Professor Sharon

We’re in Iceland.  It’s August 11th, and there’s snow!   Not a lot, but the kind that in Massachusetts, and parts of New England signals the closeness of winter.

We are in Akureyri in the northwest area of Iceland, and we are having what will be the worst weather in the trip.  It is pouring rain, high and strong winds and a brish 41 degrees F.

The morning was scheduled to whale watch.   When we signed up for this particular Road Scholar trip, we had discussed that we weren’t likely to go on this segment.  We live a couple of hours from the Boston shoreline, and have been whale watching.  It’s a fun event, but when the weather is bad, it’s not really that enjoyable (at least to us).   So we informed our guide that we’d be skipping the pleasure of being on a boat chasing whales for the morning.

For us, we took advantage of the time to rest a bit, and rearrange some packing and that sort of thing.  We needed to join the group at the fjord dock when the ship came in; just a few blocks but a cold and windy walk.   However, we did have time to stop in at the Hof Cultural Center and look around.  It was on the itinerary, but only in a day or two did we realize that the others didn’t get to see it.   There was a lovely shop, and some public art in the hallways.

 

 

The ship came in, everyone unloaded and we were off to a great diary farm called “Kaffi Ku“.   WOw – it was amazing.  Most of us had never seen such an interesting way to automat a diary farm – I recently learned that there are actually a few around Massachusetts including one in the valley where we live.

We had a most amazing lunch of a grass fed burger from the cows raised right out back, an apple crisp and ice cream also made right there.  After lunch we were given a tour of the diary barn and how the automation works.   Follow the Kaffi Ku link to see a video about it.   It’s hard to explain or to really understand from my photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It continued pouring and blowing the rest of the day.   After the far, several of us were brave and had a stroll through the Botanical garden and down the hill back to our hotel.  I would have loved to have seen it on a nice day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner was in the hotel, and then a short bus ride to. local church where a musician entertained us for a short time in Icelandic and English.   This actually wasn’t my favorite event of the trip – I found the entertainer a bit on the corny and someone who makes assumptions about what “Americans” want to hear.  But a nice way to end the day, and another gorgeous local church to see.   The small churches were becoming one of my favorite places to visit on this trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where’s the snow you ask?  Stay tuned for the next blog post!