An Unexpected Sea-Day, and Reykjarvik
Before retiring to bed last night, we stopped off for a late-night cup of tea in the Bistro. With only minutes to go before midnight, you’d expect it to be deserted, but that wasn’t so. In fact, there was a great number of folks sat by the windows looking out at the sky which wasn’t dark, but light. The sun had finally managed to set at about 11pm (and will rise again at 3am), but it had taken it all evening to do so, and with the colours of sunset splashed across the sky, it wasn’t about to get dark anytime soon. For this is the land of the midnight sun; in a month or so’s time, the sun won’t set at all. It’ll barely touch the horizon before rising again. Apparently, I’ve been told that this phenomenum is called ‘Astronomical Twilight’.
Today, we have been at sea. We weren’t supposed to be, but the weather has dictated otherwise. Not only was the forcast bad enough to cancel a port stop, but the swell has been quite strong, and occasionally problematic, throughout the day. It didn’t prevent me from running my unexpected class, however.
We arrived at Reykjarvik at around 6pm. A free shuttle bus had been laid on for folks wishing to visit the city, so we took advantage of it and went for a walk around for a couple of hours after dinner. The weather was cold and rainy, but it was nice to get out and stretch the legs for a bit. We’re on tour tomorrow (an all-day ‘Golden Circle’ tour), so this was the only opportunity we were going to get to have a wander around the city.
As on previous visits, we enjoyed wandering around the impressively modern Harpa Concert Hall, with its weird bubble-like glass design.
From here, we walked into the city centre, meandering our way towards the centre, where the rocket-like Cathedral takes centre stage.
A further meander through the touristy streets of the city brought us back to the concert hall, where a shuttle bus was waiting to take us back to the ship. The last shuttle back was 9:30pm; this being Reykjarvik, where everything seems quite pricey, I dread to think how much a taxi would have cost us if we’d missed the shuttle.
We’ve spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the Captain’s Club, and I’ve been taking advantage of having a 4G signal at last. Tomorrow is going to be a full day’s excursion, known simply as ‘The Golden Circle’, for which we have to be on the quayside at 7:30am, so an early night is in order…
