Happy 61st birthday Greg, how lucky spending it here. After birthday cards, messages and phone calls we headed out on a two hour city walk tour of Reykjavik. What we enjoyed most was our guide Sara. She is a formidable 39 year old, History Masters, teacher. She embodied everything I have read about Icelandic women, strong, fierce, intelligent and no bullshit. Sara also had a good sense of humour. They bring their children up to, Think like a Viking. You can achieve what you want. There is a lot to like here.
Sara explained that by the time they leave school they know 3-4 languages. There are no private schools, education and medical expenses are free. Unemployment is one of the lowest in the world at 2.8%. Income Tax is paid at 45%. GST is 24%
352,000 people live in Iceland, 121,000 of those in Reykjavík. Iceland was settled in 874 AD. The first settler was Viking, Ingólfur Arnarson, who settled in Reykjavík.
The Vikings cut down all of the trees here, today they plant 49-50,000 trees a year to guard against global warming. We have not seen any evidence of trees yet, maybe on our journey around the country.
The people here go to one of the many local swimming pools most days. All are thermally heated. They do not go to the Blue Lagoon and pay the exorbitant price the tourists do ?. Women can swim topless, they do not discriminate in Iceland, it is not allowed.
There is very little crime here. As such you do not see the Police driving around the streets. They only appear when necessary.
They only have a first name in Iceland. No Mr or Mrs. On their passports a surname is required so historically their Fathers name is used. But today more people use their mother and fathers name.
On our tour we got a good overview of Iceland and in particular Reykjavik. It was a most enlightening, enjoyable tour.
After the tour we decided to walk up to the impressive looking church up the hill, on the way we stopped at Cafe Loki for lunch. I had Lamb soup and Rye bread, Greg had Smoked lamb on flatbread, was delicious. We love eating the local food when we are away.
The church was over the road from the cafe, Hallgrimskirkja a Lutheran church built 1945-86. It was big and impressive, had a fabulous looking organ, but it felt lifeless to me. We didn’t stay long. We headed down the hill to the Harpa Concert Hall, a spectacular looking Hall inside.
After wandering around the hall we headed back to our hotel. I slept for a couple of hours and Greg went and played some Ingress, so many Missions so little time!
This evening we went to Fiskmarkadurinn for dinner to celebrate Greg’s birthday. We had a tasting menu with matching wines, every course was interesting & delicious. They were mainly fish courses, finishing with lamb (their two main proteins) and then desert, there was even a candle and some singing, which topped off a lovely evening. It was a much better experience than our two hatted dinner at L’Enclume on Sunday, which was a relief.
On our way back to the hotel we took a detour to the pond, we were pleased for the exercise after our meal.
Tomorrow we pick up a car, will be driving on the other side of the road ?on our 6 days around Iceland adventure.
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