Iceland

I am not sure how much I will be able to post because internet access seems really slow and intermittent here on the boat.  I landed in Iceland yesterday, Sunday July 24, 2011.  It was cold and windy and the land around the airport reminded me of the same terrain as on the big island of Hawaii - very desolate.  I asked the cab driver if there were any trees in Iceland and he told me that the area around the airport had no trees becase it was the middle of a lava field.  So then it made sense why the terrain looked like Hawaii - same issue.  I landed at 6:45 am and the taxi driver drove me to the Hilton where I had a room for the day.  I rested/slept for about 2 to 3 hours and then set out for the National Museum.  I told the taxi driver that my grandmother and other ancestors were from Iceland and he said there were people in Reyjavik who could trace my ancestors back to the Vickings.  He said all I had to do was ask at the lobby of the hotel.  I did ask the tour person in the hotel.  All she knew about was a website I could go to.  I took the site but have not looked at it yet.  I need proper names and birthdates.  I may also need the towns everyone was from.

I took the airport shuttle into downtown Reyjavik.  Because it was Sunday most of the shops were closed and things were not very busy.  The National Museum was super interesting and talked a lot about the history of Iceland, how it was settled, religion, customs etc.  It covered into modern day and one really amusing thing was one of the "artifacts" was a portable computer which was exactly like the first one I purchased in the 1980's.  You know you're old when stuff that you used to own is in a museum.