Reykjavik days one and two

Thursday August 12th.

Good morning, we have just arrived at the pier in Reykjavik, to grey skies and

rain, with our tour not leaving till 0900h we had time for breakfast in the dining room.

.

What a contrast to yesterday (weather wise) but we can sing in the rain, no problem. Our tour left at the appointed hour, first. We visited a heritage settlement where homes, churches etc. had been relocated, and opened to the public to show how life was back then.

.

We were surprised to learn that the temp. in winter does not get much below freezing but they do get wind storms which can make life a tad difficult. We saw more sod roofs and houses with special entrances for the sheep to come in at night or during inclement weather. I distinctly remember seeing similar at a heritage site in Wales except without the grass roofs. I can't begin to imagine what life was like under those conditions, although sleeping with the sheep may gave been fun if one was on the outs with the Mrs. :)

.

Reykjavik which means (hazy inlet) due to the geothermal steam is the capital, it's a modern city and looks much larger than one would expect for a city of only 170,000 inhabitants. Iceland has been hit hard by the current economic times and like other countries is suffering major belt tightening. I saw tee shirts with

"Don't *%&# with Iceland, we have no cash but plenty of ash" and a volcano spewing ash silk screened on the front.

.

No doubt a money maker for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit!

.

Next was the museum showing prehistoric and Viking artifacts, complete with skeletal remains, where DNA has been extracted from teeth and is believed to

date back to the evolution of mankind. A display of more recent implements like razors and hair clippers, made me feel old as I remember them from when I was a boy.

.

Tonight Icelandic performers will come aboard for a show at 2100h, while tomorrow we are going to the thermal waters and (Blaa Lonid) the blue lagoon. We leave at 0800h :( After dinner we were in the crows nest for an hour before the Icelandic group came aboard, I left Dorothy with our table mates to see the show while I came down to put this together.

.

It was great having internet available on the quayside, I was able to get a few overdue emails away, and post a short message to my ostomy group. It seemed so fast compared to the satellite I've been used to for the past month. I found the mouse awkward at first as I've been using the touch pad on the net book and my fingers got confused.

Friday August 13th.

.

Good morning Vietnam! Oops wrong year wrong ship….

I was up at 0545h and my butt is dragging, "still", sleep did not come easy, hey ho, at least I'm on vacation. No need to rush, our tour doesn't leave till 0800h. Cereal and yogurt, a nice cup of hot water and I'm raring to go back to bed :)

The rain is pouring down, I can barely see across the harbor for the mist and I'm wondering if there'll be any "Kodak" moments today. Ed our table mate who has taken the VOV cruise each of the last four years says our tour today is very picturesque, we'll have to wait n see, and if not this time, what better excuse than to take it another time.

.

It continued to teem down for most of the morning making photography rather difficult, and once off the paved road it was quite a bumpy ride. We arrived at the geothermal lava fields passing the electricity generating and treatment plant, and the pipeline that carries thermal heated water to homes and industry to Reykjavik. It was interesting to see the bubbling mud and steam rising eerily out of the fissures. The lava fields, some smooth others huge piles of black craggy boulders looking more like the surface of the moon than planet earth.

.

Next stop, the blue lagoon where many were bathing in the warm, mineral rich waters, we had coffee and Icelandic cakes, no icing though. The gift shop had the usual assortment of tourist "stuff" and skin products made from the minerals, all at highly inflated prices.

.

Our last stop was another Viking museum featuring a full size replica of the ship that sailed to Newfoundland in Y2K celebrating the new millennium and to prove that Vikings were indeed the early discoverers of North America. We were a bedraggled looking bunch as we boarded the bus to head back to the ship but the sun came out, the mist cleared giving us the view that we'd missed this morning.

.

1500h. Everyone made it back to the ship in time for our sail away, It's full speed ahead in order to make Greenland, our next stop….

.

Tonight there will be a luau in the Crows Nest, a show in the Rembrandt lounge and as every night, the adagio string quartet from Canada playing in the Explorers lounge. If one prefers to watch a movie there's always a current one showing in the

Wajang theater and a whole bunch of other things to do if one is so inclined.

Tonight we gain another hour which our bodies will thank them for, personally I've never had so much trouble with my body clock adapting, I've done lot's of walking and stair climbing, I get really tired but even with my sleeping pill have trouble sleeping.

.

Dinner was really good tonight, fresh Icelandic haddock was our choice and it was excellent. I skipped lunch so didn't feel the least bit guilty ordering the hazelnut mousse "a la mode", Dorothy did her best to shame me though by ordering sorbet, but it didn't work :)

.

Saturday August 14th.

Good morning once again dear ones, with the extra hour and my pill I slept through the night and felt well rested when I woke at 0700h. Dorothy was already gone, doing her laps on lower promenade, we'd decided to have breakfast in our cabin and with perfect timing both Dorothy and breakfast arrived at the same time.

.

To be continued.