Today started with a walk down to the sun voyager sculpture, it was around 9am and still dark, the sun doesn’t rise until a bit after 10 here. We got some nice photos even though it was dark and returned to the sculpture later this afternoon to get some more photos in the daylight.

We wandered back up around the town centre and then went to the Kattakaffihhusid a cat cafe. On the way there we made friends with a ginger cat in the same street as the cafe and also spied a big black cat in the window of a nearby house. We enjoyed our coffee and chai and the company of Tommi, Tinna, Trixie, Roxie, Jupiter and Ylfa. The cats were friendly but two of them were having a stand off at one stage, they happened to be brother and sister so we suspected some sibling rivalry at play. Amy’s favourite cat was Tinna who was super fluffy with the softest of coats. I liked Jupiter who sat at our table, he looked very much like my first cat, Monty.

We wished we discovered this cafe earlier on our trip but we did return later this afternoon to have another drink and a chat and pat with the cats. On our way back to the cat cafe we did purchase a gnome dwarf Santa and ‘The little book of Icelanders at Christmas’ as a couple of mementos for the trip. We also purchased our obligatory fridge magnet this morning.

The only organised activity we had today was our helicopter flight. The weather was fine in Reykjavík so we decided to walk to the airport which took almost an hour. It was a good walk and provided the opportunity to see some more of this city. Despite the weather being fine in Reykjavík it was touch and go if the helicopter flight would occur due to low clouds in the highlands where we were heading.

Anyway, we weren’t able to land on the glacier due to the weather but proceeded with the flight anyway and took our chances on where we could fly. Our pilot, Matthias, took us on an unforgettable trip and was able to navigate around some of the inclement weather which can change so quickly here. We did fly through some rain but in the main we enjoyed great weather and got some amazing photos and video of the flight. We flew over some volcanoes, the continental rift and saw two glaciers from a distance and loved every minute.

The helicopter flight was probably our favourite experience here in Iceland but we have enjoyed so many amazing experiences here its hard to pick a favourite.

For our last meal in Reykjavik we decided to return to Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grill where we enjoyed such a delicious meal on our first night and they didn’t disappoint. Both our meals were sensational and we are glad to have had such a great meal to finish off our time in Iceland. We went to the supermarket and bought some skyr for dessert. Skyr has been a part of Icelandic cuisine for centuries. It is a fresh sour milk cheese, has a consistency of Greek yoghurt and is eaten like a yoghurt. It’s very very yummy.

We have enjoyed our final walk around the city tonight, being a Friday night people are out and about and the place has a lively atmosphere. So our time in Iceland is fast coming to an end. We have a very early start tomorrow morning as we need to catch the airport bus at 4.30am.

So I’ll sign off with some final thoughts and observations …. the Icelanders are a very friendly and hospitable people and their country is very picturesque. It’s amazing looking at landscapes that were only created over the last few thousands of years which is a great contrast to the very old landscape in Australia. The natural wonders here are amazing and just give you an even greater appreciation for our planet and why we need to treat it with much more respect than we are doing at present. Greed and exploitation should have no place on earth.

Whilst it’s been cold the temperature hasn’t been that bad, I think we are acclimatising to it. We have missed the gale force winds that occur here and seem to have timed our walks perfectly, whenever we seem to have gone outside it has been after a bit of rain. We only had to adjourn into a cafe once to get out of the weather. In the next few days it will get into minus territory with maximum temperatures around 1-2 degrees. Unfortunately we missed snow (it snowed on the day before we arrived) but we may experience that yet before our trip is over.

Iceland is very expensive, very similar to the Scandinavian countries, especially for food and drinks however every cent we have paid over the last few days has been totally worth it. I wouldn’t come here trying to do things on the cheap, it’s such a long haul to get here you may as well make the most of it and experience as much as you can. At least our spending should slow down once we are in Budapest as it is apparently quite an inexpensive place to be.

We thoroughly recommend Iceland as a great place to visit. It’s unlikely we will be back here again as there are so many other places we want to experience but I’d be more than happy to return one day.

I love that the Icelandic word for goodbye is bless. So bless for now and takk fyrir (thank you) to Iceland for a wonderful time. We are now excited to be heading for Budapest Hungary, I wonder what new experiences and adventures await.

Bless.