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September 5, 2006-Shop ‘til…

I think I have contributed to illegal activities. I bought a purse in Chinatown from the back room of one of those stores like I described in my first emails. I have a feeling the people working there are the illegals who we hear about in the news. They have to work to pay off their debt to the people who lied to them and told them they’d take them to real jobs in the U.S. The one thing I learned this time was that some of the back rooms are interconnected by hallways and doors leading to other “lairs.” Maybe one person owns the whole operation. My cousin helped at first. She’s a pro at this kind of shopping and some of the people recognized her. It was when I tried it solo I ran into problems. Some shopkeepers were reluctant to let on they had back rooms. I wonder if there was a crackdown recently. Some denied they had “extra stock” in the back and one lady freaked when I pulled out a cell phone to call our granddaughter Alex to confirm I had the purse she wanted. The son of a friend is very involved in trying to shut down the “knock-off” business in NYC. After we made the purchase I realized they don’t charge sales tax. Now that would really get the state of New York in a snit.

The shopping we did in Iceland was legal shopping. I forgot to tell you about what we found in the flea market in Reykjavik. I told David that if we looked long enough we’d find something Jewish. We did. There were identical brass menorahs. I asked the stall operator where she got them and she said she bought them in Denmark. I wonder what their story was? She wanted $160 each for them. At that price they stayed un-rescued.

The streets of NYC never fail to present interesting sights. We watched the taping of the TLC show Cover Story. It’s a makeover show. The problem was that we couldn’t tell if the woman getting out of the limo was the before or after. Someone should have told her not to chew gum.

Being in NYC at the end of a holiday weekend can be a challenge. Garbage piles on the curbs were as high as I am tall and as wide as the length of a car. The smell was memorable.

We’re glad to be home and had dinner with the clan. Rylee has filled out and is full of smiles. Talia is as effusive as ever and Alex was full of school news. Having one more child in the mix does change the dynamic and we were all busier cutting food and holding the baby. It was great to be back.

Toby

New York City

September 3, 2006-Homecoming

Happy Labor Day weekend to you all. Yeah! We’re in NYC! It was only a 5-½ hour flight but it was good to be on terra firma again. We had to get to the airport three hours ahead of flight time since we were flying to the U.S. There were all sorts of announcements about extra security for flights to the States. We expected to go through airport security then a separate check for liquids, gels, etc for U.S. bound passengers. Nothing! We did the regular check with shoes on and that was it. No one opened a thing to check for the “new contraband.” Maybe it will be different flying within the States from NYC to Akron.

The best part of the flight other than landing safely was that we flew over Greenland. It definitely was not green. The sky was cloud-free and even from 35,000 feet we could see the mountains and glaciers below clear as a bell. I even picked out a bright blue river with floating chunks of ice. They looked like dollops of marshmallows in a sea of Jell-O.

Our group of eight flew together and we’re all spending the night at the Hilton Garden Hotel near JFK. We had a snack and said our good-byes. Two couples fly to California tomorrow and one couple heads for Boston. We head for the Washington-Jefferson Hotel in Manhattan. My cousins will pick us up for lunch and take us to Chinatown. I told them we’d eat anything but fish.

This hotel won me over right away. They had a platter of warm chocolate chip cookies at the check-in desk. When we got to our room I found what looked like miniature towels in the bathroom. Then I remembered. They’re washcloths. We haven’t seen one in three weeks.

Now that we’re in the U.S. I can dare to tell you about my tooth issue. I had a check-up at the dentist before we left and there was a tooth that was bothering me. She smoothed out the bite and told me to call if it was hitting wrong. It started acting up in New York before we left for Scandinavia. By the time I got to Copenhagen it was unbearable. I spoke to Yves who asked if I could hold out until Oslo. There was a dentist he knew in the hotel there. I thought I could bear it for a few days but there was no way I would make it for three weeks. I started taking ibuprofen for the inflammation and hoped the pain was from grinding at night and not a dying nerve. I consciously started using my tongue as a bite guard between my teeth when I slept. It worked. I still need to see the dentist when I get home but the pain was from grinding. The ibuprofen did the trick. Yes, I have tried bite guards before with no success. This might motivate me to try again.

I don’t know what time it is for us. Our bodies think it is 2 AM. The clock here says 10:30 PM. We’re going to sleep.

Toby

Last Day in Reykjavik

September 2, 2006-Gods & Mythos
(photos:horse meat,
puffin meat,
whale meat,
Icelandic riding costume)

Today we did it all. We saw every last bloody museum there was. We stared with the National Culture Museum built in 1906 as the National Library and Archives. The entryway was a dramatic white double marble staircase. The exhibits were bi-lingual but much of the reading was down low. Most of the written history of the Viking Age (800-1,050) is contained in the Codex Regius. The Edda, poems about religious and everyday life, dates from 1200 and details the mythos of their gods: Odin, Thor, Loki, et al. They were composed by court poets and were sagas of written and oral history. The written Edda was illustrated by cartoon-like characters helping to illuminate the tales. The object and goal at the end of life was to reach Valhalla. It was the Great Hall of Odin where warriors who died in battle would spend the rest of time fighting by day and drinking mead and feasting at night. Men were buried with their swords, horses, dogs, and household goods to sustain them in the next life. If a man died in his bed he spent eternity with Hel the goddess of death. Canterbury Tales were written in the 14th century but Beowulf, written in 1100 in Old English tells about a 6th century Scandinavian adventurer.

