It’s Dec 6, the first and only full free day on our one week trip. As we didn’t need to get on the bus, we didn’t set our alarm. Because we got to bed late the night before, I didn’t wake until 0748, and then woke Merrianne.
We’re now in room 425. It’s different from our previous room, 766.
At breakfast, we found that Susan and Marcus had already finished, and were planning to go to the 10 am show of Flyover Iceland. We wanted to join them, so it got delayed until 11 am. Thing is, the tickets are about $60 US at the door but if you reserve at viator.com, they’re $45 – the caveat that if you don’t show up on time, the prepaid money is gone. I scrambled to get 11 am tickets on my phone, using the credit card number I memorized, rather than our Travel Card which has no conversion fees.
We rushed to walk to the event. We had 25 minutes to get there, and fortunately, I had downloaded the Google map of Iceland, and it worked even without a data connection.
Got there in plenty of time. Great show, about 20 minutes for the immersive ride. Pictures were prohibited, so nothing to show here.
After that, Merrianne and I went to see a nearby Nettó supermarket, while Marcus and Susan went their own way.
For lunch, we finally made it to Apotek, which I had wanted to try ever since seeing their signboard with the Icelandic Platter. Cheaper than the Tapas restaurant, too. Turned out to be really good. We got just one Icelandic Platter, and a bowl of Soup of the Day.
We were surprised to run into Susan and Marcus on our way home, and at that point decided to join them at the Perlan Museum. It was already getting dark.
The four of us shared the taxi at the front of the queue at the front of the hotel, which cost 3750 KR. The driver had a handheld terminal to scan my card. I pressed the Custom button for a tip, and he thought I made a mistake when I was calculating the complement to make it exactly 4000, so he pushed a button to back out, and pressed the 10% button. I told him, no, I want to do the custom, and pressed custom again, entering 250 to round it out to 4000.
We got to the museum at maybe 1630 – plenty of time, as it closed at 2130.
There were some exhibits on wildlife and geology, but the big star was the Volcano show, and immersive ride similar to Flyover Iceland. Except, you can go again and again. Merrianne liked it so much, that we went twice. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed.
After that, we watched the Aurora show at the Planetarium. It was warm, and the seats reclined, so I kept falling asleep.
We visited the observation deck on the 4th floor, which was cold and windy. I bought a spicy tuna sandwich (not that spicy) from the self-service display case, since I had no dinner. As is common in Iceland, there was a card reader for payment, but no human monitor. All honor system. Merrianne wasn’t that hungry. Susan and Marcus had their own food that they bought at a convenience store back at the room. We had ice cream at the ice cream bar on that floor. I had Liquorice (that’s how they spell it), which was actually a good flavor. Merrianne had Raspberry Liquorice. Marcus had Rye Bread flavor. I didn’t notice what Susan got.
For the taxi ride back, Marcus gave the woman his card, and she registered 3750 without the opportunity to tip.
Tomorrow, we leave. It has been quite a task to update on this kind of tour. So little rest.