Mom slept well but I did not 🙁 We had another beautiful, clear, sunny, but cold day.
Today our tour offered a walking tour of Reykjavik. We learned that Reykjavik is made from the words Vik meaning harbor and Reykja meaning smoking. Legend has it that in 874 Ingolfur Arnarson killed two men in Norway so rather than face the death penalty he opted to pack up his house and set sail. When he reached Iceland he decided he would throw the supports from his Norwegian home into the water and he would build his house where ever they landed. They landed in a smoking bay, later called Reykjavik. This “statue” commemorate that event.
We also learned that when the first settlers arrived in Iceland, there were a lot more trees so they built their houses out of wood. Then wood got scarcer and scarcer so starting in the 1800s they would build the houses out of wood and then put a sheet metal wrap around the house. They used sawdust between the wood and the sheet metal to insulate the house. However in 1915 a fire started in a bakery (from a wedding cake) and it quickly spread through Reykjavik via the sawdust. After that all homes had to be built out of concrete. You can estimate how old a house is by the building materials. Also because they don’t have many trees, today, citizens must plant two trees for every tree they cut down.
We saw the city hall which had a topographical map. Our guide told us that the fault between the two tectonic plates goes diagonally right though the center of the island. She said Iceland is the only country on two tectonic plates but I’m not sure that is true. The edges of the island are no longer volcanically active. She also told us that Iceland splits the gulf stream. The weather here is moderated by the gulf stream and it is the gulf stream that makes the island inhabitable.
Iceland has the world’s oldest parliament, because in 930 they started having an annual island wide assembly, but Rick Steves says this claim is an exaggeration.
We learned that Icelandic is very close to the traditional Old Norse language. It has 32 letters, 14 vowels and 18 constantants. Our guide tried to teach us hello but I said it and promptly forgot it.
Our guide also took us to see the church and the concert hall that we saw yesterday. Here are some pictures from our walk.
Here are some other random things she told us.
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- All the houses are heated geothermally. All the hot water is supplied from geothermal sources and smells slightly of sulfur. The cold water is very clean because it is purified as it percolates through the lava rock. The sidewalks have pipes through them and house owners are supposed to hook up the hot water as it exits the house to the pipes in the sidewalk. The warm water will melt the snow and eliminate the need to shovel. You can tell who has hooked up and who hasn’t based on the condition of their sidewalk.
- The Icelanic flag is a red cross representing the Lutheran church (2/3 of the population is Lutheran). The red cross is outlined in white representing snow. The background is blue representing the mountains.
- Kids start public school at age 2. Other than a modest registration fee public universities are free. Bernie Sanders would love it!
After the tour, Mom and I went to a Parisan cafe and had hot chocolate to warm up and of course a sweet snack accompanied the drink. Once warmed we briefly returned to the hotel to regroup. As a side note, the day was cold, the temperatures were probably in the high 20s, and it was very clear. We walked to a museum called the Settlement which contains the remains of a 10th century longhouse from an original Reykjavik farmstead but it was closed. We deicded to go Natural Museum of Iceland instead. It had many artifacts found on the island.
We walked back from the museum (we are getting our steps in today) and relaxed for about an hour and half before meeting our group in the lobby and heading to a restuarant for our welcomde dinner. The dinner was a buffet will had many local favorites, lots of salmon and seafood. I stuck to the lamb and turkey.
The evening was clear so we went on a boat ride with the hopes of seeing the northern lights. The boat took us out into the harbor, away from the lights of Reykjavik, and we could see them! They started out as a thin arch across the sky and then got better and better. The boat staff said it was one of the best “shows” they had even seen.
To the naked eye it just looks like a light ban. The colors show up in photographs. They gave us setting for our cameras in order to take pictures but I couldn’t get it to work for me. Here are pictures that the boat staff took.