There is evidence that Leif the Lucky was in Vineland (North America) in the late 1300’s. The original manuscripts housed in this museum were held by Denmark until 1971 when they slowly began to return to Iceland. This includes sections of The Book of Settlement followed by The Book of Icelanders written in the earl 12th century. They’re like a list of begats with pertinent details of who was who along with events that occurred at the time. Remember the guy who threw his carved throne posts into the sea? He was Ingolfur and is mentioned in the Books as the first settler of Reykjavik.

And now the biggest surprise of all. It blew my image of Scandinavians. I never knew that between 1855-1914 there was a large wave of immigrants to Salt Lake City, Utah from Iceland. An Icelander heard a Mormon missionary speak in Copenhagen in 1850 and converted on the spot. He convinced a friend to join him and they spearheaded conversions in Iceland starting in 1851. A huge statue of Jesus sits in the section of the Cultural Museum called “On To Zion.” It’s a copy of one near the visitor’s center in Salt Lake City.

Contrasting the previously described historical artifacts The Museum had a section for contemporary Icelandic fashion. I can tell you that big pants, tight pants under dresses, and raw hemlines are in here. I guess this was the part about modern Iceland.

I was still recovering from the Mormon connection when we left the building. We wanted to buy more of the steamed bread and were directed to a flea market. It was where we love to be in a foreign place. It was for locals not tourists. They were selling clothing, records, toys, and yes, socks. They also had a food section where we found not only the bread but also whale meat, puffin breasts, and horse steaks.

Plus or Minus

On to the next museum! The 871 + or – 2 Exhibit featured the remains of the oldest manmade settlement in Reykjavik. I loved the humor of the date (plus or minus 2 years). It sat where it was found and the museum was built around it. It was a great hall and was presented in a high tech way. Panels of screens came to life illustrating day-to-day events using ghost-like digitized people. Several interactive stations helped clarify the time the great hall was built. There was no doubt that other and older ruins lay under other areas of Iceland from earlier inhabitants. Vikings were slave-owning traders and raiders who probably left Norway for adventure and a better life not religious freedom. They ruled part of the British Isles, the Hebrides, and Normandy. Recent DNA testing determined that most Icelandic men came from Norwegian stock but most women were Celtic. Their ancestors came across from Asia on that same old land bridge in the Bering Straits. They migrated across the Americas leaving traces of Native American genes mixed with Celtic We walked on over to the National Museum. Our directions were to pass a large cemetery and keep going. I was reading dates on tombstones when I saw a Star of David. I guess there were Jews here. I don’t know if there are any now. There’s no synagogue listed.

We were pooped when we got there but the massive gray modern poured concrete building was impressive. The exhibits covered a lot of the territory we had already been over so we zipped through from pre-Vikings to Enlightenment to modern culture. There was a lot on the Reformation. It makes me sad when I see cultures disappear into the morass of conformity of a monolithic creed. There is so much energy to the differences.

Fishy Ending

Our final banquet was a cold fish buffet. David is doing quite well with that as long as it doesn’t look like fish. It cannot have vestiges of scales or any fishy pieces/parts. Tonight even I got fished out and ended up concentrating on my new love, curried herring. Dessert was new to us. It’s a curd made from skim milk cooked into a pudding. It tastes a bit like yogurt and is served with berries. It was quite nice but not chocolate. Ellert joined us but had a luscious looking lamb dinner. David was sitting next to him and had to restrain himself from sticking his fork into a piece of meat and stealing it.

I asked Ellert what happened in Iceland during WWII. He said that they were neutral but were occupied by Britain when it was thought the Nazis wanted to invade. So much for their neutrality. He didn’t seem thrilled that Britain was here. He thought neutrality was important. How can a country be neutral? That means they don’t care enough who wins to take sides. That means they’d have been as happy with a Nazi win as an Allied win. Well, they were all Aryans (including Sweden and Switzerland) so no worries there.

At dinner we also talked about lighter things like how the TVs work. Ellert didn’t see anything unusual in our struggle to figure out how to adjust the volume. It seemed normal to him. The remote doesn’t work at all even if the gizmo on the set is pointed at the hand held remote device. To turn the power on you have to push a button on the TV. To turn the TV on you have to push the unmarked button between the buttons marked with up and down arrows. You can now change channels with the up and down buttons. To adjust volume you must once again push the middle button. You may now use the arrow buttons to adjust volume. If you now want to change the channel you must push the unmarked middle button again. Then the up and down arrow buttons will once again change the channel.

Planning Ahead

I asked the people in our group what they thought of group travel versus independent. One woman said she liked the security of having the medical and evacuation coverage and assistance of a guide who knew their way around the health care system since they had health issues. That is comforting to us too. We seesaw back and forth. Maybe there’s a way to combine group and independent travel. We could stay on and rent a car and take off on our own after two weeks of organized travel. That sounds like a plan but our next trip will likely be to Ireland and Wales and that we’ll do all on our own.

We leave for the airport at 1 PM tomorrow and arrive at JFK around 7 PM. It’s a relatively short flight at 5 ½ hours. In anticipation of coming home we’ve begun to verbalize how our return to the U.S. is different this time. In the past we’ve traveled mainly in underdeveloped countries or in places less developed than ours. Then it was a relief to return to a better way of life. This time we are left with a sense that we’re returning to a place where the quality of life is slipping away. We’re becoming a second rate country. In contrast to Scandinavia our standard of living leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, their taxes are higher but when you factor in what we pay for health care and education the cost may be on par. And we get so much less for our money. It’s not only about the money and services. It’s about equal rights. They get it here. When they offer equality to all they mean it. All includes gays, lesbians, transgender, and bi-sexual people. All of our citizens aren’t even afforded basic human dignities.

