The Church at the End of the Rainbow.

Monday and we're in the dining room when a large glacier comes by, other diners filled the windows to take pictures, while Randy ran up on deck ...

and got a better picture.

Love this photo of Robin glacier siting.

and then swan cream puffs for desert.

On Tuesday its back to hear our favorite lecturer, learning more about English history now.

and game playing too, Randy had an exceptional hand at Gnoming Around.

Robin shows off another Austen reference t-shirt.

That night, we had our second formal night.  Barb looked very elegant in a custom dress made by her daughter Krista.

We all ordered lobster.

afterward we headed to the lounge to hear the comedian magician we had loved last week, Naathan Phan.

Wednesday night was Dad's and my first time to see a hypnotist, that we can recall.  We liked the show, but others in the group were uncomfortable.  I talked to the funniest guy of the group after, who seemed a little disgruntled and disoriented.  He had been told his name was Julie as part of the routine, but his name was actually Joe.  When I asked him if he was Joe, he said, "Well, it is now."

On Thursday morning we headed into Reykjavic, Iceland:

Ocean view of Reykjavic

and another.

Here we go on the Golden Circle tour in town as we begin.  Our native Icelander, Gudrun, did a great job.

As we drove through the city I was reminded of Finland and had tears in my eyes for a good ten minutes.  Funny to miss a place I only lived for three years.

Pretty views of the countryside on our way to the first stop of the Golden Circle Tour.

Here we all are at the Tectonic Plate site.

We stopped here, which shows the only place on earth where the tectonic plates are actually visible, and where the American Plate meets, with a gap of a few miles, the European Plate.  There were a lot of these cracks just inside the American plate, our tour guide called them the earth's stretch marks. 

Fun pics of Dad.

Dad in another of the stretch marks.

a charming view of the space between.

Time to get back on the bus.

The next stop was to see the geysers ... not sure what this statue was about, but it reminded me of those one sees everywhere in Finland.

Here's the faithful geyser, about every 10 minutes or so.  I talked to a Dutch family and told them about Danny and how much we enjoyed him.  They had lived for years in Amsterdam as well, but had moved east into the countryside.  That was fun.

There's Barb in the train inside the gift shop.

And an ornament of the 'candle snatcher', the 13th of the elves that bring small gifts to children nightly until the candle snatcher comes on Christmas Eve with the big gift. It was the tradition of the Islantic Elves that J.R. Tolkien used for his elves.  You may also recall that he was influenced by the Kalevala, Finland's creation tale.

The waterfall, called the Golden Falls ... falls into a ravine, and you cannot see the bottom.

This is a woman, who is honored as an early conversationalist, saved the falls from being used for a hydroelectric plant in the 1920s.

at the Horse Show they told about the Icelantic Horse, and its abilities.

I liked the paint horse. There have been no added horses on the Island for 300 years, and now they are an inbred breed.

 Down the road from the horse show were the green houses.

Here a colony of bees for sale at the tomato green house.

pressures gages ....

a variegated ripening vine, I'm not sure how the Finns get these stems of tomatoes that are all ripe, but we saw them there all the time.

The only uniform ones we saw were all green.

A giant sunflower outside.

Pictures with Barb outside the Hydroponic Tomato Green Houses.

She took one of us too.

On the way back in the bus, we saw about 50 horses being herded along the bridal bath that goes along the highway.

After the Golden Ring Tour, we had lunch on the ship and then headed back into to town. This is the sign on the Swedish Consulate. So fun to see nasturtiums too.

Here the famous road to their cathedral in Reykjavic.

That's us.

Meeting new friends on the rainbow road.

me too.

Dad hiked up a hill to take pictures of this stylized statue.

It is of the founder of Reykjavic !

Here is a modern Finnish looking buildings in town.

another view of the church at the top of the street.

and the rainbow.

The buildings in town were all reminiscent of Helsinki,

I loved the wood railing on this one.

At the top of the rainbow road is this church.

Note the bird on the head of the statue of Leaf Erikson that the USA gifted to Iceland.

This is the plaque on the Statue.

The interior.

I loved the modern statue of Christ.

Back on the ship on Friday, we got to attend The Voice of the Ocean competition.  Two of 6 participants were from Utah, a mother and son.  Barb and Randy had cruised with the son and his girlfriend last year, as he worked with Eric Moe a few years ago, and Eric recognized him.  The young couple got married in NYC at the beginning of our cruise and have some family along.  The other young woman won the competition.

Barb takes a picture of our ship after we arrive in Seydisfjordur

and here's one of us.

A view of the town.

These falls are a few minutes' walk from the port in Seydisfjordur, Iceland.

Meeting a couple from the midlands, in England, where Trevor served his mission was fun.  When I told them we'd been there and why, they said that their son made friends with a young man in school who is now an LDS Bishop, whose last name is Young.  That was fun. (She is taking the picture).

This sign reminded us of Finland.

And I met a gal with a Norwegian sweater.

Fun pics in Seydisfjordur

They have their own rainbow road.

They were having a rock concert in front of the church

Here it is from another direction.

This house looks like carved stone, similar to our house, but painted. Its actually aluminum or steel siding.  Lots of that, I guess its tough to keep up the exterior in this climate.

The houses and buildings reminded us of Finland of course.

as did products at the store there.

This baking powder box was just cute, we bought some Finn Crisp, the original rye cracker.

But passed up the fish jerky.

More colorful housing.

There were lots of falls along these cliffs, but this was the most beautiful, and the hike was a real challenge for me.

Here's our tender ....

and our ship.

and a sinking boat at the harbor as we get aboard the tender to return to the ship.

Back on the ship and the Heuers and Moes got to watch a small whale as it showed off around the ship.

This whale was

a whale of a whale 

If ever a whale there was ...

Thanks to Randy for the pictures.

After we got back on the ship we watched the land slip away as we headed our of the harbor. It was chilly.

Dinner time with delicious and beautiful desserts as always.

That night there was a show with Ric Steel, a musician based out of Nashville. 

 He told how 30 years ago he had lost a lot of unexplained weight and found out he had diabetes.  He had the highest blood sugar, at over 1100, that the hospital emergency room had ever tested. After treatment, and insulin injections in all four of his limbs, they said he might live 2 or 3 more years, at most.  He decided, after a year of misery, that he was going to take charge.  He did all the things, except meat, which he ate moderately, and has not needed insulin for 25 years. I bought his book and look forward to reading about his journey.

Here he is with Randy and Barb.

On Sunday morning we had a meeting with the three captains, the ships captain, the hotel captain, and the mechanical captain.  They all had names ending o.  Marco, Francesco and Carlo.  All Italian, I think.  This is Francesco and his wife, who live on board.  She told us that there are 700 permanent residents on board.

Later we joined with other church members for a chance to talk about missions, and conversion stories.  The couple on the left are from North Carolina and are both converts to the church.

The couple on the left live in Kaysville, and he has a family history story show on channel four at 11:00 P.M. every Sunday.

After our meeting he did an interview with Ric Steel for his show and we watched the filming.

That was a lot of fun.

And for the beautiful sunset picture from Randy.

This is what we missed on Sunday, the kids getting together to celebrate Spencer's 34th birthday and also a farewell dinner for Spencer's family.  They will be gone before we get home, that leaves us feeling a little hollow, but we knew it was coming.

Here is Dad's birthday collage for him.