Today started a bit late with the fact that we were really tired from the day before and we had to make sure that Pete got in with us before we chose to do anything. Unfortunately there was a small amount of confusion as to where and when he was going to arrive so he ended up getting to the house a bit later than we intended. It was mostly which bus he was going to take and where to be met. Unfortunately he posted to facebook that he was at the Hotel Holt and Scott saw it, liked it and it didn't register that that was not where Dee was going to pick him up. In any event, that got sorted out and we started making breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon (which didn't seem to have enough bacon fat) and toast.
After breakfast we walked around the downtown area for a short while before we were supposed to have our bike ride tour around town with Stefan. We walked downtown and then turned towards the lake and visited what we found out was the town hall then around the lake and back into town where we had a hot dog at the famous hot dog stand by the harbor. After the hot dog we visited the Settlement Museum which has the excavation of the earliest ruins they have found around Iceland, dated by lava ash strata at 871 plus or minus 2 years. It was a small but pretty neat museum. After that we headed back up to the house and settled for a short half an hour while we waited for our tour guide Stefan to come pick us up for the bike tour.
He drove us down to the harbor in a diesel van where we all got assigned our bikes, I got Skuli, and headed out for our tour of the town. The ride was mostly flat but it was still fun to get out on a bike. We did see a lot of stuff that we had already seen around town but it was still good to get Stefan's take on things. Amongst things we saw the lake and the town hall and then we went on to see a rock that was supposed to be a home for the Hidden Folk and went around to the University and the south side shore of the peninsula (I think) as well as we drove by Bjork's house and visited a catholic church designed by one of their most famous architects.
The bike tour was very fun and informative. Stefan is an excellent guide. Plus it was funny to see Scott riding a bike. After that Stefan was nice enough to drive us up to the Pearl (Perlan) which is a museum, observatory, restaurant on the top of a hill. It is was cool to see a lot of the region from up there but the restaurant looked very expensive and the rest of the stuff closed while we were there. So after we spent a while taking pictures from the observatory deck we decided that we would walk back into town and find a restaurant.
We ended up finding the Gamla Winhus which I think means the Old Wine House or winery. In any event the menu looked pretty cool and it was sort of tough to decide what to order. I had a couple large Egils Gull beers. We ordered a lamb and blueberry appetizer, carpaccio and garlic bread of which I had the first two. The lamb was interesting. I was intrigued by the blueberry even if I wasn't certain about it before I tasted it. The carpaccio was very good. I didn't try the garlic bread. Dee and I decided to share dinners. I got the peppered horse steak and she got the peppered minke whale steak. They were both very very good. I liked the whale a touch more. I have had horse before but always raw. It was still very good cooked. The whale was far too good for the ethical issues I had about eating it. They basically can only catch 200 per year here and they do not overstep their catch limits. Stefan claimed there are 50000 or so out there of the minke whale. In any event it was really good. Dee ordered the whale and I the horse which saved me that moral indecision. For dessert I had an apple tart with ice cream and caramel along with a coffee. It was also very tasty. We sort of fell upon the place because folks didn't want to walk anymore but it was an excellent choice and everyone was happy with what they got.
From there we headed back to the hotel. It was late out but still very light outside. The sun had not set at 11pm.
The pictures from today are posted here.
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