But then we’re excited to come home because that’s where our grandchildren are. It’s where we know that if it’s Tuesday we’ll be having dinner with our family. It’s where on this Rosh Hashanah we’ll be with Wendy and Julian in Minneapolis and with Daniel and the kids in Akron for Yom Kippur. It’s where our hearts are. And that’s home.

Reykjavik and Beyond

September 1, 2006-Hi Hi!
(photos:City Hall,
Typical houses
Hallgrimskirke,
Fault line,
Blue Lagoon)

Hi-hi! That is the greeting around here. It sets a friendly tone for a people that out-Norwegian the Norwegians as far as being taciturn. But when they party they take it seriously. Of course they do. They’re a serious people. In summer the revelry starts near midnight and goes until 5 AM. Somehow it doesn’t bother David and my earplugs have been great. Our fellow travelers aren’t so lucky.

My emails are more interesting when things are a bit off. Let me tell you about this hotel. I called it Spartan. Fodor’s calls it “basic.” When I woke up this morning before I opened my eyes I thought, “How nice. It is a sunny day.” David was up and I heard him chuckling. The “sun light” was really from the overhead light. One control switch is low on the headboard right where the pillow hits. I’d inadvertently turned it on. I had another rude awakening when I did the math and figured out that the sandwich David had at the Grill House restaurant last night cost $20.

The engineer in our group had to have someone from the desk help him close his window. It wasn’t obvious. Others needed assistance using the remote on their T.V. There’s an external receiver attached to the bottom of the set that needs to be pointed in the direction of the remote. Theirs was rotated a bit to the side. Our toilet paper holder fell of the wall and our spigot and faucets rotate when turning the water on or off. They fixed that but now the floor drain the sink water goes into overflows. Breakfast was an augmented Red Roof Inn affair but all I eat is cereal and yogurt so I was happy. But there is something wonderful at this hotel that we didn’t have anyplace else. They have a broadband Internet connection in each room. It’s pure luxury to be able to access it without having to wait in line and hope there’s a place to use the jump drive to upload my journal.

We all did laundry last night for the last time on the trip. We all hated it. I was wondering if Grand Circle could contract with a laundry to do our stuff at the midway point in a trip. I know our clothes aren’t clean after 3-4 washings and inadequate rinsing. No matter how much I tried there was still soap left behind. My ankles are breaking out from the residue. It’s so gross!

Out In The Town

Ellert picked us up at 9 AM, a civilized time. I started our walking tour of the city wearing three jackets and gloves. I could see my breath. By the end of the day I was walking around in just a long-sleeved shirt. The high today was 68. The Gulf Stream moderates the climate so it usually doesn’t reach above the mid-70’s or below the high 20’s. The Blue Mts. is their main ski area but snow has been scarce the last few winters. Most of Iceland is below the Arctic Circle so there’s no tundra or permafrost.

At first I thought Ellert was dour and humorless but he has a dry sense of humor that can catch me off guard. He rolls his “R’s” as most Icelanders do making them sound Scottish when they speak English. He’s about our age and 6’7” tall at least. His mother just retired two years ago. She’s 101. He kept us busy all day and into the evening. We don’t see him again until the farewell dinner tonight. Then he picks us up for the airport on Sunday.

Reykjavik means steam bay. It’s no wonder that’s its name. Steam vents are all over the place wafting sulfrous aromas into the atmosphere, homes, water, and hotel rooms. Ancient history tells about a Norwegian who sailed off to find new territory. He threw two throne poles that were carved like our totem poles into the sea. He decided to settle where they landed. Guess where? He didn’t stay long. Irish monks followed in 537 and a colony of hermits developed. Leif Ericsson discovered Iceland and the Americas but conveniently forgot about the latter. Ellert asked us when Columbus Day was and we knew that. When he asked when Leif Ericsson Day was we didn’t even know there was one. It’s Oct. 9. The Greeks spoke of such an island and Roman coins were found here. In 1750 the town as we know it today was settled. In 1783 there was a huge volcanic eruption causing a global change in weather. Forty per cent of the people in Iceland died. Compared to that eruption Ellert said that Mt. St. Helen was a burp. While under the Danes the capital of Iceland was Copenhagen, but they managed to achieve a peaceful separation and remain friends today.

We reached City Hall by walking over a footbridge. The building is a modern structure erected in 1981. There’s a relief map of Iceland in the lobby and we looked at our route for the day. It was ambitious. We wouldn’t return until 5 PM.

Our next stop was Hallgrimskirke, a monochromatic poured concrete cathedral. It was stark and sterile inside but there was elegance to the soaring 100+ foot high vaults. The overall effect made me feel I was inside a glacier. The stainless steel and blond wood organ rose to fill two-thirds of the space from the ceiling down. But it seems that Icelanders are as religiously observant as most Scandinavians…not.

What to do with ugly storage tanks that are part of the central city heating system? The hot water tanks that marred the landscape bothered one architect enough so that he designed a dome to cover them. It’s now called The Pearl. That was our next destination. The view from the top is the best in town and the interior of the building now housing the tanks is a work of art worthy of a concert hall. In fact they were setting up for a concert. This month there’s an international film and jazz festival. We were told that Matt Dillon and Marisa Tome are in town for the festival and to film their next movie.

