Good morning, Reykjavik,
I got up really early because we are supposed to be out of our rooms by 7:30 AM and then off the ship by 9:30 AM (and not allowed back on until after 11:30 AM). Breakfast was unusually chaotic but I did manage to get a seat and eat and then to bring Ellen her breakfast. Then it was a dash to get out of the room on time.
It does like a nice day in Reykjavik but it will be chilly.
We were assigned a new room, Cabin 8105 – far forward Deck 8. We were concerned that this was another interior room but it was not. We are going to be moved to this room by room stewards so we filled one suitcase with items in the drawers, left "hanging" clothes in the closet and put our shoes neatly on the ground. They would be in our new room later this morning.
We had been trying to figure out how to get from the pier to Reykjavik City Center. The cabs were very expensive. When we got out of the cruise terminal we saw a sign that said “City Shuttle” and then we heard one of the terminal workers say to follow him to the shuttle. (NOTE: We asked Guest Relations about transport to the town and they had little information to share. It would have been nice to find out about this shuttle from the ship.) We hopped on the free shuttle and took the 10 minutes or less ride to the Harpa Opera House.
The free shuttle is clearly marked and is a new vehicle and comfortable.
The road from the cruise terminal ran alongside what had to be Reykjavik Bay
and we could see Eclipse docked in the distance.
I also got a nice panoramic shot of the bay.
It turns out I figured wrong and while we did see interesting stuff like a building that reminded me of a kitchen backsplash.
This building is actually Landsbankinn, Iceland, the new headquarters of Iceland's largest bank. What looks like backsplash tiles are actually slabs of heavy volcanic basalt stone. Its rugged look is intended to reflect the country's rough terrain. The structure is made up from basalt and glass, the only two materials used in its construction. I got a nice picture of bundled up Ellen in front of the bank building.
The Harpa Opera House, which opened in 2011, is the first for-purpose concert hall in Reykjavik. The Harpa was intended to be part of the World Trade Center Complex but the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis killed that project. In 2008, the government approved the completion of the Opera House (it was the only construction project in Iceland at the time).
It is the home of “The Musician” a statue (installed in 2007} of a cellist located in a beautiful fountain and pool. The Harpa Opera House is in the background. Its gray hues are also symbolizing Iceland's volcanic basalt stone.
We started our journey to the City Center but it was clear pretty early on that we had gone in the wrong direction. Plan B was then executed. Find out where Birna Brjansdottir was abducted (I wanted to put some new pictures into my talk).
I did find out, though, that Club Hurra (Birna) was now Paloma, still a club and bar, and we did find that.
The club had changed a lot since it became infamous in the Birna murder case. Not sure if the notoriety had anything to do with the name change and new look.
We also found a fantastic intra city lake, Tjornin Lake, in a part of the city that also housed the City Hall and other government buildings.
On this day, the lake was full of white and black ducks and a bunch of huge swans.
Right next to the lake was an amusing statue, “The Unknown Bureaucrat” which showed a man with a briefcase but with an unfinished head and torso. The statue was carved in 1994 by Magnus Tomasson from a single block of Icelandic basalt. Maybe this is a tribute to the faceless civil servants who work to keep the country going. Or maybe it's just a fun statue. Ingenious.
We checked out some stores in the area and were amazed at how expensive restaurants were.
We made our way back to the bus pickup area.
At the cruise terminal, we were told to go through a
certain line but when we got to the ship – an insanely steep gangway capable of
inducing heart attacks in susceptible people - we couldn’t sign in because we
didn’t have our new sea pass cards, which were back in the terminal. I was certainly not going to climb that
gangway again. The Security Guard called
them and they indicated that they would send our cards up to the ship. After a few minutes, the cards arrived, we
had our new pictures taken, and we were on board for Cruise #2.
The first thing we wanted to was to check if our stuff was moved to our new cabin. It was.
Cabin 8105 is a huge room (the most forward of the cabins) next door to a suite. In fact, we are in a little nook of two cabins - we do have a neighbor on the starboard side but that cabin is pretty far away.
It’s the size of two regular cabins (another bed could easily fit in there). The windows are in the front of the room and are different than a standard cabin. They follow the slope of the ship and the shades are drawn differently. The layout creates a little breakfast nook by the window - almost like a virtual verandah.
I doubt we will have the compressor noise we had in our last room. The only issue this room might have is that we will feel the motion of the ocean more here - being higher up and in the forward section. We have a nice view and can see the helipad from our window. It is like looking over the bow (similar to the view from the front of the Sky Lounge).
We met our steward and I think he will take
good care of us.
We had dinner in the Oceanview Café – the food did look familiar. I am pretty sure we are once again sailing at full occupancy and lunch slams are in our future but the place is pretty open at dinner. The vegan bay continues to have a lot of nice "Impossible Burger" based items. So there are some options other than pasta.
While we were eating, we watched the Seabourn Venture depart. The ship looked vintage but it's probably pretty nice inside.
We were so excited to find out that the headliner tonight was a comedian we’ve never seen before, John Stringer.
He had a very biblical beard (and with his vest and earth tone outfit, looked like a character out of "Yentl") and a 27 inch
inseam (part of his routine) - what he didn’t have was a funny act. He tried very hard but his stories had too
long a lead up with not much of a payoff.
Our luck with comedians continues to be spotty.
It was a nippy but nice day in the Capitol of Iceland.
Big day of walking today – officially 10,656 steps, and my aching feet agree.
And best of all, we are staying overnight and have another day here tomorrow.
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