DAY 4 ICELAND

​Last Full Day In Reykjavik Before Our Cruise Adventure Begins

Thank you Betty for your comment and for following along.

Thank you Jonathan for the weather update which we were unaware of.  

We wanted to digress for a moment and that is timing or maybe luck is everything.  When we cross streets we look both ways even at a traffic light and when the pedestrian walk turns green. We assume someone is not paying attention. Today we were behind a family of four including their two children. The light turned green and the walk light did too. There were two lanes on each side end. Looking to the left two vehicles one in each lane were coming to the light. The one in the right stopped. As the family was getting near the one in the left the driver of that SUV didn't stop, and made a left hand turn. The family was inches away from a catastrophic accident. Years ago while visiting Keith's parents in Florida a woman stepped onto the street and a car didn't stop and she was instantly killed. This is something we haven't forgotten. Pedestrians pay attention and never assume someone will stop. Same true for drivers and also a reminder to pay attention when you drive.

Let’s begin the day with some Iceland Trivia.
 
Everything You Wanted to Know About Iceland But Were Afraid to Ask. Or Ten Trivia Topics Which Could Show Up When You Play Team Trivia.
 
It is believed that Iceland got its name from explorer Hrafna-Flok Vilgeroarso who encountered icy fjords during a harsh winter. When he saw the ice supposedly, he names the island Island which translates to Iceland in English.
 
On our first visit we were told it got its name by settlers who tried to trick their fellow Norsemen into staying away thinking the entire island was covered in ice.
 
The water. Often, when we travel outside our own country, we purchase bottled water. Even in our own country we no longer drink water out of the tap.  Iceland has terrific water, so we drink water from the tap.
 
In Iceland, most homes do not need a separate water heater due to the widespread availability of geothermal energy.
 
Iceland has its own home air-conditioning. It works easily. If you are warm, open one or more windows. 

Iceland has the world’s or one of the world’s oldest parliaments dating back to 930 AD. Take you pick.

Reykjavik Iceland is the most northern Capital of any of the 195 UN-recognizes countries.

Beer was banned between 1915 and 1995.

Until 1986, Iceland only had one television station and initially it broadcasted on Wednesday and Saturday. Overtime, it expanded to other days of the week.  Everyone got the month of July off so no TV in July.  
 
In 1924, a complete ban of dogs was enforced in Reykjavik. The rule has since changed and people can own dogs if they get permission from the municipality and pay a fee.

Let's talk food again. We shared another Pretzel Bagel with our dinner last evening. 

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The good news is there is no rain in today's or tomorrow's weather forecast. Unlike the weather back home, the low started in the mid-40's (F) with a high of 57 degrees. It has been mostly sunny.

We have enjoyed a very nice stay in Reykjavik. One of the things we like about cruising is often we have stayed at certain locations pre/post cruise that we might not have visited if not for a cruise. At the same time, cruising has given us the opportunity to see so many places that it would not have been possible for us to see if we visited by air.

Over the years there are places that we have come to love that we may never have visited if not for cruising. In some cases, we simply didn't think we would enjoy them, but were proven wrong. There have been other cases where we thought certain places would be amazing. While very good they were not what we expected. Cruising doesn't always give you depth meaning if it's a stop along the way there isn't enough time to see everything. However, cruising provides the opportunity to get a flavor of a place and if it's a location you enjoyed one could consider a return via a pre or post cruise, an overland, or visiting it on a land vacation.

While some people do not want to repeat itineraries there are certainly itineraries that we do not mind repeating because of our love of a town, city, country or even continent.  

We are also at a stage in our lives where there are places that we never tire of visiting again and again. On the other hand, there are places and geographical areas where we have visited once, twice, or several times that we appreciate having seen but we don't see a need to go back. Health concerns also factor into some of this as well.

When we were studying countries around the world in grade school and at University and in our early years of marriage we would never have believed that we would have the honor of visiting them by our current age let alone in our lifetime. Cruising has played a big role in all of this. 

Travel continually reminds us of the diversity of people in the world and the beauty of the world. Everyplace we have visited we have learned something from and everyplace has its own beauty even if sometimes it is not apparent at first.

The other thing that travel has taught us is in such a fast paced world to take the time to smell the roses. In other words we have never felt the need to see it all at once and to see certain areas just to say we saw it. There are certainly places that we might have seen that we chose not to either because we would be rushed or wanted to do something else. This is not to say we've never had to rush on a tour or on a stop by on our own, but we try to make this an exception. Full disclosure though in certain museums Anne Marie could spend the day while Keith might prefer one hour max.  Same goes for shopping at home.  LOL.

We have enjoyed another lovely stay in Reykjavik for the second consecutive year and for the third time since 2021. Ironically, our pre-cruise stays have all been driven by Crystal between boarding the former Crystal Endeavor in 2021, Crystal Symphony in 2024, and Crystal Serenity tomorrow in 2025. We have also transited Reykjavik a few times on prior Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity Cruises and we have sailed around the entire island of Iceland with many stops including utilizing zodiacs in 2021. If not for our Crystal Cruises we may never have seen Iceland let alone spend several days in the beautiful city of Reykjavik.

We enjoyed several very nice long walks this morning and this afternoon stopping at various sites along the way. We will let the photos do the talking except to say in the early morning both the moon and the sun were visible.
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Tomorrow, we return home to Crystal Serenity which has been our home for the equivalent of over three-and-one-half years since our first visit for twenty-four days in September of 2005. It was on this cruise that we firmed up plans to take the first of what turned out to be many World Cruises and many other voyages. If you told us many years ago we would travel as much as we have and do a lot of it on this amazing cruise line with the best crews afloat on all of the Crystal vessels we have sailed we would have said you were crazy. This is why we pinch ourselves (figuratively) each time we cruise and we remind ourselves how lucky and fortunate we are and what a wonderful world this is in spite of some of its day-to-day challenges. When we think of luck travel reminds of this as it takes us to several places where the challenges people fact day-to-day are vast and this does remind us of how fortunate and lucky we are.  

In closing for today, this is a reminder that no matter how much liquid is in the glass, it is always half-full.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith