Wednesday 30 June 2021 - Iceland day tour in and around the port city and Reykjavik

 Wednesday 30 June 2021-

Three fantastic tour guides - Marcos from Costa Rica, Cyndi from Myrtle Beach, SC and Gill from UK now living in Austria

Lunch in Kailbrotun Concert Hall; drive around past house where the Gorbachev-Reagan 1986 summit was held also called "White House", Perlan Museum (formerly was a source of hot water for heat, Snaefellus tour, Church mountain with local tour guide "God", 130 active volcanoes in Iceland, Black Church (black because it is covered with tar to protect from weather).  Interesting story - in 1596 the first hotel was opened but it turned out the owner was a murderer and murdered and beheaded 18 tourist guests; his son was a rapist and thief and both were hung for punishment.  Walked by "blowholes" where when bad weather comes up a geyser shoots up.  Encountered a lot of annoying midges (we call them gnats but these did not bite).  There was a military boat that crashed here in 1948 and Icelanders saved 5 and 13 died.  Drove by Greenland Sea 400 nautical miles from Greenland.  The country changed from Pagans/Heathens to Catholic and then in the 1500s converted to Evangelical Lutheran who chopped the heads off Catholics.  Interesting stories to say the least!

I still want adventure but at 74 years old I'm hesitant to go sky diving in Iceland!

Our "boat" actually a small cruise ship with 96 staterooms, 118 crew, 69 Tauck guests (our tour) and 65 French guests.  We had a room called Prestige Deck and it was 71 sq ft - so think about it - 10 ft x 7 ft - pretty darn tiny and there were smaller cabins available.

Deck Lounge - actually a happy hour/music bar with a great view out front.

Dessert in the dining room aka Grand Salon:).  Of course that is my twice daily dose of ice cream to stay healthy!

I saw this brochure but we did not visit this museum - might have been interesting but it was not on the tour schedule😁

The Black Church - a lot of the old wooden building were covered with tar to protect from weather and nature in Iceland.  The newer buildings are either covered in metal or of thick concrete.

This is a very humble White House considering what we have in our country!