Reykjavik - July 21, 2021

Our small ship is rocking and rolling in 6 - 8 swells cruising north from Reykjavik to

Grundarfjordur. We are in the North Atlantic Ocean so I am not surprised.

After our welcome luncheon for our Tauck tour group at the Harpa center we toured the Perlman museum with a walk through an ice tunnel. Our next stop was the Lutheran church that has a pipe organ with 5,275 pipes.

The most popular mode of transportation in Reykjavik is the electric scooter. There are scooter rental kiosks all over the city.

There are sculptures all along the water front. Here is a sculpture that depicts a Viking ship.

We made a brief stop at the Prime Ministers house and proceeded to the harbor. We boarded our ship at 5:00 pm after having our temperature taken by the ship’s doctor. Everyone on the ship has been vaccinated and we must wear a mask in public places unless eating or drinking. Everyone plans to be eating or drinking all the time. We had our life boat drill which made me think about icebergs. I am sure there are no icebergs this time of year. One good thing is there is no darkness. This is the land of the midnight son. The sky turns to dusk between 1 - 3 am and then returns to daylight. You know these things when you have a little jet lag. My only other experience with Iceland was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafallajokoll volcano. In April 2010 an ash cloud led to the closure of most of the European airspace. Consequently, a very high proportion of flights within, to, and from Europe were cancelled, creating the highest level of air travel disruption since the Second World War. I was in Moscow at that time. I had flown to Novosibirsk, Siberia which was west of the ash cloud. Upon returning to Moscow I was scheduled to fly to the Ukraine. The Ukraine flight was cancelled and I was unable to depart Moscow for a week. You can read all about that adventure in this link - https://www.captainfatherjohn.com/travel-adventures-blog/volcanic-ash-cloud-from-iceland-strands-me-in-moscow — We made a brief stop at the Prime Ministers house and proceeded to the harbor. We boarded our ship at 5:00 pm after having our temperature taken by the ship’s doctor. Everyone on the ship has been vaccinated and we must wear a mask in public places unless eating or drinking. Everyone plans to be eating or drinking all the time. We had our life boat drill which made me think about icebergs. I am sure there are no icebergs this time of year. One good thing is there is no darkness. This is the land of the midnight son. The sky turns to dusk between 1 - 3 am and then returns to daylight. You know these things when you have a little jet lag.
My only other experience with Iceland was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafallajokoll volcano. In April 2010 an ash cloud led to the closure of most of the European airspace. Consequently, a very high proportion of flights within, to, and from Europe were cancelled, creating the highest level of air travel disruption since the Second World War. I was in Moscow at that time. I had flown to Novosibirsk, Siberia which was west of the ash cloud. Upon returning to Moscow I was scheduled to fly to the Ukraine. The Ukraine flight was cancelled and I was unable to depart Moscow for a week. You can read all about that adventure in this link - https://www.captainfatherjohn.com/travel-adventures-blog/volcanic-ash-cloud-from-iceland-strands-me-in-moscow

John SimonsJuly 21, 2021