Category Archives: reykjavik

Sunday 14th July 2019 – THIS MORNING …

… we walked all the way from the harbour at Reykjavik right the way through the city and out the other side, and up the hill to the big new modern church that towers above the place.

When we eventually arrived there we were greeted by a burly man standing cross-armed blocking the doorway, with the air of “none shall pass” as in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
“Why not?” asked Our Hero
“Because there’s a Mass going on. And you won’t understand it either because it’s in Icelandic so come back in an hour!”

Yes, it’s Sunday of course and I had completely forgotten.

Last night I had had a terrible night’s (lack of) sleep, probably one of the worst that I have had for quite a while. In fact so much so that I found myself on one occasion dictating the same dream twice. I’m clearly losing my marbles – not that I had too many in the first place.

Despite all of my exertions I did actually make it up (just) before the first alarm and staggered once more out on deck to take a couple of photos of Reykjavik in the rain. because the weather has now broken.

We had an early breakfast and then because we aren’t amongst the hordes saying goodbye to the ship today we had an hour or so free time. I spent my hour or so in the horizontal position on the bed and enjoyed every minute of what I remembered about it. Which wasn’t much.

At 09:00 we went out across the road to the café in the Flea Market where we were assured of a good wi-fi connection. And a good wi-fi connection it was too and we spent quite some time checking up on things, including the latest chaos in the UK.

Later, Rosemary wanted to go shopping for some presents for her friends so we headed off into town, looking at a few shops on the way, in one of which she bought a few winter woollies. After all, Iceland is the place to come for those.

There was the church of course, as I mentioned earlier, and then a walk down to the waterfront and back along the shore to the ship for lunch.

Grabbing Strawberry Moose we made our way back into town after lunch. We had had to wait for a while to give the rainstorm time to die down, so we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked.

The flea market was now open so we had a look around, and Rosemary tried some dried cod. A few more shops and a few more presents, and a couple of photo opportunities for His Nibs.

By now the rain was coming down in torrents so we fled back to the ship. All of our new co-voyagers were waiting to board but we didn’t hang about. We just charged through them and up the gangway onto The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour.

First thing that I did was to dive into the shower, taking a handful of clothes in with me. I needed a good scrub up and I have to keep on top of the laundry for I have a long way to go.

And then we had all of the briefings that I have sat through on innumerable occasions followed by the mandatory lifeboat drill. And in the time that it took to organise the drill we would have all disappeared beneath the waves a good while ago had we really been in trouble.

For tea we made the acquaintance of a couple from Edinburgh in Scotland on their first voyage. The husband had visited Greenland many years ago so he’s in for a bit of a shock when he gets back there.

After tea we had a tea and a chat, but it’s an early start tomorrow so we decided to retire early.

And I can’t say that I’m sorry. The pace is now going to heat up considerably.

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Friday 5th July 2019 – I WAS RIGHT …

… about the sunset last night. It really was beautiful. And still going at round about 23:30 too. We are approaching the Land Of The Midnight Sun and at the right time of the year too.

So having taken a few photos I toddled off to bed.

Much to my surprise I awoke bang upright with a jolt at 05:40. I’d been dead to the world, out like a light. And I’ve no idea what had awoken me because the engines were at “slow ahead” and we were crawling along, almost stationary. Mind you, 05:40 is actually 07:40 in real money due to the time difference so that might explain some of it.

Yesterday we had seen land in the form of a couple of islands. But this morning we really were in sight of the mainland.

So up and about, I took a couple of photos of the Icelandic coast, round by Keflavik to start with, and we hit a problem. The laptop hadn’t switched itself off last night and this morning the flattery was bat. So I had to find a power socket in which to plug it while I did some work. But that gave me an opportunity to gaze out of the window at the beautiful morning.

After breakfast, I went up aloft and watched as we slowly inched our way into the harbour at Reykjavik, picking up a pilot on the way. There was plenty of shipping in there, including an Icelandic gunboat, which I imagine will be seeing plenty of action pretty soon when the silly Brits realise just how stupid they have been.

I took a really good action photograph of one of the sailors throwing a line to the quayside.

We had lunch, which was a buffet, and then we headed off onshore. While the crew and the staff were sorting themselves out, they had arranged for the half dozen of us to have a guide and go for a walking tour for 90 minutes.

It was quite interesting, and I came to the conclusion that I could live quite happily live in Reykjavik, provided that I could afford it. Prices here are astronomical. A portion of fish and chips would cost something like €12:00.

We needed to find a bank, which was easier said than done, but eventually we came across a cash machine. So now I have 8,000 Icelandic Kronor, which is about €55:00. I might be able to buy a coffee or something with that if I’m lucky.

Back on board the ship we had a briefing and a lifeboat drill the latter of which took an age. We’ll be in trouble if we ever spring a leak. We were also issued with our expedition jackets, which took longer than it ought to have done too.

The portions of food at teatime seem to have diminished which is probably just as well because we were eating far too much.

Later on, I sorted out the photos and wrote up some of my notes, although not be any means all of them. Now I’m waiting for the sunset and if I’m lucky it will be another beautiful one. I’ll have to make the most of them because they won’t last for ever. It will be bound to rain before long.

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