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Another day again even though it was never really night – breakfast and off we went to the pool. Móðir didn’t come with us, she had things to do before going on a day trip with her school mates. They get together every year for some sort of excursion! How cool is that?!
And.. no pool for you tomorrow! It would be closed since it’s Iceland’s National Day. WCN was sad and said it’s his favorite thing or maybe it was the thing he would miss the most. Definitely a habit. I actually swam some, then the coolest hot pot seemed hot – was that because it was chillier outside or was it me? Well if it was, I wasn’t the only one, most people were in the mid-temperature pot, which was actually cooler. So much for controls. I’d lost track of everyone else and wondered if maybe it was time to go. I couldn’t see much without my glasses on, but I was pretty much done so I went ahead and showered and changed and sat out in the lobby. When the others came out later they asked if I was OK. Yep.
Faðir drove us all in to Reykjavík, dropped Móðir off with her school mates, and us by the harbor. It was overcast, but not too cold. We had a bit of time before our boat, so walked around. There were some young folks collecting signatures on a petition to stop whaling. Meet us, don’t eat us. Meet. Not Meat, that would be.
What boat, you might be wondering. The boat for PUFFINS!!! It was a small boat, so we could get close in to the islands. There were about a dozen of us, including a couple from Moraga (! of all places, small world.) The tour was a bit over an hour, out to islands in the bay, and we saw plenty of puffins, and other birds as well. And jellyfish! (No peanut butter fish though. And not even a courtesy laugh on that from WCN. Tough crowd.)
It was overcast, and a bit windy especially when we were underway, but the boat had an inside area. Besides the wildlife, we got a nice view of Reykjavík from the water, and of Seltjarnarnes where we had been the day before.
Back on land and we went to the hamburger place Móðir and Faðir had recommended. We all got the “deal of the century” except I got coffee instead of soda. As we headed off there were a few drops of rain, fortunately our next planned stop was inside at the Saga Museum. Vikings!
When we came out it was still overcast, but ICE CREAM!
Continuing on with the Icelandic history theme, we went over to the Reykjavík 871 +/-2 Settlement Exhibition, which was a nice museum featuring an archeological site from the Viking era. When we came out it was raining a bit more, but we went to check out the pond. My sister told us how they had run around for PE, and when it froze some people would ice skate on it.
We continued up on of the shopping streets, and over to the Hallgrímskirkja. It was quite an impressive building, both outside and inside. You can take the elevator up in the tower, and there wasn’t a line, but it didn’t seem worth springing for since the weather wasn’t particularly conducive to views.
From the church we continued along the shopping street to the main bus terminal. Although the busses still stopped there, the building was undergoing renovation, so did not have any services, but we were able to get tickets – and a snack – at a convenience store nearby. It was then only a few minutes to wait for the bus. We had a nice ride back to Hafnarfjörður and walk back to the apartment.
Then, continuing the European Sports Theme, the evening’s viewing consisted of the team handball game of Iceland vs. Portugal. Iceland lost the game by a point but still won the 2 game series. Go Iceland!
June 16, 2016
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