Adieu Paris, Halló Iceland

We bid adieu to Paris yesterday and made our way to Iceland! I think that I am going to like it here in Iceland.

For our final night in Paris we decided to walk a huge route and have some fun.  We started with some art, wandering through the Rodin gardens (skipping the museum as we’d seen it before – the garden was an excellent refuse from Paris’s frenetic pace!).  

The Thinker...in the background at least.  I can't vouch for the two in the
foreground.

The Museum

The Gates of Hell, from Dante's Divine Comedy

Then on to nice chocolates from a chocolatier that had been recommended.  Fancy stuff, and really good.  

Yum!  The choclatier had never before heard the word "filbert."  Only
in Oregon!

And an eclair, for Annie!

Our favorite restaurant on Ile de la Cite

 Next on the list was a negroni.  We’d had a few great negronis in Italy and wanted to see how Paris’s best compared.  We found a dive bar called the Red House that is said to make the best negronis in town (a bit tough to find – no sign on the place).  The negronis were good but not nearly as good as those we’d had in Italy.  

Good negronis, but they don't compare to their Italian counterparts

The Red House in the 12th in Paris -- great dive bar, but don't look for a sign

Finally, we went to a Lebanese restaurant that we’d walked by and thought looked good.  Even though we weren’t super hungry we had a great dinner.

Our apartment in Paris -- the building on the left, 4th floor (US counting system), two open shutters

On arrival to Paris we had booked a large van posing as a taxi to take us back to the airport – Taxis are small, ish, in Paris and we need the size for the box.  We made and confirmed the taxi booking, and confirmed it again for a Saturday 1000 pickup at our apartment.  We were on the street at 1000.  At 1010 I sent a text to the taxi guy.  No response.  At 1015 I called.  No answer.  Damn!  Our options were to (a) huck the bike and all our gear to the RER station and take the train (the station for the Charles de Gaulle train is about 10 blocks away, not a pleasant thought), or (b) find another taxi.

At 1030 a small, ish, station wagon taxi came by.  I flagged him down to see if he could call another cab from his company, a van.  He said that he couldn’t but that he could get the box in, with all our stuff, too (us included).  I was a skeptic, but the guy rearranged seats and kept pushing, and it all went in.  Amazing.  He had to jump on the tailgate to get it to latch but he thought it was entertaining.  Merci beaucoup, small, ish taxi guy!

We enjoyed Paris but are to be honest, are glad to be gone.  Paris is on edge.  It is tense and there is a nervous vibe.  There are thousands of soldiers and cops patrolling the streets and on every street corner and they all carry machine guns.  There is a constant wail of sirens from police cars, as they apparently cannot drive without their sirens on.  Given the recent and frequent attacks not only in France but elsewhere in Europe, the mood is somber.  The only other time that I remember seeing security like it is in Paris today was back in Spain in the mid-1970s when I was there, shortly after Franco’s death.  Everywhere you go in Paris they warn you to avoid crowds (and that’s hard to do on a rainy day in Paris in mid-winter), so there is always an underlying tension.  We love Paris but are glad to be moving on.  Mostly, we’re looking forward to being on the bike again.

Iceland is beautiful. We arrived on the biggest weekend of the year for locals – a summer celebration that lasts 3 days.  Everyone goes to the countryside to music festivals and celebrations that go through Monday.  That left Reykjavik pretty much to the tourists like us, and there are quite a few of us about.  We grabbed a bus from the airport and the driver told us that this is a heat wave for Reykjavik – 16 degrees, maybe hitting 20.  OK with us, as the nice sunshine is perfect.

Iceland from the bus to town from the airport

Catholicism never did catch on in Iceland...

The church is inspiring

That's Leif Erikson in the foreground

Reykjavik

The harbour.  It is great to be by the sea.  The salt air is a tonic.

Seafood is a staple throughout Iceland, as expected

This little food cart has the best fish and chips, and the best price we've found

The ultra modern opera / symphony / theater house in Reykjavik

A few pleasure boats in the harbour

We checked into our “guest house” and walked downtown to look around.  Reykjavik is a fairly small town located on the edge of sea.  It is a gorgeous town.  More modern than most European villages, it has small, well kept streets with picture perfect houses and a sweeping view to the ocean.  We grabbed some food (OK, a beer is just shy of $10 and dinner costs about $30 – it is expensive here) and enjoyed a walk about at the sun moved lower on the horizon.

But at this time of year the sun never sets in Iceland – 24 hours of daylight.  We are just a few degrees latitude south of the Arctic circle.  My normal early awakening is exacerbated by constant light, so here I am hammering out a blog at 0430.  No coffee yet, either.  Things could be worse.

We’ll put the bike together today and take time to explore the local area, then set off into the interior of the island tomorrow.