Sue's Travels: Grimsey, Iceland

The day started with a great lecture on an Icelandic Saga given by Professor Donohue (sp?). At the previous lecture he had distributed an 8 page saga for us to read and this was the subject of discussion at the lecture. I really enjoyed the lecture and look forward to buying the Penguin Book on the Icelandic Sagas. At 11:30, the other group that is on the ship provided a lecture on the geology of Iceland, which I really wanted to hear, but I kept falling asleep!

After lunch, I took the tender to the Island of Grimsey. Since I was freezing, I wore my AntArctic jacket WITH liner. Once we got to the Island of Grimsey, it wasn’t quite as cold probably because there was no real wind blowing. The first thing I did was walk to the airport because that is where the Arctic Circle marker is. I was informed that it might not be accurate as the Arctic Circle keeps moving. I asked one of the men to photograph me with the marker. When I went to the Antarctic, we ever actually were able to go south of the Antarctic Circle. I walked back along the path back to the “town” looking to take a picture of Puffins. I don’t know if I succeeded, because I could never quite get close enough. I did have a problem with the Terns dive bombing me. Apparently I was too close to their nests.

I stopped at the small gift shop and purchased 3 t-shirts; one for Muffin, one for Avi and one for Hermie. There was porch at the gift shop where I sat for a little while trying to recover from my hike. After a while, I headed the other way on the road. I walked past homes that looked quite serviceable. There was a school and we walked to the local church. It reminded me of the old New England churches.

I returned to the ship at about 5:00 PM and promptly lay down and fell asleep. I don’t know why I am so tired all the time. I got undressed in preparation for “dressing” for dinner. Then there was announcement that we would be crossing the Arctic Circle and there would be a party. They serve a lot of Champagnes on this ship. I was amused that the captain took a bottle of Champagnes and took out the cork using a machete.

After wandering around for a while, I went into dinner where I had a pleasant conversation with a retired Phd Economist and his equally intelligent wife. I then headed to the cabin where I took care of my pictures and description of the day’s activity.

Arriving at Grimsey, Iceland