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Welcome to Seydisfjordur. It is pronounced just the way it looks. This is our last stop in Iceland, but it is also a "tender port". For that reason we did not book an excursion, but David did go ashore later in the day. But that is getting ahead of the story.
Let's start with last night. As the ship was sailing out of Akureyi, we were in the dining room watching the scenery while having dinner. One of our tablemates pointed out a waterfall flowing into the fjord, but it was creating steam when it hit the water. They had learned during their excursion that twice a stream of hot water was encountered while digging a tunnel for the road. The water was piped out onto the ground and it ran down the hill and into the fjord. You can only guess how hot it was to creat steam. Apparently this is not an uncommon experience in Iceland.
Now for the morning joke: Why do fish swim in salt water? Because pepper makes them sneeze. We got up today and were able to get to the dining room for Eggs Benedict and Pancakes. Then we went back to the
cabin to watch the "port discussion" from earlier in the cruise, which is available on the TV. We learned that Seydisfjordur only has a population of about 700 people. It is very busy during the summer season when tourist come to see the picturesque scenery - today we brought more than 2000 from our ship for the 9 hour visit. There is an expectation that up to 200 cruise ships will come during the summer season. It's hard to imagine what the town would be like if passengers from several ships were ashore at the same time.
This morning, we stayed in the cabin while most passengers were off on tours or just ashore exploring. Janet watched a truly old movie called "An affair to remember". David hadn't rested too well last night and needed a morning nap. He saw the opening scene and the closing scene of the movie, but nothing in between. Then we grabbed a small lunch from the buffet. After lunch Janet returned to the cabin to do more stitching and David took the tender to shore.
There were several interesting things to see just on foot around town. There is a waterfall only
a couple hundred yards from the dock. And it was surrounded by lots of blooming flowers. There is also the Hotel Alden, which was shown in the Walter Mitty movie we watched last night. In fact, a lot of that movie was apparently filmed in Iceland. There is a blue church, called the Blue church, which was destroyed in another village during a strong storm. It was brought here in pieces and reassembled. We would like to say that the church protected the town from further storms, but that isn't the case. Not too far from the church there was a massive mudslide on Christmas Eve of 2020. The mud slide wiped out 10 houses, which was a significant percentage of them. But everything was rebuilt by the end of 2021. And as is the case in many of these Icelandic towns, their is a rainbow road that the residents painted. There was also a lot of artwork painted on the houses and buildings to make them festive.
An interesting fact is that these little towns/villages don't have enough children to run a full school system. So many of the children go to school in the largest village of
the region on Monday mornings and come back home on Friday afternoon. That was why there were no school age children around town while David was walking around. We don't know when the school year runs, but maybe they have more time off in the dark winter than the daylight summer - just a guess.
One things we may have overlooked previously is that the Icelandic horse has fairly short legs. It has a heavy coat of fur in the winter but sheds most of it during warmer weather. Of course the definition of "warmer" may be different in their minds than ours.
David returned to the ship about 3:00. While waiting to board the tend a lady was being helped off the previous tender and taken up to the main gate. She was limping very badly and someone from the ship was pulling a suitcase behind for her. This does NOT look like a good place to have to make an emergency departure from the cruise, but she probably didn't have a choice.
Back in the cabin, Janet got a Cafe Mocha delivered by room service. David had the last Coke from our refrigerator. Then we
went to dinner. The appetizer of choice was Bay Scallop Salad and our entree was Pork Tenderloin. Both were delicious. Janet had Floating Islands and David had Berry Cobbler with ice cream. Then we went back to the cabin.
Janet stayed in the cabin and David went to the Princess Theater for a comedy show by an Irish comedian. Janet watched another movie because it was more restful for her. Now we are settling down for the night's sleep. Unfortunately the morning will be coming another hour earlier tomorrow. This will get us only UK time and will be the last adjustment for this cruise. We are going to stay on board once we get to England and have another cruise, but that is just a little preview of future blog posts.
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