Farewell to Iceland

August 7, 2015
Our time in Iceland was short.  Although the days were long, we only had a limited time to see the many wonders the island. 

We heard some wonderful tales about Iceland's past, many of which were told with a sparklingly dry Scandinavian wit.  By the end of the hour, the musician-storyteller had most of the audience singing along.

fishing nets at dockside

Our ship was in port all night Thursday night,  we decided to enjoy the Icelandic entertainers who were scheduled to perform on our ship at 10:00 PM.  We certainly made the right decision.  The entertainers, most of whom were from the same family, had a wide range of materials, including songs and stories about Iceland.  Some of the songs that the packed theater enjoyed were in English.  Others were sung in Icelandic. 
We awoke at 6:30 on Friday morning, had our breakfast at the Windjammer Cafe and prepared to go ashore, knowing that we must return to the ship by 12:30.  As we stolled out onto an open deck, we were met my a blast of frigid air from the. North.  This caused us to reasess our plans.  We were told that most of the shops in Reykjavik would not be open at an early and there was really not much to do there.  We decided to visit a small dockside souvenir shop and pick up a few items.  The rest of the morning was to be spent refining our next show and relaxing on the solarium deck.

something about strangled bananas?

We may have made a wise decision staying onboard.  Ten minutes before thè gangway was scheduled to be pulled, seven names were called on the ship's intercom.  Apparently these were passengers who had not checked in.  The time for All Aboard passed and, at the last minutè, we spotted three individuals making a dash for the ship from one of the buses.  We never did find out what happened to the other four.
About two hours after our departure, as we were putting our two miles in on the ship's decks, we heard an announcement on the intercom that the ship would be stopping for a helicopter lift for a medical emergency.  The copter hovered over the landing zone for a while and then the patient was hauled aboard. We have witnessed this a few times previously, but it is still quite unusual.
The evening show was hilarious. It was called Graffiti Classics and it was four string players who were not only very talented classical players but they combined their playing with a very funny comedy bit. It reminded us of the old Victor Borge shows that we saw years ago onstage in Portland Oregon.
Two more days with no more ports means two more shows for us to present to the guests. We are looking forward to presenting our shows and also to be preparing to return to our home on Tuesday.