{"id":20,"date":"2025-12-02T00:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/?p=20"},"modified":"2026-01-08T05:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:49:38","slug":"the-pen-is-amazing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/the-pen-is-amazing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pen is Amazing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monday, Dec 1st was our first full day here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a shaky night of sleep. Went to sleep at 2230, woke up at midnight, lay quietly, woke up at 0330, did some work, back to sleep at 0430, up at 0630. We hit the breakfast buffet at about 0800. Many of the group, including Susan and Marcus, were already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Part of the breakfast buffet. It included pickled herring, which is kind of like Saba that is marinated to go on nigiri sushi. The granola bars at the far right were a favorite of everyone – almost like an apple crisp. Falafel balls, I did not expect.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My breakfast always included Cucumbers, Red Bell Peppers, and Tomatoes. I heard that those might be grown in local hothouses, geothermally heated. Breakfast eggs were either scrambled, or hard-boiled, and the bacon came both in the less- and more-cooked styles, although even the more cooked wasn’t crispy like American bacon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After breakfast, we split up. Merrianne went to the Settlement Museum. I went to the Icelandic Phallacological Museum (“The Penis Museum”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m not sure if everyone was represented.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Whips and Goad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Walking Sticks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flutes. I wonder how you hold it, and which end you blow (no pun intended)?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the museum, I sought hot dogs at the original B\u00e6jarins Beztu Pylsur stand. Merrianne happened to show up at the same time. 880 KR ($7), making it one of the cheaper snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thick, pasty Brown Mustard, Yellow Maejo or remoulade, ketchup, raw onions, crispy onions. Made with 70% lamb. Pretty good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It looks drab, but it’s actually high noon. There are only about 5 hours of sunlight at this time of year. Bit of wind, too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is the Colette tour group. I’m not exactly sure who took this picture, or where. It was posted to our Photo Circle group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We took a walking tour in the afternoon with Laura (rhymes with “How ya?”), a Reykjavik native that went to the US to study, married an American, lived in Minnesota for years, and the moved back. She slipped seamlessly between a Minnesota and Icelandic accent. Our main tour guide, Filippo, in in the center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Laura told us some Icelandic Christmas Lore, like the 13 Yule Lads (all troublemakers) and their mother, Gr\u00fdla, lazy father Leppal\u00fa\u00f0i. Gr\u00fdla sneaks around with a sack to kidnap all the bad people, then takes them home, chops them up and makes a stew. And their ferocious giant Yule Cat, that prowls around and eats anyone who did not get clothes for Christmas. Lately, the traditional images are being softened so as not to terrify children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A friendlier Yule Cat sculpture in downtown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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At first, I thought this was a Nativity scene, but it’s Gr\u00fdla on the left cooking up her Christmas stew.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nor far from the original site where the founder Ing\u00f3lfr Arnarson landed and found the land steaming, is the Harpa Arts building. Outside, there are channels flowing with hot water pumped from the ground below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At 1820 we gathered in the lobby to go to our official welcome dinner at a restaurant. Choices: Lamb, Ling cod, or mushroom wellington. Then Pumpkin butternut soup or Crab soup. Then dessert, orange brownie or mousse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After dinner, w took a cruise in the harbor on a ship named Andrea, hoping to see the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, we didn’t. It was cold and blustery on the bow, and not many people stayed above deck. The ship offered to re-do for free, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I took this picture while on the boat. It’s of the video that was playing on a big screen monitor below deck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bags must be out by 7 am tomorrow, as we’re traveling to another hotel. We don’t have to put any out, but Merrianne put her carry-on out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, Dec 1st was our first full day here. I had a shaky night of sleep. Went to sleep at 2230, woke up at midnight, lay quietly, woke up at 0330, did some work, back to sleep at 0430, up at 0630. We hit the breakfast buffet at about 0800. Many of the group, including … Continue reading The Pen is Amazing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/iceland2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}