Day 24 - Reykjavik, Iceland

We made it to Iceland!!!! Our captain didn't give us much hope the night before when we left Akureyri.

Iceland is a land of volcanoes and glaciers, lave fields and green pastures, boiling thermal springs and ice-cold rivers.

Reykjavik is the northern most capital in the world. The island is an international center of commerce and home to one of the most technologically-sophisticated societies in the world. The people love to read. The locals say that any Icelander not reading a book is probably writing one.

What made Iceland so interesting was outside of the modern city. We saw mile after mile of lava rock now covered with a greenish yellow plant growth. There were fields where huge rocks laid scattered. These rocks had be thrown there by a volcano.

This island has three vault lines running through it. We stopped and saw a area where the earth had cracked open.

We went to a area that is a mini version of Yellowstone. There was only one geyser that shot up in the air. A few miles down the road we stopped at the Godafoss waterfalls. It was really pretty. I couldn't believe that some of the people who can hardly walk on solid ground decided to climb up on the rocks for a better view. Our guide had to help a lot of them get down and they weren't even on our tour.

Our guide was really good and he made the trip even more enjoyable. He said that he thought there should be a "N" in front of his country's name. Niceland. He even told everyone that there was a Mormon church there. He listed the other churches too but this was the first time anywhere that we had been listed. He didn't know that were are Mormons.

This island has learned how to tap into the hot water trapped beneath the ground. They use this geothermal distribution system to make electricity and to get warm water to homes. They even have enough hot water to melt any snow on their driveways. They never have to shovel snow.

The black plastic pipes can be seen along the road. This is how the hot water is moved. They can't put the pipes underground because they expand and contract according to the temperature of the water. We stopped for a few minutes at a power plant using this hot water.

Two passengers didn't make it back to the ship on time. This did not make for a happy captain. Once they were found, they had to be brought out to the ship by tug boat.

We were really tried but we went to the 8:00 pm sacrament meeting. There were other LDS people on the ship and they came too. What was exciting was that there were to crew members from the ship there. One is a member and the other one was his friend. They are both from the Philippians.

One of the songs we sang was "Master the Tempest is Raging". The winds and the waves were raging. That night we had the wrath of the storm-tossed sea!! We had things falling off shelves during the night because it was so rough.