When the water heating the buildings is discharged, it’s run underground in pipes that heat sidewalks and parking lots in winter. No need to shovel. The average heating and electric bill here is $110/month. Read it and weep.

Outward Bound

We left town and entered the highlands. It was barren rocky terrain dotted with the occasional summerhouse. What we did not expect was a greenhouse. The industry is diminishing and most of that is going to Spain. But there was one left for tourists to visit. Ellert had just told us about a bread that’s very dense and made by steaming it for 24-hours. We bought some there and shared it with the others. It was very good. It tasted a bit like honey cake. As for the greenhouse, it was a yawn. Iceland is noticeably devoid of trees. Maybe that’s why a greenhouse is so exciting to them. Iceland was denuded early in its history and there are mostly shrubs left. There’s an effort at reforestation. Ellert amused us by saying that if you’rre lost in the forest in Iceland just stand up.

The Hekla glacier was more impressive. The volcanic mountain of the same name was thought to be the entrance to hell. The phrase, “Go to Hekla” has evolved to “Go to heck.” Volcanoes form craters and craters sometimes sink into the earth. The Kerid Crater was one such example. The water that filled the sinkhole was teal blue and bottomless. We took photos and I managed to get some rock climbing in so David could get a picture of me near the water.

As we drove on clouds were gathering and formed a low ceiling as we climbed higher. They looked as if they were within reach. We stopped at a geyser field and waited while the biggest one sprayed. It looked like an underground giant was chewing gum as the water receded and pushed up a bit. Then he started to form a big blue bubble and blow. That’s when it spouted. It was hard to catch the bubble on film. We waited through four eruptions and never succeeded. When we left we all shrugged our shoulders and said that if you’ve seen Yellowstone this was cute.

The waterfall stop was not Niagara but it was spectacular. Wind whipped down from the glacier but wasn’t frigid. It was however strong enough to push me off course as I walked up the steps to the viewing area. One hundred gallons of water crashed over the precipice every second. At the top there was quite a lovely scene with Icelandic horses (not ponies) against the backdrop of the glacier. We later stopped where we could see horses close up. A young girl was anxious to show us which one was hers and got him out of the herd. Icelandic horses are five-gaited and have a running walk as smooth as or smoother than a Tennessee Walking Horse. It’s a purebred import descended from the Viking age. There are no other breeds on the island. They cannot eat oats because they have a very small stomach and oats swell. They don’t like carrots or apples but prefer salted fish. They crave salt. They’re used for pleasure riding, herding sheep, and as meat.

A most impressive experience was being able to see Pingvalla where the fault line is between the Eurasian and North American plates. That’s where the ancient Icelandic Parliament met 1000 years ago. They met in the open for two weeks every summer and were led by a Law Speaker who’d memorized the laws. It’s now a UNESCO site. It was so lovely and emotionally charged. It was easy to imagine the colorful tents and temporary stone and sod houses they erected. Then I joked that they could set up bleachers and present a Light and Sound show like they do at the Sphinx in Egypt. Ellert said that Icelanders wouldn’t pay admission to attractions. They tried to charge a fee once and people stopped coming.

I slept on and off in the van. There was a lot of driving. Sometimes I awoke to glean some interesting information. Married women keep their maiden names. Their obligatory fire occurred in 1915 and most buildings date from then. Education in a state university is free. It costs $2-3,000 in a private university. Iceland has the second highest birth rate in Europe. It’s probably not a direct cause and effect but the shortest day in winter is only four hours and eleven minutes. When we passed a golf course I learned that there are ninety in Iceland and there’s an Arctic Open that tees off at midnight in the summer.

Blue Lagoon

On our return to the city I got a different perspective. From this angle it looked like a big place. We did a quick jump off and shot a photo of the house where Reagan and Gorbachev met and headed for the hotel. We had half an hour to get ready for the Blue Lagoon.

David kept referring to the Blue Lagoon as a place where people swim in industrial waste and he’s right. It’s the accidental by-product of an energy plant. It was the first geo-thermal plant in the world. Sea and fresh water were mixed and superheated. The steam that resulted was run through a heat exchanger and the condensation was used to pump into home heating systems. Surplus steam was used to make electricity. An unanticipated by-product of the steam was that when the condensation cooled and was let out into an area designated for run-off the chemicals in the condensed water settled to the bottom making it waterproof. The water had nowhere to go and kept collecting. A blue color resulted. There’s a small outlet today since the water keeps coming but the inventive Icelanders turned it into a spectacular tourist venue. We changed in locker rooms and the women compared bruised legs. We all had badges of honor from wrangling suitcases. We plunged into the refreshingly milky blue warm waters. Once underwater our bodies disappeared in the murk. The bottom was sand and silica. I was surprised that when I dug some up with my toes that it was black. It wasn’t very deep and we stood up and held our arms in the air from time to time to cool off. We stayed in about forty minutes then showered and ate in the cafeteria. We all re-showered when we got to the hotel. The sulfrous water wreaks havoc on hair. It also just plain reeks. It’s supposed to have curative powers but we were all doubting Thomases. This is a tiny country trying to build a tourism industry. The mountains are like the ones in our Southwest. They’re bare. This isn’t the Rockies. There’s little to show off that’s not surpassed by other countries. But they do have an interesting ancient history.

