Day 81-the Hayses and Fritzes arrive

   March 25-Shan's parents, sister, brother-in-law and nieces left Denver early Saturday morning and flew to Seattle, where they had a six hour layover before their flight to Keflavík left. Their flight path took them over Greenland where they experienced some turbulence, but they arrived on time at 7am. So, Sally and Shan got up early this morning to drive out to meet

them at the airport. As when Sally's parents flew to Iceland, we had sent them a list of beer and liquor to buy at the duty-free store. Alcohol has both a VAT (value added tax) and a duty (dependent on the percentage of alcohol) which can be extremely high. Iceland has historically had high liquor tax but in recent years, the government has seen the tax as a revenue generation mechanism and has increased it every year. To avoid the high prices, we have our visitors stop at the duty-free store to pick up any beverages they might want to consume during their visit and to restock our beer supplies. Most Icelandic breweries sell Páska, or Easter, beer and we had them buy a couple of 6-packs. To give you an idea of the price difference, a 6-pack of Páska beer at the duty-free store costs 999 ISK while at the state-run liquor stores (which is the only legal place to purchase liquor) it costs 1974 ISK (approximately 44% more). Even worse, a 1 liter bottle of vodka costs 7499 ISK ($62.50) in the country but is only 2259 ISK at the duty-free store (approximately 70% cheaper)! Luckily Sally had been able to e-mail a shopping list complete with pictures to make the shopping excursion easier for the jet-lagged travellers.

   After the family got done shopping and emerged out of international space onto Icelandic soil, we headed to the rental car company to get a car.  We had to upgrade the vehicle, since the car they presented to us could only fit five people and we needed one that could fit all six of the new arrivals and their luggage. Luckily, the car company had one Ford Galaxy

mini-van left, so we snatched it up and drove 45 minutes back to Reykjavík. Their two week whirlwind tour of Iceland had begun!

    When we got back to the Rey Apartments, we found out (not unexpectedly) that our kids had gotten up early and were anxiously awaiting the arrival of their grandparents, aunt, uncle and COUSINS. Everyone was pretty hungry so we took them out to eat breakfast at the Laundromat.  This is the same place we had our first breakfast in Iceland, and where we took Bill and Jean for their first breakfast. Obviously, it is our

favorite breakfast restaurant in Reykjavík. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 10am so we walked around downtown and looked at the harbor before returning to the restaurant. After everyone ate their fill (and the kids played in the family room downstairs), we began our day with a visit to Harpa. This is the new concert hall that was completed in May, 2011. It is impressive and a great place to get out of the rain. Alex found an All Access Pass to EVE Fanfest, an online multiplier game convention that was held at the Harpa the previous couple of days.

   We headed to the indoor weekend flea market for some really nice shopping (and food booths). Alex and Grandpa bought some old Icelandic stamps. The other four kids got toys from Grammy, Joslyn got a hat from Grammy as an early birthday gift, and everyone drank some pop with caffeine to help keep them up and moving. We also tried dried fish (halibut and catfish) from one of the food vendors. Sally purchased a bag of old coins for 500 ISK ($4). She thought it was all worthless Icelandic kronur from before the 1981 devaluation, but when we opened up the bag that evening, we found some older coins as well, including three Nazi German coins from 1940, 1941 and 1942. .

   We next headed to city hall to see the large 3-D map of Iceland and feed the waterfowl. Unfortunately it was not on display, because it was Design Week in Reykjavík and the map had been moved out to make room for the students to display design project of all sorts. It was raining and very windy, but that did not deter the kids from throwing bread crumbs for the waterfowl. Alex and Sally decided to stay at the design festival and participate in a parent/child house-building session. Alex was able to pick out a city lot that she could build on and then they construct the house for the lot out of recycled materials provided. It was very fun and the two enjoyed having some one-on-one time. Interestingly, Sally ran into Sigrún Birgisdóttir (Jón Olafsson's girlfriend, whom we had met back in January). We must be becoming locals when you start unexpectedly running into people at events outside your local area!

   Shan and everyone else headed over to the National Museum, which we think provides a great historical context for subsequent tours around the island. After the busy day, everyone was ready for the drive to Bifröst and most of the newcomers slept some of the drive home.  Greg and Stacia were the exceptions, kept awake by all of the talking and giggling (or, as Spencer says, "all of the chitchatting").

   We had rented the apartment next to ours for the adults and the cousins slept in the kids' room. After everyone ate a quick pasta dinner at home the kids went to sleep. The adults only stayed up a little longer to begin to plan out the two week visit.