Dave loves the antipodes--the two icy ends of the earth. I love the humid, multi-ethnic middle. On August 10, 2025, we left for David's dream trip. It was a 30-plus day cruise on Dave's favorite cruise line, Oceania, from Iceland to Greenland, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, and the Orkneys, to Svalbard in Arctic Norway, and then down the Norwegian coast to Amsterdam. A slice of heaven!
Reykjavik is one of our favorite cities. It is sparkling clean, charmingly Scandinavian, small, and filled with picturesque views, shops, museums, and restaurants.
We reoriented ourselves to Viking culture by browsing through Reykjavik's National Museum. Iceland's language is closer to Old Norse than that of Sweden, Denmark, or Norway, but its treasures from the 800s through the Middle Ages reflect the same culture as its Scandinavian neighbors.
Iceland was ruled by Norway and then Denmark for many centuries. Monuments throughout the city and this portrait in the National Museum honor the leaders of Iceland's independence movement.
Iceland also has a Nazi connection. During World War II, Britain invaded Iceland to prevent it from falling into Nazi control, as Norway had. Americans established military bases there which remain today.
Dave has an iron-clad rule of arriving a day early for every cruise and international tour. We were hung over from our red-eye flight, our first day in Reykjavik. We took the "Golden Circle" bus tour through southern Iceland, so we could drowse on the bus. In just six hours, we visited geysers, waterfalls, a volcanic caldera, and a gorge, created where the North American tectonic plate crashes into the European tectonic plate. The first parliament in the world was held near the gorge, in the 800s.
On August 12, 2025, the day our ship sailed, we took a walking tour of Reykjavik with an interesting guide. He was originally a criminal lawyer from Italy who fell in love with Iceland and had lived there for more than 20 years. He pointed out unique architecture in Reykjavik, including the original homes, covered in tin to protect them from the harsh snows; a new office building built from horizontal stripes of volcanic basalt; and the homes of the wealthy, including a Russian tycoon's home with an onion-shaped tower.
The city is filled with statues. They are mostly of political leaders, but a statute by the harbor honors the "blockheads" who toil away in government positions.
We walked to the top of a hill above Reykjavik, where a statute of Eric the Red, who discovered Greenland, stands next to a strikingly modern cathedral.
Inside the cathedral were beautiful stained glass windows, as well as a strikingly modern statue of Christ.
Our last stop on the tour was the home of one of Iceland's greatest sculptors. His garden was filled with Art Nouveau statues from the early 1900s. Art Nouveau is one of my favorite artistic styles.
The sculptures were dramatic, exploring themes of mourning, death, and fate.
Even in this remote corner of the world, the population was dealing with movements that polarize much of the world, such as gay rights and the war in Gaza.
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