolutely no information from ground staff about the delay, and a lot of congestion in what appears to be a too small airport with very poor pedestrian traffic flow plans - though there was room later to spread out away from the entrance and check-in areas)

The poor fellow picking us up at the airport for the trip into town was wondering what on earth happened to us and at first I was told by the border guards I could not leave this arrival area to let the driver know we were delayed by the failure of our luggage to arrive, but they let me out after all. Only then to have to be fully searched and bags put through security when we finally did leave the arrival area. But they were friendly about it.

Taken into town for the first of our hotel package nights at the Park Hotel - outside of downtown, but walkable. The varied and austere scenery along the way gave us good clues about what was in store for us. Got there around 5pm, even with the delay over the baggage, just as you predicted.

Weather was brisk but with a little bundling up we did just fine walking into town. Did some shopping for a bird book and some maps and then had dinner at Cafe Opera right in the center of the "old town" to get our first reality check about prices. Charming place upstairs with nice views out the windows.

We ordered the "2 course" meal for 3.9K each - the fish on the hot rock special with apple cake. The gave us some very delicious puff pastry snail appetizers and the hot rock special included veetables and potato along with the fish. The fish is cooked on the very hot volcanic rock that is presented to you at the table and was delicious -salmon and a white fish on skewers which one cooked and turned then slid off for eating. At 8pm, there were very few people in the restaurant but more local people started coming in when we were leaving.

Because of internet tips we asked for a hotel room on higher floor with a sea view and got a wonderful room on the 6th floor and could watch the sun travel over the sky and blast into our open windows at 3am - we knew we were in Iceland and did not want to miss a moment of this new experience so we did not even want to close the drapes.

We wandered around the town a bit after dinner and found a traveling band concert from a German music club (in costumes) at the City Hall and sat in for a few songs and dances to a small local crowd gathered there. It was a peaceful and interesting walk around the town and we felt we got more for our money in Iceland since it was light for so long - it let us feel we could do so much more and not worry about having to get back before dark.

We went back to the hotel past the water front and the Hofdi House already liking Iceland a lot on just our first day. Clean, accessible, safe and full of natural visual drama.

Breakfast at the hotel was excellent: full hot and cold buffet, so we were soundly fed before we got our little Toyota Yaris rental car and were off for our first day of our Ring Rider driving adventure around this wonderful scenic country.

(Weather over all was fine - yes we had rain and fog, but we also had a lot of sun and it was even up to 20 degrees C (around 68 degrees F) when we were further up north. Some one said the weather in Iceland did not matter because all you had to do is wait a bit and it would change, or drive a bit more and it would change.

We were dressed for it, even over dressed often, so this simply did not slow us down. In fact, in some places the wind and the fierceness of it added to the experience as we felt awe for those first few residents who came to this lonely island back in the 800's - total awe.

One thing we were about to learn is that we used every bit of travel resource we brought and bought: We got the highly detailed road atlas with the rental car which added a lot of surprise detours we would not have known about with precise directions -- after a few frustrating days trying to sort out its system of maps and links.

We also used the Insight Guide and the Lonely Planet as both had different suggestions and different versions and opinions- Lonely Planet was the best and we came away a big fan, but it still needed a lot of supplementations with the more detailed maps. We had a general over view map and then a far more detailed overview map with really tiny print, but this was essential for highway numbers and road conditions, which none of the other maps offered.

So while it was a real juggle being "navigator" going from one resource to the next, it all paid off and we feel we got as much and more out of this short time we had to see both the big picture and some hidden corners as well. But if you want just one book - Lonely Planet is the best.

Then read Insight Guide when you get home to answer all the more in depth questions about history and culture than can come up along the way. Makes more sense then after one sees the country.

One other tip is that most of the books read best for travelling clockwise around the country from Reykyvik - going west first and then north to east and then south. Our package took us the opposite way so it made reading the books route plans cumbersome and I had to start the Route Map book on page 161 and read it backwards which got tricky for those with spatial perception deficiencies!

We also struggled with the Icelandic Sagas before we left and just about gave up on them, but tried to plug away with them as we moved around the country and various parts of the stories would be highlighted at different places. At least some familiarity of the Sagas (Clifff Notes, please!) will help alot to gain more appreciation for those early days on this lonely island and its rough and tumble history.

Iceland has road signs pointing to Saga spots and also special tourist signs with a squarish celtic design on the left hand side for "points of interest", even though they do not tell you at first what those are. There are lots of visual markers and most places have good signs and highway identifications if you have good maps and keys to figure them out.

Again, the large Route Map book helped us out on a lot, but not all, of them. There may be a key from the tourist office that can help more. We did not know to look for this ahead of time.

Back to the Sagas, Lonely Planet put us on to the typcially violent and weird Saga story about the Beserkers and their path through the lava that led to an unexpected side trip out on the "Snafelless) (or groan - can't spell a darn name at all)" which turned out to be one of the more mystical highlights of the entire trip - helped by finding these locations in the Route Map book near Stikkelsholmur. (Sp???) Otherwise these would have been hard to find on one's own with just the too vague directions in Lonely Planet.

Dressing for Iceland in July meant for me: jeans, hiking boots, water proof wind breaker with attached hood, heavy sweater, wool gloves and "ear pops" which are neat little individual ear covers (look them up on the net) which fit over each ear and look fairly unobtrusive depending on which color you get. Lyering was essential - because then all of this would be just too darn hot just a little while later. But then absolutely essential when the wind would come up or the drizzle would start.

The second day in Vik we both got great Iceland sweaters which were the best priced and best designed and wore them every day - not the hokey snowflake ones that look cheap and mass produced, but much more benignly colored and designed ones that were a great windproof, waterproof and light weight choice for the varieties of weather one encounters in this country.

They were not cheap (over US$100), but it could have saved a lot of suitcase space if we had known how happy we were wearing these every day. So that is one shopping/packing tip - if you are going north-east past Vik be sure to wait until you get there before deciding to buy a sweater - we never saw better selections for the price anywhere else.

Though Akuryeri had some good ones on sale and a lot of more stylish designs which were a lot more expensive. Sure, we looked like tourists but they really were a good flexible wardrobe choice for the always changing Icelandic weather. We always got a laugh when we actually saw an Icelander wearing an Icelandic sweater. A few did, but we thought most of them were missing a Good Thing.

First day (to be continued) - to Pingvillar and the Golden Circle Iceland for Beginner stops - Gyser and Gulfoss. Overnight near Fluoir.

(Does it sound like I am a little wound up and jet-laggy here still?)

sbagal