The electronic key confounds me for a moment. Then we are underway. It is still early morning Iceland time. We drive on the side roads out through several small towns, all the way to the tip of the peninsula that the airport is on. We drive down onto the fishing docks, which are still and without person in sight at the moment. I get used to the road signs as we go in and out of several times.
We head south along the coast of the peninsula, towards the meeting plate between the North American Plate and the European Plate, where the jagged edges come up out of the sea. Much ofthe land is new here, with only clumps of grass at times. I remark that it is much like the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, especially along the south edge of the island, which is all new volcanic terrain as well.
After a couple hours of this, we are at the hour of the morning where we are supposedly guaranteed check in to our hotel is Reykjavik. We start heading back, on the back roads past the famous open air hot springs pond called the Blue Lagoon (with an Icelandic name as well, which is on the road signs). We decide not to go to the pool for now. A few miles later, we find ourselves on the only bit of highway on the island resembling an Interstate. It takes us into the suburbs of Reykjavik, the nice ones near where the Prime Minister lives, and then into the heart of the city proper. We find our exit, and merge onto a divided boulevard heading west into the urban center.
I recognize the surroundings. I have never been here before but I saw it on Google Maps Street View, while navigating the area around our hotel. I easily find the turn off towards the hotel, and follow the uncanny curve of memory in real three-dimensional space until I see the hotel itself.
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