Iceland: Maritimes and Meetup

Our second day in Reykjavik, July 2019, would be largely free time for us because our meetup with the rest of our Natural Habitat Adventures group wasn't until late afternoon.

After a restless sleep Joan and I arose at 7:30. The morning began with clouds flowing over the ridges across the bay.

The Icelandair hotel "Reykjavik Marina" is across from a drydock.

Our first destination was the Reykjavik Maritime Museum,

Viewed from our hotel, the Museum entrance is the brown structure.

where we viewed a fascinating exhibit about the wreck of the Dutch merchant ship Melckmeyt, which sank in 1659 while seeking shelter at the Icelandic islet of Flatey. Local divers discovered the wreck in 1992, which was then studied as an archaeological site. At one point in the 17th Century Dutch shipping was half of the European total.

Then it was time for one of the guided tours of the Óðinn, a retired (2006) coast guard ship. It's visible in the above photo; click on the image to enlarge and look for the gray ship one-third of the way in from the right. Joan and I were the only ones signed up for this first tour of the day. The Óðinn saw service during the "cod wars" with Britain, when Iceland was systematically expanding its exclusive fishing area around the island to the now globally-recognized 200 nautical mile economic zone. Our guide gave us a thorough tour, and we saw one of the ingenious net cutters that the Icelandic vessels used to sever the nets of the British fishing trawlers. The Óðinn had at least one bumping match with the frigate HMS Scylla during the fourth cod war.

After the ship tour Joan and I returned to the museum with its exhibits, both static and dynamic, including audio recollections from the old days. Our attention was captured more than we expected!

We left the museum and re-visited the Þufa, an art installation of the structures used for drying, what else, fish. At the base of the hill we met a great-grandfather and his great-grandaughter (can you say "cute?") on an outing.

At left is the Harpa, across the harbor.

A closeup.

A panoramic view of the outer and inner harbors from the mound.

The Queen Mary 2 was far away at the "big ship" docks.

 We explored the path in the other direction, passing various businesses,

and briefly stopped at a shop featuring the clothing and miscellaneous goods of the company "Farmer's Market." Joan and I weren't interested in what they had to offer, commenting that these days we usually only bought stuff that we could eat or that was very small. They recommended a chocolate manufacturer around the corner. It wasn't immediately around the corner, but we found it, Omnom, and had several tastings with Kyle at the factory outlet. We walked away with six bars. Back at the hotel there was a packet from NatHab waiting for us including an Omnom bar (66% cocoa solids from Madagascar). That made seven.

At the group orientation we met our NatHab leader, Katherine, and our Icelandic guide and driver Solveig. Our impression was that it could be a congenial group, a good thing as we would be ten guests and two leaders in the same van!

Before retiring Joan and I repacked for land travel in variable weather (there is no other kind in Iceland).