We collected our luggage and got some money converted. Luckily right at the airport we didn’t have to pay any fee for converting currency. When we went to a little shop at the airport though to get food supplies we quickly knew that we had been right in assuming that not only the car but everything was going to be very expensive in Iceland. After the financial crisis the currency got devalued very fast but the prices were adjusted. 1 British Pound roughly equals 200 Icelandic Krona.
With our gear and food we waited for the guy from the car rental service who was supposed to pick us up leading us to our car. However when the friendly Icelander came he informed us that our car had not been cleaned and they were going to offer us a Ford Explorer instead. While this would also have been a more than capable 4×4 it was still not a “Jeep” and more importantly as my friend Sven pointed out to the rental guy this car was going to drink even more fuel without really any benefit for us. So after a quick inspection of our dirty Grand Cherokee we decided to take it anyway. The car was not the most current and had some rust, dents and scratches and I figured this would actually be a benefit because if the terrain we were going to encounter really asked for these kind of vehicles then there also was a good chance of adding to theses little marks on the car. And with so many already on there one or two more would not be very visible. The rental guy even confirmed this saying that since it was an older car they wouldn’t look so closely when inspecting the car upon return. Same goes for the interior which wasn’t a problem for us but it meant that we didn’t have to worry about returning it in mint condition.
Our first stop was going to be Reykjavik. The airport is not actually in Reykjavik so our first trip was getting to the capital.
The weather was cloudy at first but it didn’t bother us at all. As a matter of fact it fit the landscape.
We didn’t get very far on our approach to Reykjavik as we already stopped a few kilometers later to stop at the first beautiful spot.