Stevens Point, Wisconsin

We spent our final days with Barbara, Garett’s mom and my mother-in-law. She has been so generous; she’s taking care of Sammy and Jojo, helped us with car insurance, gave us one of her suitcases (when ours proved unsuitable-ha!) and let us spend our last few days after the move in comfort, along with numerous other favors.

We were so tired. We’d moved Friday and made sure the house was clean and ready for the new owners, then drove 16 hours with our drugged and sorrowful cats in the Prius from Atlanta to Stevens Point. Plus all the emotions of leaving our wonderful friends and the ties we’d built in Atlanta. The point is, we (or at least I) were a mess and she took such good care of us.

I even got to participate in Stevens Point’s 4th of July parade which ended up being the most American thing that I have possibly ever done. It was the perfect transition from the US to our trip. I was in the “Water is Life” contingent. We were small, but mighty. This picture has been taken from a facebook post by Michelle Bjella, our fearless leader.

Reykjavík

On Thursday we arrived safely and made our way to our airbnb.  Garett has had particularly bad jet lag plus he has had to work these past two days in Reykjavík so we’ve been tame in our ambitions. We’ll come back at the end of the trip to the city and will be able to finish up anything we missed the first go-around.

With that said, we’ve gone to some thermal baths, a few museums, and done a comprehensive walk of the city. We’ve enjoyed very much the ambience and the general atmosphere. Reykjavík isn’t beautiful the way you imagine Paris or other European cities to be beautiful. The weather, the salty sea, and the distance from certain resources won’t allow impractical building materials, plus the population is very small–less that 350,000–so there isn’t the wealth base found in other countries. It is charming though; things are painted bright colors, the people are super friendly, and their pride in their country is evident. And they are on a spectacular bay, surrounded by mountains.

Here’s Garett in front of the Lutheran church in downtown Reykjavík. According to the plaque, that statue is Leif Erikson, the founder of the continent of North America.

 

Iceland loves, loves, loves cats. It’s a country after my own heart. Actually, until just recently, there were strict-ish laws about owning dogs. In the 20th century, there was a disease, some sort of tapeworm, spread by dogs and sheep that killed about a quarter of the population. Once they made laws about not owning so many dogs and not killing your sheep at home, things settled down. So, there are a lot of cats everywhere.

We went to the not un-disturbing “Saga Museum,” which tells the stories of the founding of Icelandic culture using incredibly lifelike and often violently graphic wax statues. To give you an idea: there’s a witch-burning, a beheading, and the severing of a breast all done highly accurately in wax. Anyway, at the end you got to dress up like a Viking.  So we did. There were a surprising number of props. If we had any self-respect, we’d keep these photos to ourselves, but we may as well get rid of the veneer of self-respect right away.

Garett looks kind of cute. I know I look creepy. Neither of us could get the nose-guard aligned right.

We’re having a great time. Next time I’ll have some nature photos for you. Thanks for reading.