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Published: August 25th 2019
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When I packed clothing for this trip I figured I needed the warm clothing and rain gear for Greenland. Wow was I wrong. It rained once in Greenland, and drizzled another day. It was cold only near the glaciers and icebergs. The rest of the time the weather was great.
Yesterday was a good day in Reykjavik, but I knew the rain was coming, but I didn't know it would be this bad. It's cold, very windy, and raining sideways.
Today I transferred from my AirBnB to Hotel Orkin. Luckily I was able to walk there before the rain hit, about a 20 minute walk. I put my luggage in storage, rested awhile, then figured out how to take the public bus to Perlan. It was actually quite easy and the bus drivers were very helpful (bus #15 to transfer location, then bus #18 to stop for Perlan). There is a senior fee for the bus equivalent to $2.35 one way. By the time I went the weather was wretched.
From Wikipedia:
Perlan (English:
The Pearl) is a prominent landmark in the Icelandic capital of
Reykjavík. It is situated on the top of
Öskjuhlíð hill. What was originally a
cluster of hot water tanks was in 1991 converted to a building open to the public. It hosts an exhibition, a
planetarium, an observation deck, and a restaurant.
•
Wonders of Iceland is an exhibition that shows of Icelandic nature, glaciers,
geysers, and volcanoes. There is also a timeline explaining how Iceland was formed and how life in Iceland evolved.
Wonders of Iceland includes an replica of
Látrabjarg cliff.
• An exhibition about the role of water in Icelandic nature.
• A
planetariumthat shows Icelandic nature and the solar system.
• A photographic exhibition showcasing the works of nature photographer Ragnar Th. Sigurðsson.
Here's the website with more information: https://perlan.is/
I also got a senior price here, 20%!o(MISSING)ff, equivalent to about $36. I was so impressed with this place. They have interactive things I've never seen before. There's a spot where you stand and point to the screen to see information about things. There's a circular thing that you rotate through time from 1850 to 2100 and the screen changes to show you what has happened with a certain glacier and what is predicted to happen. There's an interactive screen that you put a magnifying glass on the
hotspot, then turn it and information about plants, animals, rivers, glaciers, waterfalls come up. The planetarium had a movie about the Aurora. There's an ice cave you can walk through, however nothing compares to a real ice cave that my son Jeffrey and I saw at Chamonix. There's information on the volcanoes, glaciers, river, history. I highly recommend visiting if you come here. Alot of the pictures I'm posting are from the exhibits. I added photos of the history of formation of Iceland. If you don't like this kind of stuff just skip those photos.
I took the bus back to the hotel, checked in, and went back out in the driving rain to find a place to eat. Luckily there was a place about a 7 minute walk from here.
Tomorrow I start the tour, and unfortunately the weather forecast is bad. More rain tomorrow, clearing up on Tuesday, but then rain back on Wednesday and possibly rain for the rest of the week. This could be a very tedious tour with this weather. According to the Aurora App, the Aurora has been parked over Iceland for 5 days. We didn't see it in Greenland because we
were north of the Aurora band. However, with this weather I don't think I'll get to see it.
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