Thursday and Petra’s Rocks

 We did something exciting last night that I forgot to tell you.  At 9:30 pm, we gathered on Deck 6.  There was food, of course, and little glasses of schnapps.  We were all dressed warmly and at the right time, the captain announced that we had crossed the Arctic Circle —-and today we all got certificates to prove it!

Any time that we are tooling along on the bus and the guide(s) can’t think of what else to say they tell us stories about the trolls, or Hidden people, or gnomes, or lost children. All these fairy tales (that is what I call them) are part of their heritage.  I have been surprised by how many of these tales we hear. 

After lunch we drove from Seydisfjordur to Breiddalsheidi to Stoovarfjordue. We visited an arts and crafts shop where village women made all the items that were for sale. Many were made of woolen yarn—very nicely done. I bought two items - a scarf which was made by the women checking me out and another item made by the women who served us snacks.  A farmer told us all about raising sheep—he reminded me so much of Garrison Keeler that it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying.  We were the first group of tourist that had visited their shop since Covid started over two years ago.  Tourism has a huge impact on the economic life of Iceland.  Fishing is the biggest factor in the economy and tourism is second.

We walked on down the road and visited Petra’s Museum of Rocks.  Now when we heard that we were going to visit a little old lady’s (now deceased) rock collection, we were less than thrilled.  However, the rock collection was immense and included many geodes - a few polished. Iceland is a geologist dream come true with all different kinds of stones, rocks from lava, etc.  The collection was outside covering a double size lot on a hillside plus there were many spring flowers planted there, too.  It was amazing. Family members run the place.  Two granddaughters were working today.  

On the way back we stopped by a beautiful rushing stream and took pictures of the town below.  The roads are in good shape, but quite narrow and have no shoulders.  Chuck sat on the right side by the window and held his breathe every time our 40+ passenger bus met a truck.  Typical of European countries, there are seldom handrails or guardrails on the roads.