Day One in Reykjavik, Iceland

We sailed into the harbor of Reykjavik at about 5:15 PM. The scenery on the way in was pretty barren, brown and treeless. We got ready and headed down to the Constellation Theater to get a bus number and head off for a brief tour. Most of the ship was already there and many were in line although tickets were not to be distributed until the ship cleared.

We were on bus # 12 for the City Tour. Our guide was Olie…or that is what he said to call him because his name was too hard to pronounce. Iceland has 320,000 people and slightly more than 200,000 of them live in the capital city, Reykjavik.

In this city all the heating and the water supply comes from natural sources. All heating of houses is done by geothermal hot water pumped to homes from hot springs outside of town. We visited a structure called The Pearl (Perlan) built in 1991 as a monument to Iceland’s geothermal water supplies. Above the 6 vast tanks there is a panoramic viewing platform. There is also a revolving restaurant under the glass dome.

Nearby the port we saw the Höfdi House where in 1986 Reagan and Gorbachev met. They say this meeting was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The charming looking house had been the French Embassy.

We saw a lovely public outdoor swimming pool, Laugardalur, that is naturally heated and is open early to late for swimmers. The sun is to set tonight at 11:10PM and as I type at 10:22 PM it is very bright outside. The Arctic Golf Open tournament is played here and begins with t-off at midnight in the summer with the midnight sun shining bright.

The sun is low in the sky most of the time so people do not build tall buildings but rather short ones with space around each structure so the sun can get in. Most people are Lutheran. The language of Iceland is Old Norse almost exactly like what the first Vikings spoke.

The Surname of each person is different so people are listed in the phone book by first names.

We visited Heidmörk conservation area where there are pseudo-craters that are caused by hot water running over hot lava. People from NASA have studied this area because it looks like something seen by camera on Mars and would mean there has been and might be water on Mars. Olie said , “They didn’t wear their costumes.”

Icecaps cover 11% of the country and 50% is barren. The only native mammal is the Arctic Fox. There are many native birds. At one point Mink were imported for pelts but some escaped and became a pest in the area. Because Mink can swim the birds now had their first natural enemy.