Tomorrow we’ll try to get a handle on the Viking past. I cannot believe there’s been no lecture or tour that included their history and legends. It’s one of the major reasons we came here. I’ll mention it as a criticism when I fill out the Grand Circle review form.

Toby

Reykyavik, Iceland

August 31, 2006-Smelly
(photos: Downtown view from hotel)

Our group of eight assembled for a 11:30AM departure to the Stockholm airport. We went in style on a forty-eight passenger bus all to ourselves. In the group are an engineer with a literal turn of mind. We let him do the worrying for the group. His wife is a sweet person who always has a smile. They’re from California. Also along were friends of theirs who frequently travel with them and are pretty much fun. A couple from the Boston area are with us too but are used to a more physical kind of travel. They usually go with Overseas Adventure Travel a subsidiary of Grand Circle and are feeling very pampered.

We flew Iceland Air to Reykjavik. When lunch was served the smell was unpleasant. This was a precursor to the smell of this island-country. They use geothermal and hydroelectric power for heating and electricity and there’s a sulphury smell that’s more fishy than the usual smell of rotten eggs. Even the hot tap water smells since it comes directly from underground. It’s a mild Rotorua, New Zealand aroma.

Looking down from the plane as we landed all I saw was a bleak brown blob in a blue sea. It was only a three-hour flight and I spent some of it trying to figure out how the flight attendants got their chignons to stay put. They had intricately twisted buns that took on fanciful spiral shapes and never moved.

Rocky

Our guide, Ellert, met us for the forty-five minute drive into the city. The landscape was all lava fields but he promised it was different where we were going tomorrow. We passed Keflavik where a U.S. naval base is about to close. Jobs will be lost but there are plenty of opportunities for new employment. The place is booming and three hundred construction cranes dot the area. Housing is so American looking that it feels like we’re back in the 1950’s-60’s. It could be Levittown. The cost of housing has doubled in the last four years. Eighty per cent of Icelanders own their own homes. They build with reinforced concrete since the’re in a seismically active zone. They get the lime for the cement from crushing seashells.

In 2000 they had an earthquake that reached 6.1 on the Richter Scale. The volcanoes are still active although the last eruption was seven hundred years ago. They expect lots more activity in the next year. Of course they do. We visited. They also expect the first major storm of the winter on Tuesday. We leave Sunday.

Reality

Iceland is 40,000 square miles, about the size of Kentucky. It’s distorted on maps and globes so looks much larger. The population as of July is 304,256. Fifty per cent of the people live in Reykjavik and southern towns. It was settled in 874 by Norwegians. In 930 they formed one of the first republican governments. Classic Icelandic Sagas describe the Old Commonwealth Age of Independence but in 1262 it lost its autonomy to Denmark. Freedom was regained in 1944 and the present republic established. There’s a president but power is executed by the government who answers to parliament. School is compulsory until age sixteen and English is introduced in grade five. Danish is started in grade seven. Healthcare is covered by the government except for 15%, which is the responsibility of the patient. Icelanders speak a language very close to that of ancient Vikings. Iceland was Catholic in the 15th to mid-16 centuries but became Lutheran around 1550. Freedom of religion was introduced in 1874 and 90% of the population belong to the State Lutheran church.

As we approached our hotel, the Plaza, we passed a small park and lake. City Hall is built out into the water and looks intriguing. We visit there tomorrow. The Plaza is in the center of town on the oldest street. It’s modern, Spartan and looked comfortable, but there are many idiosyncrasies. The water is naturally soft and my hands feel slimy when they’re wet. Every time I turn the spigot on my hand slips. If I get traction it turns too far and I get sprayed. When my hand slips I use a towel to turn it. It’s a pain. The shower took two of us to figure out. The controls are unlike any we’ve seen. For a while I thought it didn’t work and we’d have to change rooms. Our room has three “settling” cracks that I’m sure come from the last earthquake. The four Californians in the group were unimpressed. We overlook a small concrete park where skateboarders gather. Sunset is very late so they stay until 10PM. When they leave the bikers arrive. One is revving his engine now. I may need my earplugs again.

We hope to go to the Blue Lagoon tomorrow night but it looks like the trip to the glacier might be impossible. It’s still in melting mode and the access roads are muddy. We wouldn’t have gone anyway since we walked on the Athabasca glacier in British Columbia and flew over several in Alaska. We also will take a pass on whale watching. Did that in Hawaii and Alaska. That leaves us a free day. I hope the museum that tells about the Norse mythology and Viking history is detailed. There’s not a lot else to do in this town. We went to a restaurant nearby that Ellert recommended. It was a family place like a Denny’s only smaller. I had great fish and chips and David had “the best steak sandwich in town.” He hasn’t tasted others but was sure it would live up to its reputation. After dinner we walked over to the pier to watch the hills in the distance turn pink in the waning sun. We stopped in a couple of wool shops and I decided I liked acrylic better. Scandinavian wool is too scratchy.

Downtown Reykjavik reminds me of an Alaskan town. There’s a sense of being built in a hurry and a feeling of impermanence. It has a small town old West feel to it. That might be appropriate since it was settled by renegades and outlaws.

Toby

Last Night in Stockholm

August 30, 2006- Twenty Minute Wonder
(photos:Vassa,
Skansen,
Yves)

The water level rose eight feet in Southern Norway and there’s a flood. Disaster still follows in our wake.

