Last day in Reykjavik
Since room service is included at no charge, we opted to have brekkie brought to us rather than go out for it.
That stuff on the plate is supposed to be corned beef hash…. It was tasty, but it wasn’t CBH. It looks like a ton of food, but most of that tray is just dishes.
The guy who brought it apologized for it arriving late and said they were swamped with orders. It was no problem.
We skipped the ship-included shore excursion today, as it was an overview of Reykjavik and we’ve been here a week already.
Instead, Rob decided to sleep late and I decided to go explore the island we could see from our balcony.
I checked out satellite maps and it didn’t look like there was anything to see over there, but I’m the kind of person who enjoys just going someplace and exploring, so off I went.
The ferry is a tiny little thing, docked right next to our ship.
I and about a dozen other folks climbed aboard the 10:15 ferry - the first one of the day - and headed over to the island. It’s only about a 5 minute trip and you’d think that if the water were warmer, a person could simply swim over.
That would be a bad idea, though…
The harbour is full of jellyfish. They’re beautiful and graceful and not something you want to swim amongst.
Once on the island, a climb up from the dock leads to the oldest stone house in Iceland, built by and for the first Icelander to be treasurer - circa 1755.
It’s a restaurant now, but they were preparing for a private function so it wasn’t open to visitors. I did get a shot thru the front door, though.
Next to it is a tiny little church that was built in 1794. It was open to look in.
There is a grass roofed house on a hill just to the left of there marked ‘private’ so I didn’t go up to it. The island is uninhabited, so I’m assuming this is for storage or something.
Around the back of that and down a path is the Imagine Peace Tower, designed by Yoko Ono as a tribute to John Lennon.
It has lights that shine skyward at night on the anniversary of his death and it has “Imagine Peace” inscribed around it in 27 different languages.
Most of the island is just grasslands with trails. Since I was on the first ferry over and since the others on that ferry poked around the buildings a lot longer than I did, I pretty much had the island to myself for awhile. I didn’t see anyone else for nearly an hour, when I’d reached the north end of the island and had to start back toward the ferry landing.
I saw lots of birds, though!
Part of the shoreline of the island is rocky and has cliffs.
Mostly, it’s just grassland with some flowers.
Near the north end of the island, there’s a monument to the HMCS Skeena, a Canadian warship that rescued lots of sailors in the north seas before being grounded in a storm off the coast of the island in 15m waves. Fifteen crew were lost. The memorial features the gouged and battered propeller from the ship and a plaque telling the story.
This portion of the shore is where the ship ran aground.
From the north end of the island, you can see the other side of Reykjavik harbour nicely.
…and facing south again, you can see Reykjavik itself.
Back to the ferry and the approach offered a good view of our ship (on the right) and the Cunard ship Queen Victoria on the left.
On the way back across the ferry, there was a good view of Snæfellsjökull glacier, about a 4 hour drive from Reykjavik
met a couple on the ferry from San Diego - early indications were that they were right-wingers and there were further indications that they were Fox News watchers when the guy (Tom) said that the Canadian government had acted like a dictatorship when it shut down the trucker convoy in Ottawa. (“Acted like a dictatorship” was a buzz phrase on Fox News for awhile after that idiot protest was shut down). He said “they shouldn’t have done that to a peaceful protest.”
I quickly told him that it wasn’t a peaceful protest. The city was gridlocked, people couldn’t go to work or school, businesses were having to close, and it was affecting the lives of thousands of folks who had nothing whatsoever to do with any of it. I said, “just because nobody went on a shooting spree doesn’t mean it was peaceful.”
He said they hadn’t heard any of that before and I said, “That’s because the US no longer has laws that force media outlets to present factual information. We still do. Ronald Reagan allowed the US law to expire and purposely didn’t try to reinstate it… and almost immediately after that, Fox News was created.”
Back on the ship, Rob said that we’d been given a nice ‘sorry your room service wasn’t up to our standards’ card (because it was a bit late) and a bottle of wine for the room.
Well hell, if they’re going to bring a bottle of wine to the room every time room service is late, I say LET THEM BE LATE!
Rob and I headed to the Poolside Grill for burgers and dogs. They were delicious.
…but right behind us in the lineup to order the burgers, there was a couple that needed a good bitch-slapping. First, she asked loudly where the menu was. I pointed to a stand right in front of her that had everything on it. And by “right in front of her” I mean she was almost touching it. Anyway, it’s just a little poolside grill, so they have very limited offerings - a couple of variations of hamburger (Viking, classic cheeseburger, veggie burger) and three hot dogs (regular, Nordic, and veggie). That’s it. That’s all there is.
She read the menu and then asked the guy (a nice gentlemen who was non-white and whose name tag indicated that he was the sous chef), “If I were to ask for a chilli cheeseburger, would you know what that is?”
OMG you racist cow. The man WORKS IN THE FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY but you think that because he’s non-white and/or non-American, he won’t understand the term chilli cheeseburger???
The chef let it slide (I wouldn’t have) and said, “yes, of course, be we don’t have that here.”
She asked some more questions and he explained that what was on the menu was what they have. She ordered something and he called it back to the cooks on the grill, then turned to start preparing the plate.
Then the woman’s husband (I assume) said that his order is probably going to be wrong “because you confused him with the chilli cheeseburger.”
Dude. Seriously? He’s not confused, you’re just awful people.
After lunch, we kicked back in the room for a bit and had a nap. At 5:30 there was an announcement over the PA about safety procedures - a lot more convenient than other cruises we’ve been on where they make you gather on deck by group numbers and listen to the spiel. Then we were out to sea!
The World Café buffet was doing “Flavours of the Sea” tonight with a seafood-heavy offering. It looked pretty good.
We opted instead for The Restaurant, where we had dinner last night. I forgot to take my phone, so no pics of dinner, but I had one of the best onion soups I’ve ever had. Dessert was unusual as well: a graham cracker tart pastry filled with rice pudding. It was interesting.
And now we’re sailing into the sunset… which doesn’t actually SET, it just gets low in the sky and makes pretty colours all night long.