A Christmas Letter

 hello again

We said goodbye to Reykjavik and boarded the Norwegian Star to further explore Iceland.  Our first stop was Isafjordur.  We went by bus, through the longest tunnel in West Fjords (this is one of the states in Iceland) to Flateyri.  There we enjoyed some Icelandic music performed in a small church.  There had been an avalanche in this small town that killed 20 people out of a population of under 300.  It was very tragic for the town.  After this avalanche they built this “wall” to protect the town in the future.  You can see that there is sort of an “A” shaped berm to stop and redirect the snow.

We visited the oldest bookstore in Iceland ~ that was my happy place of course!  There is not much in the little town but we had a little snack at a coffee shop including Icelandic donuts and smoked trout. 

Finally, we visited the northernmost Botanical Garden in the western hemisphere.  There were flowers there we had never seen before. 

 

Also, this whalebone gate was interesting.  The original whalebone gate in Skrudur (from 1934) were jawbones from a Blue whale caught in 1892.  This whale was one of the biggest of its kind, measuring about 30 meters in length.  The original whalebone gate was moved to a museum and replaced with this one made from jawbones of Fin whales caught in 2010.

The NCL Star sitting pretty in the fjord.

The next stop was Akureyri (rhymes with Actuary… LOL).  This excursion showed us a variety of natural wonders –

Godafoss 

Pseudo-craters, formed as lava hit cold water, throwing rocks to the sides like bubbles when you cook porridge on the stove (this was the guide’s analogy…. LOL).  The volcanic eruption was about 2300 years ago.  In geological time this is very recent! 

There are twice the number of sheep in Iceland as people.  In the summer, everyone basically lets their sheep wander around wherever they like to graze.  At the end of the summer, they round them all up and everyone gets together to sort them out and have a party.  Sounds unorganized and fun!

Next up was a lava Labyrinth.  We wandered around this amazing area filled with lava chimneys and trolls.  It was amazing.  

Along the way we saw this big crack in the earth.   Turns out, it was the place where the North American tectonic plate meets (or in this case, they are moving apart) the Eurasian plate.  Super cool!

Next stop was mud pots.  This landscape, not more than 15 minutes from the last stop, was like being on a different planet.  The hills are lava that cooled more slowly, giving it the brown color.  If the lava cools quickly it is obsidian (black).

We learned a lot about Iceland over the past week.  The way their names work is interesting.  You get a first name at (or near birth) but your last name is not that of your parents.  Instead, you get the first name of your father + “son” or “dottir”. So our kids would be Austin Carstenson and Marieke Carstendottir.  The women does not take the name of her husband because if she did her last name would be her father-in-law’s son name – such as Sheri Ulfson. No need for that kind of craziness!  It was interesting!

Last night we sailed into the Arctic Circle.  Carsten stayed up and took a picture of the map showing the ship at 66° 33 min. –

Here is what the outside looked like at 12:28am when this happened.  

Sunset was at midnight and sunrise was at 2:30am.  It never really gets dark.

Yesterday we did not choose an excursion.  It was nice to be able to sleep in… cruising is HARD work!  Here is the town of Seydisfjordur.

After dinner and the show Carsten and I went up top and got in the hot tub.  There was no one around and the sunset was gorgeous!

We really enjoyed Iceland.  The weather was very nice for us ~ apparently they have about 10 nice days a year ~ we enjoyed 5 of them!  LOL 

the sun shines when angels travel

Today is a Sea Day - we played International Logo trivia earlier and WON!  We have been killing it at trivia!

Have a great day!

Sheri & Carsten