The candy man started our day by passing around a bag of sweets. A member of our group has taken on that job and we look forward to it. He doesn’t eat the stuff himself. Some of us have taken turns buying and distributing candy. It’s a great way to start the day.

Marie, our city guide, joined us at the Vasa Museum. It houses a ship that sank 300 years ago after a brief and tragic launch. It didn’t quite outdo the Korean missile that only lasted a few minutes but in 1628 the Vasa (the last name of the royal family at the time) capsized and gave up the ghost after struggling for less than twenty-minutes to stay afloat.

An excellent orientation movie told the sad tale of the thirty to fifty people who died and the four hundred who escaped. The wreck was found and raised in 1961 and the film showed the elaborate and ingenious contraption devised to make a sling going under the hull to hoist the monster to the surface. The ship was floated to dry dock for restoration. The technology used was as wondrous as that employed to set up the offshore oil platforms near Bergen but the salvaging of the Vasa stirred me more. It was on a more human scale. It was about history, people, and preservation.

The Vasa was remarkably intact. We watched as hoses using water under pressure removed the mud and muck and scientists unearthed artifacts and human remains by hand. In all, 14,000 pieces were put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle and the re-assembled ship was sealed by spraying it with polyethylene glycol. Ninety-five per cent of the ship is original. Replacement parts were made using methods available in the 1600’s. The entire thing is now housed in a museum along with many of the objects found on board. Human remains were studied and are on display with analyses of what the life of the person had been nutritionally and the status of their health at time of death. Officer’s families had been allowed on board for the first leg of the launch and bodies of women were found. In 1990 the finished product was towed to the museum.

After the catastrophe in 1628, an investigation was conducted to assess why the boat capsized and to assign blame. By then the shipbuilder was dead. The workers had followed a plan approved by the king but there was a catch. The admiral had approved the original plans but the king changed them. Denmark had just built a ship with two battery deck levels where cannon were placed. The Swedish king wasn’t to be outdone and ordered another level built on the Vasa. Unfortunately that made it top heavy and there was no room for sufficient ballast as a counterweight. Three days before it sailed there was a trial run. The ship listed badly. The admiral wanted to cancel the launch but the king was in Poland. The admiral didn’t want to send riders to notify the king and upset him about a delay so he went with what he had. In the end, the fault was probably the king’s but he couldn’t be blamed or punished.

The oak woodwork of the original ship had been elaborately carved and painted in bright colors. The restoration wasn’t. Men serving on board didn’t have good prospects even if the ship had not sunk so early. Sailors died from close quarters, poor nutrition, and poor ventilation. Their diets consisted of pea soup, bread, and a gallon of beer a day. Maybe they died happy. Dying in battle was almost the least of their worries.

Skansen

We literally took a walk in the park going to Skansen. It was lovely to be out in the sunshine (we’ve had it for the last three days) but Yves hadn’t told us we ‘d be trekking from one site to the other so several of us lugged backpacks. We’d expected to be able to leave them on the bus but after lunch we had a different bus taking us back to the hotel. A minor oversight on his part. We rode a funicular up to Skansen a model village of old days in Sweden. Yves insisted we could all get onto the funicular at once. When we arrived at the top he said he’d set a new record. The maximum he had on it in the past was forty-two. We were forty-six. Marie chose to walk up. Yves had asked the operator what would happen if it was overloaded and was told it just wouldn’t move. He figured that was safe enough.

Skansen is complete with a zoo featuring indigenous animals, or so we were told. When we went to find moose and reindeer we came upon huge bison. Hmmm! We think we got a photo of a sleeping reindeer but it may have been an elk. Hopefully we’ll see reindeer in Iceland. Marie took us on a walking tour of several of the one hundred fifty buildings that had been moved piece-by-piece from all over Sweden and reassembled at Skansen. It’s kind of like a larger Hale Farm but in a hilly wooded setting interspersed with ponds and overlooking the harbor.

The first set of buildings was a farmstead from Northern Sweden dating from the 1700’s. They had plenty of forests so buildings were made of logs and the roof was wood. The farmstead from Southern Sweden had a thatched roof and was decorated with original paintings the family probably bought at a market. That showed a bit of affluence. As we continued on we came upon a Viking rune stone from the 13th century. Vikings had a sixteen-letter alphabet and rune stones were memorials to those who’d died, not gravestones. They often had crosses on them even though Christianity came to the region late. Missionaries were about and would ask men on their deathbeds if they wanted to be baptized and go to heaven. The help of one more god sounded good so the dying agreed to the extra insurance. Crosses were part of the story of their lives that was retold on the stone.

We stepped into an 18th century wooden church that was freshly painted the traditional red on the outside. The stench was awful. Our eyes began to tear. They used the original formula for the paint, which was a mixture of paint and tar. The interior was charming with decorative painted beams and ceilings. The church warden (assistant to the minister) asked if anyone was Jewish. He pointed out the “Yahweh” on the ceiling and explained that people of that age began to realize the Bible wasn’t written in Swedish and wanted to study the original Hebrew text. They liked the idea of being able to write the name of God and incorporated it into their churches. In the old days men sat on the sunny side of the aisle and women on the colder side. The balcony was reserved for the poor. The church is still in use although the seating arrangement is more flexible. There’s also more flexibility in church attendance. Until the mid-1800’s attendance at church was compulsory.

