Thursday, August 20, 2009

Day 27 Reykjavik, Iceland

Today was just fantastic! I went off this morning with 14 other guests from the ship on our private tour. Our guide, David, was fabulous…. He was very informative and put on a great tour. We first went to the Thingvellir National Park where the Viking Parliaments started over 1000 years ago. The geology was pretty amazing as well. Once again, as has been the case in other stops in Iceland, we found ourselves on the fault line where the Eurasian & America continental plates which are pulling away from each other giving us great crevices to gawk at…. The President of Iceland also has a house here… nice location! Next we went to the Geysers…. We saw several eruptions and some boiling pots here and there. It was great! Then it was on to the Gullfoss Waterfall. I have seen many and this one was very impressive. This baby was throwing up a lot of mist but we were able to get out of the “wet” zone. Lovely scenery….. Our last stop was at the Hellishaedi Geothermal Power Plant. Here the guide gave us a very informative briefing on Iceland’s geothermal production. The whole island is powered by geothermal…. Those Vikings were way ahead of Al Gore when it came to green energy…. It was a very scenic and informative day. We barely have more than a week to go…. Where does the time go? The voyage continues to impress me. The Captain & Hotel Manager aside from being great guys are doing an exemplary job. The food, service, cleanliness, entertainment, etc…. is fabulous. As we were losing time crossing the Atlantic, changing the clocks at noon worked well. This is a good sign for the upcoming World Voyage. The only major weak point on this voyage for me has been the shore excursion staff; the other departments get very high marks…. As I said before, many aspects of this voyage are pretty much like being a “Grand Voyage”. That is a true testament of a job well done by the staff of the Maasdam….

2 comments:

Mary said...

Beautiful pictures. Just when I think you can't top yourself in the photography department you do. Thanks for sharing.

Is HAL going to switch the time change to 12 noon for all voyages? It makes so much sense.

Unknown said...

I could not agree more with Mary, you keep getting better and better. I think your comment on the captain is well deserved. He is a Fine man. I do not know the hotel manager but I know you have enough knowledge that he must be one of the best. Happy sailing Allan and Sandra