Today is the start of our actual tour - and we just boarded “Le Bellot”, a very French ship from “Le Companie du Ponant”. Our tour organizer is Tauck, which we had used when we went to Antarctica, and they always subcontract to Ponant, for the very good reason that it is a REALLY nice company. The ships are beautiful, the service is impeccable and the food is French! And, as a bonus to me, I get to speak French to everyone, which is nice.
We started the day with a nice lunch on the top floor of the Harpa (see yesterday’s blog for description),
followed by a quick guided tour of Reykjavik- we had purposefully only visited sights that were not on that tour- so it was nice to discover and learn more.
We passed this important house - first built as the French consulate, but then acquired by the country of Iceland - it is were Reagan and Gorbachev met, and the people of Iceland are proud of the role they played in detente (we could use some of this right now).
Drove by the office of the Prime Minister, and got one more look at the Hallgrimskirkja - so I took advantage of that to get pictures from another point of view.
Then on to the Perlan Museum of Natural History and its famous ice cave exhibit (which replicates being inside a glacier), and it’s artificial cliff. It was a short but fun visit.
The museum itself has an interesting history - the rounded structures used to serve as holding tanks for the geothermally heated water that is used to warm all the houses in Reykjavik. It still does, but using a different system, so the tanks were repurposed as a museum (the dome was added later)
We are enjoying our lovely cabin (our home away from home for the next week),
and did the obligatory emergency drill, followed by a luxurious French dinner, which involved quite a bit of wine.....
so pictures about sailing will have to wait till tomorrow....
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