Sweden was Catholic until the Middle Ages. The King of Sweden wanted the wealth of the Church to repay a debt owed to Germany. He supported the Reformation that established the Lutheran Church as Sweden’s state church then felt free to loot the treasures of the Catholic Church.

After lunch those of us who wanted to walked over to the Iris. It features gifts made by the blind. It was a lovely place with lots of pretty items none of which we wanted to buy. We hightailed it down to the Old City to buy just one more item we’d seen last night when stores were closed. We did find the store we wanted then realized it was available in at least fifty others. At least it gave David another shot at eating a lamb hot dog.

Farewelling Yves

Our farewell banquet took place in the public restaurant of City Hall. Yves was surprised that all three of his bosses turned out for the affair. He was further surprised when they honored him with toasts and accolades from a compilation of former travelers he’d guided. It was the occasion of his retirement. He hadn’t shared it with us but now the cat was out of the bag. He was so touched that he cried. They gave him a plaque that read, “Thank you for your passion.” He was philosopher and guide, shepherd and teacher. He went out in style. Champagne and wine flowed. The meal started with a seafood gratinee and for us they made reindeer mousse. At last we had a taste of Rudolph. He was yummy and seemed to be reminiscent of fish. Perhaps it was the smell of the gratinee? The main course was roast veal with a tomato base sauce accompanied by roasted potatoes. David benefited from my long time avoidance of veal. Dessert was a buffet of delectables including a divine chocolate concoction. I was in the ladies room when dessert was served and David nabbed a piece of it for me. I ate the whole thing.

The eight of us who are going to Iceland will be packing tonight and get to sleep late. There was a lot of teasing from the rest of the group since they have to wake up at 5:45AM. There were also threats of knocking on our doors as they left. Our flight doesn’t leave until 2:30pm. Yves is going to the airport with the earlier group and catching a flight to Nice to visit his mother. We’ll have separate transportation. It will be up to us to remember to start the day on the right foot. We’ll have to be sure to be aware and pay attention to everything we do. We'll know that the past is behind us and the future is yet to be. All we will have is the present. It will be the only day for us so it will be the best day.

Toby

Still Stockholm, Sweden

August 29, 2006-Still Greek to Me
(photos:Royal Family,
City Hall,
Ice Bar)

Could I be getting lulled by being a follower for so long? Perhaps I’m turning into a willing sheep. I’ve become passive. Sitting on the bus has become my cocoon. I doze and look out at the world and doze again. At times I’m sorry I have to move myself out of my seat. Eighteen days and counting has made me lazy.

We had to be in the lecture hall at 8:30AM. The doors were to be locked and they wouldn’t be opened until 9:30AM. Why all the drama? I thought I’d figured it out when I saw the “Blodbussen” parked in front of the hotel. I guessed there was a blood drive on and we were captives to the vampires in the bloodmobile. Yves assured me that wasn’t the case. Our room was part of the secure office suites for the hotel and admittance was by code. It was too hard to keep opening the locked door for latecomers.

We were introduced to Marie, our city guide for the next two days. She had a British accent when she spoke English as many have but is a natural born Swede. All children here learn English from grade 1-9. Since Swedish universities draw from the whole of Europe and there aren’t many books in Swedish lots of the classes are taught in English. Lucky us! She said she spoke English precisely as Swedes spoke their language. Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish belong to the same Gothic language base as German and Dutch. To Swedes, Norwegians speak quickly with a musical cadence and Danes speak as if they have a hot potato in their mouth.

She was high on education here. It starts late by our standards. At age six children go to what we consider kindergarten. They start first grade at age seven. Class sizes vary from 18-25 students with two teachers per class. Eat your hearts out! After the first nine grades a child has to choose whether to follow a technical or academic track for the next three years. University education is free and each student gets $1,000/month subsidy for living expenses. A portion of that is a repayable loan. If you finish a major and decide to change fields it’s free with the same stipend.

Q & A

Sweden is the third largest country in Europe. It’s the size of California. Its population is proportionately small since 50% of the land is forested and there are 97,000 lakes. Almost 30% is above the Arctic Circle. To make matters worse, between the late1800’s and early 1900’s twenty-five per cent of the population (1 million) left for the U.S.

Marie seemed to enjoy the back and forth of Q and A. One person asked what she considered to be the biggest success and worst failure in Sweden. She immediately said that education was the best. But when she explained the new private schools that were cropping up and getting state money we cringed. They sounded like our charter schools and we know what that’s doing to our public schools. The worst was their inability to integrate recent immigrants. Immigrants are paid to learn Swedish but the most recent Muslim immigrants don’t go to language school. They’re covered by all social services and while 80% of Swedes are Lutheran, Islam is now the second largest religion in Sweden.

Swedes are liberal in some areas and rigid in others. There’s a heavy sin tax: 88% on liquor, 70% on gas and tobacco. Abortion up to twelve weeks is the woman’s choice. Sweden was the second country in Europe after Denmark to allow gay marriage yet they just recently allowed gays to adopt. As for joining the EU in 1995, she thought it was a good move. They have low unemployment and still need to import workers. She was pleased with how the economy was going. Still there have been rumblings of dissatisfaction with EU interference. Sweden’s very strict environmental laws had to be loosened but their neutrality is acceptable. She was very proud of their neutrality and cited how they came through WWII intact. Several of us felt their position during that war was immoral, not neutral.

