I was due to turn in my car at 8:30, but the good folks at Rekjavik Rent-A-Car (HIGHLY recommended) allowed me to keep the car for an extra 2 ½ hours so that I could go see the bridge between two continents, about 9 km from the airport.
And what is the bridge between two continents you ask? It is as the name implies: a bridge connecting North America to Europe. Seriously! The European plate and the North American plate meet in Iceland at this particular spot so I was going to stand on two continents at the same time.
The drive was relatively easy compared to the day before although about 2 km of the drive was on gravel as the road was under repair. The area is a relatively new lava field with no trees and little to no green lychen (which you see only older lava fields in Iceland). I did pass by beautiful swarms of purple flowers (which seem to be carpeting the entire island as I passed by the same purple flowers yesterday), but once I hit the new lava field near the continental divide, it was slim pickings.
Anyway, once I reached the turnoff, I hopped out for the car and into gale force winds and hiked the few hundred meters to the bridge. And it was interesting to see the divide between Europe on my left and North America on my right. Not much visual difference, but the sign pointed out the middle where the two continents meet so I was effectively in Europe and North America at the same time. (My friend Tom Linde who loves this kind of geography trivia would love the fact that I actually hunted this place down.)
I spent 15 minutes or so at the site taking pictures and wandering around before the wind got the better of me and it was time to head back to drop off the car.
I spent a couple hours relaxing in the hotel and then packed up my stuff and walked across the parking lot to the airport for my 5:30 flight to Greenland. Unfortunately, the very efficient Icelandic staff made the trip through security a 5 minute walk in the park (hey TSA come to Iceland to learn how it’s done) despite the fact that there were hundreds of people going through.
I spent the next hour and a half waiting for my gate to be posted before heading to Gate C28 and my 2 hour and 10 minute flight to Narsarsuaq, in the south of Greenland. We departed right on time and my Greenland adventure was about to begin.
How fun!!