Iceland to Oakland, Tuesday, 4 August 2026

 We awoke refreshed and headed out to Stanholt for lovely breakfast, a place Madeleine had recommended. Barney had waffles and bacon and skyr with berries, I had avocado smoked salmon toast on sourdough bread and good coffees. We walked back along a main commercial and strolling street with many shops, looking for a nice puffin t-shirt for Barney, and finally found one. We also saw a shop with two polar board models out from and a real taxidermied polar bear inside, which was at least 9 feet tall.back to the hotel, check out and load up the car, and headed to the airport. After the car return, we learned that we were too early to check out bags, so we cooled our jets for an hour at a cafe (third coffee of the day) and finally found the right place to check in. We spent about 3 hours in the very nice Icelandair Saga lounge with some traditional food for lunch and a place to relax, then off to board for the long flights home. Something I noticed, almost everywhere, was the constant anonymous pop rock with machine thumping drums. 

Greenland was a revelation: wild, beautiful, majestic, sparsely populated, focused mostly on an earlier way of life. Truly an incredible place. And yes, Greenland is not for sale. Iceland is bigger, urban at least in Reykjavik, with a fairly mature tourism industry, fun, hip, rural, with beautiful glaciers and coastline. I feel lucky that we have had the chance to experience both of these places.