Iceland Days 7&8

Day 7

Reykyavik is a very small capital city; not much larger than a town, but terribly pretty. The houses are made of timber and painted in bright colours. It seems strange to me that an island so rich in stone and rock, but so lacking in trees (there are virtually none - we encountered no forests at all) should make its houses out of wood. Especially when you consider the weather.

We visited the Viking settlement museum, then, somewhat rashly, booked a whale watching trip for the afternoon. I'm scared of rocky boats and I was crapping myself. Fortunately I got distracted by the dolphins and forgot to be scared even though it was bloody rough (and bitterly cold). We didn't see any whales, unfortunately, but it was a great trip.

Had huge Thai meal and bottle of red to warm us up when we got back. Exhausted.

Day Eight

Spent the morning lolling about in the Blue Lagoon before heading to the airport. It was as hot as a HOT bath and totally relaxing. So relaxing that Rich actually fell asleep. In the lagoon. Loved it. Loved everything. Love love love.

The End.

(P.S. Other interesting things we learned about Iceland:

The people are very tall and sane. Surprised by this because my only previous experience of Icelanders has been Björk, who's little and bonkers.

They have a weird naming system. If we were Icelandic we'd be called Lucy Dereksdaughter and Richard Charlesson. Our children would be Holly Richardsdaughter and Grace Richardsdaughter.

No trees. I already said that.

They have surreptitiously started whaling again. Minke whales mostly. The meat is targeted at tourists as an Icelandic tradition (which it's not - they only started it in the 1920s). Icelanders rarely eat whale meat. The whale watching companies are putting massive pressure on the government to ban whaling. The whaling companies and the whale-watching companies hate each other. So if you visit Iceland DO go whale-watching, but DON'T eat whale meat.

Puffins are only around from May to mid-August. Devastated by this. I love puffins.

Iceland is almost as big as the UK. We drove over 2000km during the past week. Well, when I say 'we', I mean Rich. BUT I NAVIGATED. Am brilliant at navigating. Brilliant.)

PPS Met at Heathrow by Holly. 'Your car's in the Shortstay Carpark, level 2, row K,' she says, handing us the keys and jumping on the tube into London.
There *is* no row K.