We walked off the ship around 9.30 AM. By then almost 400 of the 640 passengers were off on organized tours that were sold by the ship.
We four seem to have an aversion to the ship's tours and prefer to do our own thing. A city is not really a nice place to stroll around so we had decided that we would try and get out into the countryside. The sites to see here are the geothermal hot pools, the steaming lava fields and the Godafoss waterfalls where the chieftain of the Viking settlement threw the pagan idols into the falls and then started their road to Christianity. [Over 1000 years ago.]
Outside the dock gates was a 20 passenger mini-bus driver looking for stragglers like us offering a trip to the falls and a bit of sightseeing as well.
So off we went, 16 of us. We would have preferred a cab but our short testing of the driver proved that although he appeared to speak English, he did not understand the word 'toilet' so we opted for the mini-bus. [Basic tourist survival skills come in handy sometimes.]
Iceland is a beautiful place when you see it on a lovely summer day. Amazingly, in spite of the short summer and growing season, they can get three cuts of hay off the fields. I suppose those 24 hours of summer sun do have an advantage. The country is as neat and tidy as the towns have been, and the roads are excellent, and the countryside was a treat for sore eyes, as we have had many days of grey ocean as our outlook.
The farmers seem to stick to traditional colours of cream and brick red. Most of the country homes have two sets of entry doors, one at ground level, for summer use, the second entry, accessed by stairs, is for winter use when the snow is 10 or 15 feet high.
Returning to town we had a tour of the city and it's interesting and neat-as-a-pin homes and university area. Incidentally this whole town is heated by geothermally heated water that comes to the town in huge insulated pipes and then is dispersed to all its various systems. They have a massive indoor soccer field building, also heated by mother nature.
The city centre is like a European town with all that goes with it, including sidewalk cafes and trendy shops with big-city fashions and home decor shops, all very modern looking, and very pleasant.
We ventured into some shops and surprisingly the prices were what I considered modest: A lovely Icelandic sweater for U$100. I suspect that the Icelandic Kroner has been severely devalued by the virtual collapse of it's banking community, in essence the country is in a form of bankruptcy. I secured a couple of bottles of wine for about the same or less than we pay at home. Mind you, we do have high wine prices at home. And, yes, you can bring wine on board, but not beer or spirits.
One can see evidence of this being a very well-to-do country in spite of being in a financial mess at the moment. There is no lack of modern cars around, quite to the contrary.
Education is a high priority here, and people appear to be highly motivated and happy, in a reserved Nordic way. We have been told that if you see an Icelander that is not reading, he is likely writing a book.
A word of caution for future trippers to the thermal pools, make sure you remove all your jewellery, as the waters will turn silver black, until cleaned. Our table mate opened the dinner-time conversation with a question 'did anybody know how to get the tarnish off the silver?' The answers ranged from lemon juice, vinegar to grinding it off.
After dinner we began our run for The Shetland Islands by rounding the top of Iceland and then heading south-east, having a full day at sea in the process. We were inside the Arctic Circle for about 30 minutes in the process, a first for many travellers.
During our time in port I managed to get my Blackberry phone working, I received every email that has been sent to me since leaving Canada in Newfoundland all over again, just under 100. I used the communication window to chat with Wally who is having a few days at Salmon Arm with Katrina and Nathan. I woke him up as we are seven time zones ahead of him. It was good to catch up on his family and Canada Ticket. Later he emailed a picture of Nathan swimming with the temperature at 30 C. What a wonderful world!
We lost another hour last night and the seas were also a bit rough, and still are, so there were few people taking breakfast this AM. After breakfast Fellette and I retired to the cabin to catch up on reading and some television watching. The low clouds and sea mist is burning off and I actually see some blue sky through our patio doors, but the ship is still moving a bit so we will stay put today I suspect. I have convinced myself that the best way to avoid sea-sickness is to have food in your tummy and stay put, snug in your cabin, and ride it out. Fellette seems to have adopted that theory as well as the photo seems to illustrate.
Five more sleeps on the ship.
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