Part 2 of Day 1 Scottish Borders to Edinburgh

After Kelso, on our way across the border into England and To Alnwick Castle, we stopped off at another ruined castle called
Hume. It afforded a beautiful view across the borderlands.

Day 1 of 3 in Scotland/Edinburgh

Oh no! Today is my final morning on the Prinsendam. Pooh. Although I'm excited to get off and spend 3 days in the greater Edinburgh area.

Sailing in to Rosyth, the port city about a half hour's train ride from
Edinburgh, you are on the famous Firth of Forth. I think it means the fourth fjord. Or the fjord named Forth. Whatever. It's a cool body of water. And spamming it close to Rosyth are three very neat and different bridges. This red one is a cantilever bridge and voted Scotland's man made wonder and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Apparently it's an engineering marvel. All I can say about it is that it's really red and really pretty!

The other bridge is almost as pretty. In fact, the three bridges are all very different from one another. In reviewing my photos I may have slacked off on the third bridge. I might have to see what's what on that front for another post.

After we docked, we had to see the Scottish officials face to face with our passports. It was the first time I was presenting my emergency passport to another country's officials and I was a tad nervous about it. Worried, of course, that they would find something wrong and deny me entry. And of course, as usual, my mind went everywhere bad. But not to worry! Everything went fine. And I was off the ship with my suitcase and backpack in tow.

Six of us had arranged a private tour for the day to visit the Scottish Borders area. This included a visit to Kelso where there's a super old Abbey and a cute little town.

Wrapping up Iceland

Continuing on our Day 2 tour outside of Reykjavik, it was time to stop for lunch. We ended up at the Atlantic Ocean side of the island at a small fishing village called Grindavik where we ate a marvelous lunch of lobster soup, soft bread for dipping into the soup, ice cold beers and sodas, and a choice of rich chocolate or carrot cake for dessert. That soup was fantastic!!

After lunch our crazy guide regaled is with a diddies on the piano.

Finally, we wound up the day by stopping for a few minutes and some quick pics of the footbridge between the continents - Europe and North America. The bridge is known as Midlina or Leif the Lucky Bridge.

We were running very late so we high-tailed it back to the ship, arriving with mere minutes to spare before the all aboard.

I loved Iceland. I want to go back and learn more and see more. And I want to experience the Northern Lights there.

The last picture is one of my table mates and me at our last meal. Oh, and note Snort's sporting of a red bow tie for formal night. Barbara, the woman standing in the photo, knitted it for him!!

Reykjavik Day 2 continued

Our next stops included a drive out through the volcanic countryside and to Lake Kleifarvatn. It is a lake with no rivers into it or out of it. It lies right on the fissure zone of the Mid Atlantic Ridge.

After the lake we visited the Seltun geothermal field with colorful hot springs. As you have seen with my prior posts, there are a number of these geothermal hot spring areas across the country.

Reykjavik Day 2

After a soothing evening soaking up geothermal waste water (haha) from the Blue Lagoon, day two was going to be a whirlwind 10 stops in 5 hours tour with the same company we used in Akureyri and Isafjordur.

Our guide and driver, Mr. Howser, picked 9 of us up right on time and off we went, out of town. He's a fast driver and a great guide. He regaled is all day long with stories about life in Iceland. What a character!

We visited Hafnafjordur, which is the third most populous city in Iceland, with strong Viking roots. The famous Flokki settled in the harbor area and supposedly named the country Ice Land because of the particularly harsh winter he experienced there.

We also visited the President's house. Yes. The President of Iceland. He's a pretty popular guy and you can just drive up to his house and stand at his front door. He has virtually no security. Just one lone and empty police car. You can't go inside, of course, unless he happens to open the door and invite you in, but he doesn't mind people stopping by to visit the property. And he still takes his two young kids to school every day on his bicycle. Yup. They ride in a cart attached to the bike.

Reykjavik city pics

Reykjavik Iceland

The last time I was in Reykjavik was in 2014, with Adrienne. We didn't get too much time to visit the city, so this time I wanted to get more time there.

This trip spent two days here, so on the first day I took the hop on bus into town and got off at the big church in the middle of the city. It's called the Hallgrimmskirkja. That's a mouthful isn't it? The last time we were there we opted not to go up to the top of it. Either the line was too long or we were running out of time, I'm not sure. But today I was determined to go. And go I did. The wait was less than 10 minutes and the view was really nice.

After the church, I wandered through town with the intent to find another place that we had passed up last time - the Penis Museum. Yep. That's not a typo. There's an entire (only one in the world) museum dedicated to penises. It started out with a scientist kind of guy collecting whale penises for study and then, well, pardon the pun here, but his interest grew.... the museum was closed in 2014 as we were by it in the evening.
This time it was open and I paid my fee and went in.

It was, ah, interesting. I have to say, whale penises are very very frightening. Just look at the picture and you'll understand.

The other place I wanted to return to, for an inside tour, was the Harpa. That is the new music center. It's a fascinating piece of design, both inside and out. The building itself is designed to represent an active volcano, with the inside concert halls bathed in purple and red lighting to make you think of hot lava.

The outside shell is the prismed glass and it actually lays over the building, never touching it. Really cool. When the sun and light hit it at different angles, it created very pretty light patterns across the floors of the hall.

I finished the day with an evening visit to the Blue Lagoon. It's the famous geothermal spa in Iceland. Love the place!!