Iceland again, Scotland and beyond

After two days of rough sailing we were in Iceland again, this time in Reykjavik (smoky bay) in the south-east. Didn't spend long there, though - we boarded a bus right away and headed out into the countryside again for more waterfalls, plate tectonics and geothermal stuff. We saw the original Geysir, but he's not spouting any more - tourists threw too many rocks into his mouth. His neighbour Strokkur goes off every 5-10 minutes, though, so we saw lots of geiser activity.

We continue to think we need to spend more time in Iceland. It's beautiful, the people are pleasant, there's a manageable amount of interesting history - we definitely need to go back. And the next stop needs to be revisited, too: Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Lots of wool available, of course, and I'm bringing back some along with a £10 Shetland wool pullover. But the best thing was the museum. We had time for only a quick survey tour, but it was enough to convince us we need to spend a day in the museum and a week in the islands. Beautiful, beautiful place.

We got to Edinburgh the next day (yesterday). It's in the midst of its annual Festival, with odd-looking people doing interesting things on the street and handing out invitations to the events they're involved in. There are so many plays, concerts, art exhibits and stand-up comics happening in so many places that there is a Sears catalogue-sized book giving all the details, a smaller book listing events by date and time in 10-minute intervals, and a map showing the hundreds of venues around the city. We went to two: a play that was the next thing happening at a venue we stumbled into, and a free stand-up comic performing near where we were when we were browsing the book trying to figure out what to do next. We didn't see any of the standard Edinburgh attractions - Holyrood palace, the Castle, museums, or anything else except from our hop-on hop-off bus tour, but they'll keep until next time.

We did manage to get to the Tattoo, however. It's definitely the best of its kind of event - bagpipes, marching bands, Scottish dancers and the like - and definitely worth doing. For me, once is enough. The seats are intolerably small and squished together and it's coooooolllllldddd. I was dressed for iceberg viewing and still freezing. The woman next to me moved, I think because I was shivering too much! But the music and the marching were superb.

It's looking like we're going to have to spend a good bit of time next summer doing Britain. So far the itinerary includes Penzance, Edinburgh and the Shetlands, and I'd like us to do Plymouth, Stonehenge and places around there as well (I saw them with Rachel's choir 15 years ago, but Ron hasn't been there yet).

It didn't rain in Reykjavik, Lerwick or Edinburgh, although it tried. Now we're back on the high seas - well, the North Sea anyway - and we're back into fog and rain. Perfect planning, I think. Tomorrow it's Amsterdam and the end of the cruise. I expect a return to summer, which we've managed to avoid so far on this trip. It will be a shock!