They love their monarchs, King Karl XVI Gustav and Queen Sylvia. Swedes think she’s the most beautiful and exotic woman. She’s part German and part Brazilian. They adore her brown hair and eyes. When we drove by the palace Marie was sure to brag that it has one more room than Buckingham Palace in England.

Nobelity

That brings me to the drive-by bus tour. A 180-mile long lake and the Baltic Sea border Stockholm. A lock separates the bodies of water. Not too shabby! The traditional older houses are painted peculiarly. The facades are ochre or gray but the sides are red. As it turns out 200 years ago the king took a trip to Rome. He so loved the colors of the buildings there he ordered all people in Sweden to paint their homes like the Romans. Swedes were a lot poorer than Romans and red was the cheapest color paint. They only painted the fronts to please the king.

We did get off the bus for City Hall and despite what I said at the beginning of this email it was something I’d been looking forward to. Built in 1923 the building looks much older architecturally. I’ve never seen a public building kept so lovingly pristine. We entered a great hall where the Nobel Prize banquet is held. Nobel was born in Sweden so the Dec. 10 festivities take place here. To say the hall is cavernous is to diminish it. It’s brick and colonnaded and the staircase was built so the royals could glide down the marble steps. The wife of the architect put on a gown and walked up and down until the correct height of the risers and depth of the steps was achieved. Nothing was too good for the monarchs.

The council chambers were built to resemble a Viking hall with painted beamed ceiling. The mayor of Stockholm is a woman and over 50% of the representatives are women. There are 100 stone vaults detailing the ceiling and dome of the tower in which the famous clock of St. George fighting the dragon is housed. A small anteroom is draped with a complete set of French tapestries dating from the 1700’s. The colors are brilliant with the gold background offsetting lustrous reds and blues of garlands of flowers and graceful figures inhabiting the work. Each stitch is intact. It’s the most perfect set of tapestries I’ve ever seen.

The golden hall was smaller than the great hall and was used for the ball following the Nobel banquet. The walls were encrusted with eight million mosaic tiles. Each tile was a sandwich of glass-gold leaf-glass: a triple-decker. The mosaic designs were modern in style and depicted modern themes. The entire project was so expensive that the city went bankrupt and had to ask for donations.

Marie left us with a joke showing how polite and boring Swedes could be. Two Finns, two Danes, two Norwegians, and two Swedes were stranded on an island. On the first day the Finns built a shelter; the second day the Danes gathered firewood; the third day the Norwegians went fishing; on the fourth day the Swedes did nothing because they hadn’t been introduced.

Brrr!

Lunch was preceded by a taste of Matjes herring, a toast that was sung, a nip of aquavit, and a demo of making Swedish meatballs. The ingredients for the meatballs are usually ground pork and beef but today it was only beef courtesy of Grand Circle. We don’t know if that was due to our personal food restrictions.

Yves had a surprise for us. This too made me want to get off the bus. He was able to get us into the Ice Bar. Seventeen years ago some daffy Swedes built an Ice Hotel. Everyone said it was a folly but it’s been full every year since. They have to re-build it yearly. The idea for the Ice Bar in a regular hotel came from the Ice Hotel. The bar doesn’t have to be re-built yearly but there are rules to be followed when in use. Not more than thirty people can be in it at a time or the collective body heat and breath will melt it. The bartenders can only work one hour before taking a break. Patrons cannot stay longer than forty-five minutes. That might be for their own safety. Drinking and being cold aren’t always a good thing. Ninety percent of the room is ice. I thought it would be much colder but it was twenty-three degrees. We had to put on silver parkas with faux-fur lined hoods and thick thermal mittens before entering. Our mittens were fastened to our sleeves like kindergarteners do. We looked like the cast from the Star Wars movie bar scene. I thought the floor would be ice and was anticipating a slippery time but it was textured metal. The walls were carved ice as were the bar and tables. There was a bench covered in reindeer pelts. We had to be careful how we put our square ice glasses down on the ice tables since they slid off easily. Several of us danced to the piped in music to keep warm. There was no rule about taking the glasses as souvenirs. They wouldn’t get far. Visiting the Ice Bar was something we just had to do. It was like flying over the Nazca Lines in Peru. We were here and it was a must. For those of you who remember our experience in Peru, the bar was a lot more pleasant than the flight.

Pay or Pray

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering. The retired Lutheran Bishop and his wife wanted to see St. Nicholas Church (aka the Big Church). We trailed along. We could either pay to go in if we were going to visit it as a museum or go in free and still be able to take pictures if we were going to pray. We opted for prayer. It had the Hebrew for “Yahweh” over the door as we’d seen on other Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and a seven-branched menorah in front of the altar. The building was simple with soaring brick pillars but some appointments like the pulpit and chandeliers were gilt and grand.

We left them, went to a 7-11 (believe it or not), bought diet Cokes, and sat at the counter in the window and people-watched until dinner. There was quite a parade. We could identify the day-trippers from cruise ships and the locals. There were people wearing tank tops and some wrapped in sweaters. There were a large number of extremely tall people, blonds predominated, and some people watched us watching them. Our main focus was a small tan dirty poodle-mix dog tied up across the lane. The dog’s person worked at the millinery store and every time he walked out of the store it was like a reunion of long lost friends. When the store closed for the evening we left to find a restaurant. People eat early here (6-7pm) and we were on the late side. We found a nice Greek place for a change of pace. We followed it with an ice cream chaser and were set for the night.

Tomorrow is our last day in Scandinavia.

Toby