We landed at Kerflavik International Airport in Iceland at 4:20am IceTime but only midnight Biological Time for us. We began the trip at Noon; picked up Ambiana after her CCV class and then Jakobi who was excused at noon from U-32, driving the three hours to Boston and catching the T to the airport lifting off from Logan in PLAY AIRLINES’ big red plane at 7:30PM (EDT) flying 5 hours North and East over Greenland, the Northern Atlantic Ocean and the clouds.

I pretended I was asleep the entire flight hoping to reset my clock waking at descent to the multi colored lights above the baggage bins in a dim cabin, the flight attendant up front brushing her cheeks with a little brush repeatedly. Lights along a coast out the window, Iceland somewhere in that dark. In the terminal Ambiana, Colleen and Jakobi said they didn’t or couldn’t sleep. So middle of the night at dawn in the Iceland airport and some of us having to pee we detoured to the restrooms before Immigration and were wowed by the sci-fi futuristic bathrooms with the narrow fully enclosed toilet rooms. These were not stalls. More like something you would find on a spaceship.

We passed through Immigration, didn’t even have to show our food just declare that we had some then found our bags and went in search of the car rental rep who would shuttle us to our car. Three days before we left I received an email saying that Cheep Jeeps, the agency I had made a reservation with, had gone out of business and was acquired by them, City Car Rental and that they would give us a similar car at the same price.

I was happy to see that our names were on The Car Rental Shuttle Driver’s list and we boarded the transit van and headed out of the airport which in fact did look like a spaceship especially contrasted with the desolate treeless moss covered volcanic plains that surrounded us everywhere. Low cloud hung in the North and West concealing the highlands. We wound our way down a road in a corridor of industrial and blocky residential units to the Rental Facility set among large lots of cars and industrial infrastructure.

We got some kind of four wheel Ford, with unlimited mileage for nine days and they threw in at no charge a GPS device and Wi-Fi Hot Spot. I downloaded an ESIM card good for 15 days and 2GB of data so we could have access to the internet. We loaded up the car, Ambiana, our Navigator, took hold of the GPS unit and put in the address of The Reykjavik Campground and we headed North to Reykjavik 40KM away. After a couple of roundabouts that cleared us of the airport-industrial complex we drove straight North with the lava plains on the East and the Sea visible in the West. There was no snow though the further North we got the less the clouds and we could see patches on the mountains rising to the the North.

Reykjavik is not big and we found the campground and hostel, part of a big park next to a big outdoor swimming pool and hot pot complex, around 7AM Ice Time and 3AM biological time so we set up our tents and crawled inside and slept for four hours.

I woke up first and walked to a small grocery store for skyer and bananas. When I got back the ladies were up and we checked in and checked out the camp kitchen and quickly realized we wouldn’t have to shop for lots of things as we stocked up from the Free Food Shelf. We took a walk to a bigger grocer store and bought food for breakfast and the next few meals.

Back at the camp kitchen skyer and granola and fruit and peanut butter and bagels became breakfast and we sat at a small table in the common room and ate. Access to the kitchen, bathroom and campground lift gate was by a 4 number code. There was one other tent in the campground after we had been there awhile Ambiana said she thought it was a homeless persons tent.Breakfast made and consumed we split into two groups, Ambiana and Colleen opting for a walk around the park to check out the Botanical Garden while Jakobi and I walked into Reykjavik to go to the Whale Museum.

It looked close on the map but turned out to be on the far side of Reykjavik. We walked the entire waterfront past some cool looking works of ART and an eye catching opera house.

The Whale Museum was a big warehouse with 23 life size rubber whales hanging from the ceiling. From Dolphin to Blue Whale and every Whale in between they were all there along with several video presentations and interactive exhibits about how much we don’t know about the Sperm Whale and how much harm sonar does to Cetaceans.

We saw lots of people on those rentable scooters and since it was a long way back Jakobi got a 2 minute ride on one before we found out you needed a phone per scooter and mine was the only phone with an ESIM so we probably walked 5 miles but it was beautiful to stare across the water at the mountains on the far side of the bay bare of snow except for modest pockets. I was expecting more winter on the peaks. We were beat when we got back and met up with Ambiana and Colleen for dinner and were super excited to chill out in the pool and hot pots next door.

At the pools you get a bracelet with some kind of magnetechno in it that locks your locker. No shoes in the locker rooms, complete and comprehensive shower before entering the pool with attendants in the locker room to ensure you comply with the shower and drying off before re-entering the locker area. Also no phones or cameras in the pool area. The place was packed. Lots of Icelanders of all ages. The hot pots were all circular and heated at different temperatures. There was a cold pot plus a larger kidney shaped hot pot full of piped in sea water. Also a big heated lap pool, a play area with a basket ball hoop, a big waterslide and two shallow larger hot pools.

