Somehow we slept through the noise from the club below. We headed to Kaffi-O-Le for breakfast, it was in a hotel nearby, but it had only coffee and pastries, though the coffee was good. Back to the hotel to pack up and check out, and then we brought our bags to the Parliament Hotel where NatGeo had a hospitality desk. We learned that we did not need to be there at noon as we had thought, but by 3:30, which gave us a lot more time in Reykjavik. It was lightly raining on and off.
First we headed to the Cathedral, up a hill which started with the iconic rainbow-painted. It was lined with souvenir shops, sweaters everywhere, puffins, sheep, vaguely Scandinavian trolls, and more. The Cathedral plaza was occupied by a number of tour groups, and dominated a huge statue of Leif Eriksson. We went into the Cathedral, which like all Lutheran churches, was quite austere, no stained glass, no statues, no decoration, no side chapels, rather different than the Catholic cathedrals that dominate most of Europe. We walked around a bit, in awe at the huge organ (more than 5,000 pipes), and then took an elevator up 8 floors to the tower. Up four more lights of stairs, and we had a 360° view of the city underneath the 31 bells. Of course we waited for the 11:00am bells to ring which was wonderful, we felt the vibration in our bodies. It was windy and chilly in the tower, so after lots of photos, we wound our way back down.
We headed to Harpa, the big concert hall in the waterfront which is sheathed in glass that appears to be iridescent like fish scales, echoing Iceland’s longtime dominant industry. It was huge inside, and we found that there was a noontime concert we could get tickets to. The main concert hall is dark and had red lighting, to give the impression of being inside a volcano, and we sat in regular chairs on the stage instead of in the seats of the hall. What a delight! It was a father-daughter duo, he on soprano and alto so, she on piano and voice. They did a short program of some jazz, traditional Icelandic pieces, and some pieces that each of them wrote. Afterwards, we walked along the waterfront to a small restaurant called Slippbarinn (one of the places that the NatGeo folks gave us a lunch voucher for), and we had a burger. Then we walked to the City Hall and saw the giant topographical map of Iceland, which was very cool. We could spot Vik and Höfn where we’ll go at the end of the trip, and it really gave a sense of the immensity of the island, how mountainous it was, and how little flat arable land there was. It made it clear how rugged and difficult life must have been here for the first 1,100 years and even into the early 20th century.
It was time to get back to the Parliament Hotel, so we walked there and it was quite full with folks waiting. We asked if we could go on board n9w, and the hosts said we were welcome to walk there, but we could not board until 4:00. Since it had stopped raining, we connected with John, Reuben, and Jenny, and decided to walk to the ship, which was across from where their hotel was. En route, we did stop to see lovely green sweater with puffins that Reuben liked, and we bought some puffin boot socks for Barney and some regular puffin socks for both of us.
We arrived where the ship was docked, and stood outside the gate chatting and enjoying the fresh air and final views of the waterfront. A staff member came out a bit before 4:00pm and said we could board, so we did. We knew that Eva and Ani, naturalists from the Antarctica trip, would be on board, and we saw them, they gave all of us big hugs. We also saw Boris, who we had not seen on the list, and so more hugs. We went to our room and unpacked, it was so nice to put things into drawers and out the suitcases away.
Time to gather in the Ice Lounge for a briefing and welcome. Staff and crew were introduced, and we sat with Reuben, John, and Jenny, and happened to meet Jules, who had been on the Antarctica trip with us … we were the loud, troublemakers table in the far back. The expedition leader, Lisle, told us that the rough seas were going to make Flatey Island impossible to land on, so we would go up to the western fjords first, and then spend an extra day in Greenland, which sounds good to us. We went up to dinner and since I was feeling a bit unsettled (though the boat had not moved yet) I only had some cheese and bread and a bit of a gratin. Since it was a still Day, we sang a verse of La Marseillaise, and another guests came by to chat about France, he was from Pleasanton. Reuben is keeping a list of interesting folks to invite to another dinner at the big long table. Afterward, we went down to the bar and hung out with the group and met some new folks. Everyone is long forward to an exciting trip. We got ready for bed, closed the blackout curtains (sunset is around midnight this far north), and settled in.
No comments:
Post a Comment