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Monday
Last night we slept with the shade open. I wanted to know when the darkness hit so that I could maybe set an alarm and look for northern lights. 2 problems with that so far as the sky has not been clear, but more importantly, it never got dark. Yes, it became dusk with 3 hours between sunset and sunrise but it NEVER got dark. Oh well, no Northern lights on this trip.
Our first stop today is Flateyri. It is a small village on the west coast of Iceland. It’s still a holiday so not much is open. This is the town in the late 90s where a major avalanche hit and killed 20 of the inhabitants. Since the town only had less than 200 residents it was a major crises. Since that time, they have built earthen works on the hill to divert future avalanches into the local bay. Shelly and I got off the ship and walked thru the town up to the earthen works. On the way there we saw the bus for the excursion – it was at the earthen works. All the blue jackets (one lady called us all smurfs) were walking
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me in town around on the works and graveyard. Shelly and I laughed and stated we hoped the bus took them further (as the excursion was Fjords and flowers). After we left there and walked back to town we saw the bus in front of the church (not 150 yards away). So we walk in the church and hear them talking about life in the area. We then leave and head back to the ship and stop in “the” shop and there are tables with food on them to the left in a “restaurant”. Oh no, the bus will stop here too, really, another 150 yards down. We stated we would definitely be upset if we paid for that tour. Shelly and I then went back to the boat.
I then headed to the gym and rode the bike for a bit to work out my knee. Between the bike and the ibuprofen, my knee seems a little better.
Shelly then headed out on a hike, 2 hours but steep, the steepest one “straight up” and shelly says she was the first one up. Trolls Throne and it’s a glacier cut out in the mountain that looks like a thrown.
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shelly on a summit I took the excursion to Vigur Island. It included a boat ride The island has a working farm but is known for the birds. Thousands of Puffin and other birds nest there. During the nesting time, the sheep are removed via boat as to not disturb the nests. We had the local desert and learned how the people lived. We also learned they harvest the “down” the birds us to build the nest and sell if for duvets. It is so light and compresses so much. The island with it’s 10 inhabitants also boasts the smallest Icelandic post office which we went inside of.
Back to the boat and dinner, buffet again, then I went to the story teller which was the evening’s entertainment. It was a Viking tale of a young lady. I guess I would have rather listened to some music but it was better than nothing. ;-)
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