Wendy and Jim's Travel Blog
Iceland Day 4 and Scandinavia Day1 - Travel woes, Stockholm and Viking Venus
Our travel day did not start particularly well. We got to the airport at 5:15 am. Kevflivic airport is rather antiquated especially regarding security procedures . They made us take off our watches but not shoes. When Wendy went to pick up her watch, it wasn’t there. A team of security staff spent time searching for it but to no avail. We filed a report and went on our way. Next, our plane was delayed causing us to miss our scheduled visit to Stockholm City Hall in the afternoon. Hotel Rival is lovely, again a small room, but much nicer than in Iceland. Jim opted to try to sleep his cold away, while Wendy went for a long walk in the Old Town, Gamla Stan, to get the lay of the land. Although somewhat touristy and crowded, the old buildings and variety of stores made for a fun walk. 
We met our friends Stephanie and Bob for a fantastic dinner at a Spanish tapas place around the corner from our hotel called Ramblas Mariatorget. Great food and it was wonderful to see them. The Rival breakfast the next morning reminded us of the ones we had at great hotels in Israel last year. Many choices and delicious breads, fish, cheese, etc. a lovely way to start the day. We took a short walk to a nearby pharmacy to get some cold medicine. The sidewalks here are often uneven and Jim tripped and fell pretty badly. He scraped several body parts but was otherwise ok. Success at the pharmacy after trying to figure out the European equivalent of Tylenol and cough medicine. It was interesting experience
to say the least! Ok, back to the plan. We checked out of the hotel and got a cab over to the Viking Venus drop off point and left our luggage. 
From there we walked to the Sussen ferry to get over to the Vasa museum. The ferries are quick and efficient with many families, kids, strollers, etc. filling up the boat.
Djurgården, the island with about 10 assorted museums greets you with an amusement park and hundreds of people walking to get to their destination. 
We passed the ABBA museum, and found the Vasa, a large dark wood building up the road. 
This museum is very unique and certainly one not to be missed. It houses the Vasa, a large ornate war ship built in 1628. The ship took years to build and was the pet project of Swedish King Gustav Ii Adolph, the grandson of King Gustav Vasa, the “father” of Sweden. Gustav Adolph wanted to build a fierce war machine that would utterly overwhelm and intimidate foreign rivals. It has 64 canons, dozens of ornate figurines and is 4 stories tall. On its maiden voyage, it
sailed out into the harbor, moved a few hundred yards and a gust of wind started it rocking until it was listing in the water and sank!Thirty people died and the boat stayed on the bottom for about 300 years. 
The second part of the story is about the remarkable recovery and painstaking restoration of the ship, first bringing it up in tact from the bottom, then the 20 years or so spent on using modern technology to preserve and restore it. Quite a feat!
The museum itself was very well done, 6 floors of exhibits, stories, and pieces of things recovered, all centering around the restored Vasa in the center. 
We were now tired and eager to get back across the water to our new home for 3 weeks waiting in the harbor.
Checking here was relatively easy, with the whole crew, it seems, directing you to where you were supposed to be. Our bags were outside our room, and after a quick look around, we headed to the World Cafe, one of the two largest restaurants on board to get some lunch. There are about 5 stations on each side plus a gelato station, with tons of food. Bumped into Stefanie and Bob and had fun sharing stories.
We were busy unpacking, getting the lay of the ship ( 8 floors, 6 different places to eat, museum- like exhibits everywhere, and beautiful open common areas. One of the last things Wendy unpacked was her carry on. Deep down in the pocket was her watch!! Yay!!
Jim wanted to take another nap, still a bit sick, Wendy went looking for a hot tub to soak in. There are at leave 5 on the ship, but the first four were being cleaned or painted. She finally found one at the very aft of the ship. While soaking away, a waiter brought over a class of champagne — unsolici. So classy!
Port talk at 4:30, a myriad of other lectures to keep us busy. Wendy went to hear a Norwegian piano concert, Jim went to a history lecture, and we met Stefanie and Bob for a scrumptious dinner othat included grilled Sea Bass and Chocolate Crème Brûlée. Not too shabby. 
We have free laundry a bit down the hall and we took turns getting it done (although it didn’t get finished and in our room till 6 am the next
morning). Met our wonderful steward, named Ahmad, and went to bed. < Previous
#published #evernote
We were picked up at 8 am for our tour from Your Day Tours, another company that came highly recommended. There are six stops on this 11 hour tour. The last one changes up whether you wanted to see a second waterfall or make a stop at one of the spa lagoons. We opted for the waterfall.
There are over 10,000 waterfalls, over 130 volcanoes, and at least 269 named glaciers. The Icelandic people learn to live with the snow and rain, and even dark, dark winters. But the wind is a terrible problem, creating traffic hazards,
destroying cars, etc. This would be a book if we related all the facts that he spouted off. Here is a map of the South Coast Tour, courtesy of Rick Steves. 
Ok, back to Skogafoss. It is a powerful and broad waterfall that is on a river that drains from Eyjafjallajökull—remember the volcano that stopped air traffic around the world in 2010? You can’t walk behind this waterfall, but can climb up about 800 steps to the right of it to stand over it. Jim started but decided it wasn’t worth it. 
The
next three stops were fairly close together. The town of Vik, at the most southernmost tip has a population of 400 people and a quaint church. Those winds, mentioned earlier are vicious here. On this quiet summer day, they were probably only 25 -30 mph 
Down at the bottom of the road that winds up to Vik is the famous black sand beach, named Reynisfjara. The waves here are quite dangerous with signs posted everywhere about not getting close, but the main attraction, besides the beautiful sand, are the basalt formations- splintered hexagonal columns of volcanic rock. The Hallgrimskirja church architecture in Reykjavik (see Day 1) is said to be based on these.
Earlier in the summer, there are usually colonies of puffins nesting above, but we didn’t see any🥲🥲. 
Although getting tired, as it was now about 2:30 or 3, our next stop was the best— the Sólheimajökull Glacier. It is one of the more accessible places to get close to a glacier. It’s about a 15-20 minute hike along a large glacial lake to get there. It used to be much less, but, as we know, glaciers are receding. Glaciers are also dirty, and this one was no exception. It’s mesmerizing to watch the patterns made by the brilliant white snow and all the gritty dirt. There were several groups preparing their crampons and walking sticks for walking on the glacier, but we just said hello to it and walked back. It was probably 1 ½ miles each way. 
Still one more stop, but this one was fun and not too taxing. The Sekjalandsfoss waterfall is high—210 feet, but not as powerful as the first one. But the fun part comes from buttoning up your waterproof layers and walking behind it to see the beautiful patterns from behind. We got pretty wet, and then maneuvered down the wet, slippery paths back to the bus. 
A very long day including another hour of driving home, getting in at 8:00. We were too tired to go back to the baths and Jim was quickly developing a cold. We found a quick dinner, packed and went to bed since our taxi is picking us up at 4:30 am tomorrow.