I'd seen a few tourist brochures over the last couple of days regarding whale watching in Rekjavik. Since we weren't on tour I half had it in my mind that we could go for it. The tours were advertised as starting at 9 am and 1 pm. OK, so we hadn't got up early enough for the 9pm tour, but I thought it might be worth trying for the 1pm one. Working it backwards, the ship was due to sail at 5pm, which meant we would have to be on board by 4.30pm, which meant we would have to be in a taxi and on our way back by as soon as possible after 4pm, which meant we could fit in a 3 hour whale watching tour.
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| Oyster Catchers ignoring us in Reykjavic |
So a leisurely breakfast and then off for the day, except we got a shock as we reached the gangplank to get off. The captain had changed the times, and we had to be back on board by 3.45pm! We took the same walk as yesterday, and made our way down to the old harbour and asked anyway. But sadly, the tours are 3 hours long. It would have cost us 53 Euro's each, which isn't much, so it was a shame we couldn't make it.
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| A colourful and bizarre wall mural in Rekjavik. Another example of the quirky Icelandic sense of humour |
Feeling a bit disheartened, we decided to try again for the EVE monument for my son. This time we made our way into the maritime and asked the receptionist there who was the least receptive receptionist we've come across for a long time. It felt like we were the most tiresome people she'd ever had to deal with. She did explain to us though that the monument we'd found was the right one. The reason we'd not found all the names (500 000 of them), was that they were carved into the floor tiles, and that they so small, you'd need a magnifying glass to see them. So, photographs taken, that was a mission accomplished. Time for a little wander around the city to see what we could see.
At first we had a plan to go back to the Harpa Concert Hall, for a cup of tea and a bit of cake. As we'd discovered yesterday, the building is fantastic, and we thought it would be nice to spend a bit more time inside and wonder at the glorious architecture.
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| A view inside the Harpa Concert Hall |
Thing is, we got to the little cafe place inside and then realised it was one of those places that was going to take all day to get served, and to be honest, we had plenty more that we wanted to see, rather than wait around there. We did get some more photographs from the inside of the hall though. It really is the most fantastic space.
From the hall we made our way over to a small lake, full of swans, ducks and geese.
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| Love Birds. |
Before heading for the cathedral. I was using a tourist map to find our way, and as we walked through the quiet streets nearby we came across "C is for Cookie", a wonderful little cafe with a very relaxed atmosphere and large portions. No waiting for service here. Our soup was served in a couple of minutes. Really nice.
We found the cathedral.
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| Rekjavik Cathedral |
And then started to make our way back, past Hofdi House, which is where Reagan and Gorbachov held a summit meeting which was the start of the end of the cold war.
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| Hofdi House, Rekjavik |
And then we followed the coastal path back to the ship. My last treat was to see a duck I've not seen before.
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| Long Tailed Duck in Rekjavik, Iceland |
Back on board ship, the Captain warned we were due for rough seas. Luckily they held off until after dinner. By bed time the ship was beginning to rock n roll, and this is due to carry on until tomorrow. Let's see how we go then eh?
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