At Sea!
After driving all over the northeast corner of Iceland, we flew back to Reykjavík for another night at Freyja Guesthouse, this time on the 2nd floor, which we found to be much quieter than the first floor room next to the front door we had last time.
We had some time to kill before we could check in, so we dropped off our bags (The owner, Eydís is very accommodating about this sort of thing!) and went off to find lunch. There are plenty of fish and chips shops, and we ended up in one of those. One order was plenty for both of us, especially topped off with some very good carrot cake.
We decided to revisit the Settlement Exhibition, which we saw maybe about 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure it was covered in an earlier blog...yup, Nomads i Norden 2 had this to say: "Sheila’s favorite was the map of the complex that was a 2x4-meter touchscreen. You put your palm over a caption for greater detail. Or maybe the “how to build a longhouse” one, where tracing your finger through a circle maze on a table changed the viewing-angle and time-frame of architectural drawings on a screen on the wall."
Unfortunately, both of those favorites had been replaced! The giant touchscreen is now a plywood model of the farm, and the "how to build a longhouse" one was completely gone. Instead, the exhibit has expanded into the next building, and now covers the history of Reykjavík up into the 2000s. We made it about as far as the 1700s before deciding we'd go back up the hill and see if our room was ready.
On Sunday, we had planned to take a taxi to the cruise meet-up spot at the Parliament Hotel, drop our bags and maybe take in another museum before we HAD to meet to go to the ship at 3. The weather had other plans, being chilly, gray, and drizzly, with a certain amount of smoke added by the volcano on Reykjanes. There were a couple of rooms set aside for cruise-goers, but they weren't really intended to accommodate all 125 of us for 4 hours, and quickly became overly warm. So we set off in search of lunch. Sadly, our favorite lunch spot in the area, Kornið, has closed, so we wandered around until we found a bookstore/cafe, IDA Bokakaffi, where we had some very nice panini sandwiches. When we got back to the hotel, many others had gone out for lunch, so we got better seating this time.
It was finally time to head to the ship, which was NOT conveniently moored next to the Harpa concert hall a few blocks away, but was a 20-minute bus ride. Our ship, the NG Resolution, looked positively tiny next to a Holland America ship at the same wharf.
When we got to our suite, our bags had been delivered, along with our rental rubber boots and the complimentary parkas. Lars models the parka, which we can keep to take home, but A) we can't imagine needing them in Denver, and B), they won't fit into our luggage at this point!
We spent a very short time exploring our home for the next 2 weeks, and then went to the Ice Lounge for a welcome, orientation, and the mandatory safety drill. Unlike other ships we've been on, the routine here starts with "Grab warm clothing, any medications, and your life jacket and meet at Muster Point A". Your life jacket won't be much help in Arctic waters if you aren't dressed to be outdoors.
There was a nice, fairly small buffet for dinner, which only happens the first night. All other dinners are pre-ordered the day before, which has cut the ship's food waste by 25%.
Then we went back to unpack and get organized. Suddenly, there was an announcement that there were whales just off the front of the ship! So pretty much everyone grabbed cameras and headed up and forward. We didn't get any good photos, and finally decided to just watch the spectacle. There were at least 3, one pair and a single, so there was good action fairly continuously for about half an hour. Captain Heidi slowed the ship so we could enjoy this great welcome to the cruise. One whale breached, coming far out of the water and splashing back down, and the pair did something called a "head rise" or "spy hop", coming straight up vertically and then sinking back down. A great first night!
Then we stopped at Flatey, and Lars and I got our first experience riding in Zodiac boats. Getting in and out has very specific things you have to do, but the crew is right there to offer a helping hand. Quite literally--both hands, in a "fisherman's grip", where if one of you loses your grip, the other person is still holding on.
After splashing ashore, we walked up to the church (built in 1926), which had some very interesting murals painted by Catalan artist Baltasar Samper in the 1960’s when he offered to paint the church in exchange for bed and board.
Then we continued on through the village to the bird cliffs, for some puffins (and other birds, but when there are puffins, they definitely are the stars).
I feel pretty silly with my point-and-shoot Minolta, when there are people here with 600mm lenses, including one of NatGeo's staff photographers, Kilii Yüan (who is very approachable and enthusiastic about the Arctic wildlife and cultures). He cheerfully explained to me why birds' feet don't freeze when they stand on ice in the winter--their veins and arteries are very close together and act like a heat-exchanger, with blood flowing toward the feet warming the cold blood flowing up and vice-versa. Plus there's just not very much liquid in the feet that COULD freeze.
All in all, a lovely first day, though the smoke-obscured views are a bit of a disappointment. Finished off by some lovely lamb chops and a raspberry profiterole for dessert.
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