There were lots of people in Pots, others hanging in the pool or swimming laps. Kids going off the slides, all the young folk in the two large shallow hot pools. I descended into the 42C pot and slipped into the hot water. So nice. Getting heated. Colleen, Ambiana and Jakobi off on their own. We met up occasionally in different pots or in the pool. Lots of people to swim and soak about and above the 8pm sky still full of the suns light. We were back below the clouds in a hot water with other people. Spent an hour or so in and out of hot pots, into the cold one, down the slide, holding my breath under water with Jakobi, listening to all the Icelandic language spoken around us. What a lively social scene on a Thursday night we thought.

Reykjavik reminds me of Anchorage, I thought as I luxuriated in the 40C pot. Both Far Northern cities on the ocean with mountains in the distance but the Reykjavikian architecture is different; very cubic with distinctive shapes and colors. The steam room at the pool was closed for maintenance I noticed…open tomorrow maybe? Tomorrow. Hike into Reykjavik. See stuff, maybe a museum, some ice cream or other yummy. Then back to pool after dinner but before all that; in a little while when we crawl into our tents for the night there is a good deep sleeping coming.

Back from the pool. Still no other tents in the campground which is more like a city park with people passing though at times. It felt chill. Teeth brushed, into the tents, warmies on and in our sleeping bag mine brand new & bright red; snug….headlamp and book.

For this trip it is NANDA DEVI The Tragic Expedition by John Rothskelly. An account of an expedition to commemorate a summit made 40 years in the past, to get 22 year old Nanda Devi atop her namesake mountain and to put up a new route on the North Face. Read read read Sleep Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z.

The sun was out in the morning, Ambiana & Jakobi sleep late so Collen & I have the morning to ourselves, make breakfast study the map for the beginning of our journey tomorrow on the Golden Circle. Ease into Iceland with her Greatest Hits. We also got to watch all the activity in the camp kitchen. Though there are no other tents there is a parking lot half full of camper-vans and their occupants are the ones sharing the communal space with us and leaving us all the free food. It’s the end of their circumnavigation around the island and they are returning the van and flying out and have extra food and they put it on the shelf. Thank you. Ambiana & Jakobi finally got up and came back with pasta and red sauce. I found oatmeal and muesli this mornimg. It’s a good thing because everything is expensive here. Gas is 320K per liter, about 10$ per gallon as the exchange rate is 1$=136K.

As we were getting ready for our hike into Reykjavik we realized when the car wouldn’t lock that the battery was dead. We did not think to get an 120v to 240v adapter and were using the car to charge our phones as the USB slots in the car gave a charge when the car was off. Deal with the dead battery later we decided and left that car unlocked and headed into town. Another long walk but not as long as yesterdays. We found the street with all the fancy shops and souvenirs. There were a lot of tourists and travelers, I had thought there would be less. Soon we were in Old Reykjavik, maybe 100 years old, not Viking old and Ambiana found the Rainbow Street that Wiki had told her about from her travel here last July.

Our destination was The Icelandic Phallological Museum or as our daughters call it The Penis Museum. 2700K to get in; Jakobi is free. Worth every penny, learned so many new things about all kinds of animal dicks, who has a penis bone or a retractable pud. They even had a human specimen which did not look good in its clear Plexiglas tubular home. There was even stuff to say about the genitalia of all the Icelandic Mythic Creatures but that wasn’t half as interesting as the sheer size of the specimens in the Cetaceans section. Not even the Whale Museum yesterday hinted at such a spectacle.

In the gift shope we drew dicks on the dry erase board in the little spa ce that was available, which wasn’t much and browsed all the things you could buy with a dick on it. They even had a dick bong.

Afterwards Jakobi made some friends and we returned to the Rainbow Street and climbed the hill to the soaring concrete church atop the hill that is set like a starship upon the crest of Reykjavik. 1200K to take the elevator to the top. We walked around it instead and down the hill on another street where we ate chocolate croissants and got gelato at side by side shops. All the merchants take credit cards so we have yet to see an Icelandic Kroner.

After yummies it was back along the streets to the campground. I found the hostel handyman and he came over in a bit and gave our car a jump. We then prepared dinner, found more free food on the free food shelf, ate and headed next door for a soak in the pool. The steam room is open tonight; a 16′ x 6′ white tiled room with a bench on each side. I take a seat and nod at the two women already in there. It’s not too hot at first and then the steam comes on and we are cooking! Men and women come and go, there is no talking in the steam room unlike the hot pots where everone chatters away.

