Friday, October 16
Our last breakfast at Hotel Muli is a good one. Today is sunny and a bit less windy. Temps in the low 40's. We really have been fortunate with good weather. We walk to the Netto grocery store which is just a few blocks away, where Beth gets some treats to take home. A unique find is that Icelanders love licorice and we find some chocolate and licorice candies for our neighbor who also loves licorice. Some things are made in Iceland and many others are made in Scandinavian countries.
The friendly young man we buy tickets from just happens to be from Houston, quite near where our son lives! His wife is Icelandic.
There are three main timed activities here, along with lots of exhibits. Photography is not allowed in most, so you'll have to go to the website for details - perlan.is
First is an impressive immersive volcano show based on the 2021 eruption Geldingadalir. In a smallish room you are surrounded by screens, including below the glass floor. You begin moving above ground, then drop through rock and through water and finally into the boiling lava of a volcano with temperatures rising to 2012 degrees. You then move with the lava through tunnels and are thrust out of the volcano. Amazing technology!! What a fun, intense ride!
Next we proceed to a planetarium where we view a Northern Lights show which explains and shows how the sun creates solar winds which create the Aurora. Includes some mythology and other information about the Northern Lights.
There is not much in the way of wildlife on Iceland. Arctic foxes, an occasional polar bear that wonders over from Greenland, mostly sea creatures including whales and seals, and some birds. There are also some microscopes that show some of the creatures not visible to the human eye. We could have spent much more time on the exhibits, but we have to go back to the hotel, pack and be ready for a 1:00 taxi to the airport.
About that - we get back to the hotel around 12:15 but find ourselves locked out of our room! Apparently the person who said it was ok to stay until 1:00 forgot to enter that information into their system, so the room automatically disabled our code at check-out time. Unfortunately there is a sign at the front desk saying they will be back "shortly". After several calls to various numbers and talking with the maintenance staff, someone finally shows up, apologizes and fixes things so we can get into the room. A little bit of panic there for a while!
Taxi arrives on schedule and this car is a Tesla with built-in massagers in the seats! Wow. He says be buys a new car every 2 years, even though you are allowed to have a vehicle up to 5 years old! We have done check-in on line, so move right along and are through security within a half hour, even with Gwynne's full body pat down. Guess she looked suspicious?
We settle near the gate and have pizza and a sandwich to tide us over. And then we wait. Unfortunately the plane we are to take is late arriving, so our 11:00 flight is moved to 11:35 and then later, as we finally take off well after midnight. The 767 seems packed. We are offered water or coffee twice during the 5 hour flight but everything else is extra these days, from roomier seats, to other food or drinks, to access to wifi and/or movies. Greg and Gwynne read a lot and try to sleep a bit. Beth works on the laptop photos.
Lots of walking at Logan, but no problems and Brett is at Logan to pick us up in the rain. What a blessing to have family near by! Dave serves a delicious roast chicken dinner when we arrive. Thank you guys!
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