Sufficiently steamed I head for the cold pot. There are also not nearly has many people at the pool as last night and tonight is a Friday. Colleen tells me later in the salt water pool when I remark on it that yesterday was a holiday. April 20^th: The First Day of Summer and everybody was out celebrating. Not so tonight and we are often in a hot pot by ourselves.

In the sky overhead the 9PM light is catching the clouds and coloring them. Nice to sit in hot water and watch the setting sun paint the surrounding pool with its rich butter light. Long days mean no rush before dark, longer time to be out in the daylight. I leave the pool before Colleen, Ambiana & Jakobi and once outside I gaze across the street over the low neighborhood and trees and seek the setting golden sun. Turning towards the mountains in the distance I see them deep in the sunset life.

Back at the tent something is amiss, my things aren’t where I left them. Instead of in the gear pockets my book and headlamp our on the sleeping pad. I notice the screen door opposite the one I’m leaning through is open. Uh oh? Where’s my sleeping bag?

I was concerned about leaving the car unlocked but never the tent. I picked everything in the tent up and looked all over and under but no sleeping bag. Brand new; only slept in it once, one and a half times if I count the 7AM morning sleep yesterday. Colleen was wrapped up in her sleeping bag in the sun while we made dinner this evening. Maybe she was double wrapped.

I went to the four man tent unzipped and looked in. Only three sleeping bags and the screen opposite me open. Someone had been into our tents and had taken at the very least my sleeping bag. We have seven more nights here in Iceland and I would have to buy a new sleeping bag. But who would do this? The campground is more like a park; very public, lots of foot traffic but some random person is not gonna take a sleeping bag…could be a homeless person in need of a warm bag….or worse to think a fellow traveler, one of those people in the camper vans that were in the parking lot when we went for a swim.

I checked the car next becaue it was unlocked all day but everything seemed to be there and then into the hostel I went and informed the person behind the desk that I my sleeping bag had been taken from my tent and asked if that happened a lot, stuff going missing from those sleeping in tents. Vincent, the person behind the desk said that was the first time he had heard of something like this happening. I asked him if I could get some bedding for the night and Vincent said sure and as he hustled off added he would see if there was a sleeping bag that had been in lost and found for awhile that I could just have.

Back out at the car Colleen, Ambiana & Jakobi had returned from the pool and I told them that someone had been in both our tents and that my sleeping bag was gone and that they should check their stuff to see if anything was missing. Colleen found she was missing her headlamp. The gals still had their phones.

Vincent appeared with a pile of comforters and a pillow and said they had let the homeless camp here for awhile but it got out of hand. We all looked at the lone other tent, door open flapping in the breeze. I could live with a homeless peron helping himself to my bag if that was what had happened. Ambiana remarked that she couldn’t picture someone running off with a sleeping bag flopping all over the place.

Probably weren’t running. I told her I had stuffed my sleeping bag into its sack upon waking giving that someone an easily manageable package to carry off. Headlamp and a sleeping bag, sounded like a traveler to me. My mind returned to those camper vans in the parking lot. Vincent said that they had video cameras everywhere but that the manager was gone for the weekend and wouldn’t be back till Monday.

That didn’t seem to matter to me because seeing someone take my bag was not going to keep me warm at night though I was curious to see the person or persons who had entered our tents while we were away at the pool. The campervan people could have been aware we would be away, from our tents. Obviously we were heading to the pool carrying towels and talking about it and we were the only tents in the campground. There is Safety in Herds; stone age wisdom still applicable today.

At some point Vincent offered us a room in the hostel and we packed up the tents and the car and drove out of the campground to the parking lot and settled into a room with 2 bunk beds. By the time I got in Ambiana and Jakobi had scored a big jar of hazelnut spread from the hostel’s free food shelf. We got cozy in our bunk bed nooks and read. Vincent came by and wrote down the name of two places to get an inexpensive sleeping bag tomorrow.

In those few frantic moments when I realized my means of nocturnal warmth was gone I had envisioned having to buy a 54400K sleeping bag from one of those chic outerwear stores on the tourist street whose brand is plastered everywhere on the ubiquitous video ad panels on all the kiosks. It was like they had kiosks everywhere just to have advertising screens and then your walking down that street and you start seeing all the shops in the ads and suddenly ARCTIC ICE is a place I want to go into but won’t because the Worcester Clothes Swap is the best place for NEW2U apparel and sundries. I did not want to buy one of those swanky sleeping bags though I was aware that my predicament made the purchase of one easier to uphold. Tomorrow would tell but for now comfy in my bed, warmer tha the tent last night it was time to read read read think: were our tents free food shelf to someone in need? Were the campervan people justified in taking our stuff because we were f*&%ing Americans and we can always get more there is more than one truth...think read read read sleeep.