Flight was OK. Little sleep, but no sciatica, no back pain. Yay!
Got the bus to Reykjavik, two o'clock there, five AM for me. Got a bowl of soup at the bus station and amazingly it was good. Encouraging. Found our lodgings. Listed as nonsmoking, but stinks of old tobacco smoke. I'll live, too tired to regroup. We are fifty yards from a greenspace along the water.
Iceland smells like alders, though I have only seen birches, which are halfway into leaf. I guess they must smell similar, they are related. The birches are lovely, with a coppery bark that has a ringed effect from how it peels.
Took a bus downtown looking for dinner and a SIM card for Nels's phone. Excellent dinner, nice walk around town, Great walk home with lots of water birds at the pond. The terns, mostly arctic terns but some others also, are spectacular to watch.
Knee is holding up great so far. Slept adequately too, despite time change. It gets dark about 11 pm, and light again around 4.
SIM card didn't work. Can't plug anything in (did we lend you our converter?). Went looking for a converter, and started getting a little more familiar with the bus system and the layout of downtown.
Went to a sculpture museum, not great but a fabulous building, domed and white with many windows and extraordinary light. Walked to botanic garden, which was wonderful. Beds of volcanic stones with alpine plants from around the world, some blooming, many I had never seen before. Many species of woodland flowers and perennials that I was familiar with but had no idea there were so many species. A few old friends: dicentra formosa, labeled as to place "Kalifornia", trillium chloropetalum and ovatum bloomng now, in bloom at home two months ago. Unbelievable numbers of pulsatilla and anemone species in bloom, and I want to come back for the peonies.
Another good dinner, and a walk on the beach coming home. Growing among the grass, where you might find fennel at home, is angelica!
Though it looks like open water here, between Reykjavik being very protected in almost every direction along a west-facing bay and the wind being out of the east, the water of the Atlantic here is amazingly flat. I can't think of open water on the Pacific I have seen it so still.
Having you to write to helps me appreciate my visit here.Second day in Iceland took a ferry to the island of Videy. No cars, thirty species of nesting birds, the industrial bustle of Rejkyavik visible and audible just across the water, but totally idyllic. I'm still trying to figure out what bird it was that darts about beating its wings rapidly and then swoops saying Hootle hootle hootle.
The eiders are gorgeous and make kind of a single hoot that is amazing to hear in chorus.
I keep being told, it's the journey, not the destination. But that was definitely a worthwhile destination, with a rather ugly journey. I'm not fond of Rejkyavik, which feels kind of like Eureka with more industry - everything is being torn up - and more restaurants, and fewer Victorian houses.
Last morning there, went to the swimming pool, just to live like the locals. Dissapointed that the water did not smell of sulphur as the shower at our lodging does. Did find the alders I was smelling, though.
Now it's our second morning in Paris. It's pretty hot, and the neighborhood is noisy, so I've been going to sleep late and waking late. Last night there were people outside the window stealing bicycles.from the rental-bike stand at the corner very loudly with lots of banging.
Got home from dinner at midnight anyway. Restaurant David Toutain, fabulous one-star, six courses, but really at least two dozen plates, all very imaginative and incredibly tasty. Ate from eight to eleven, then a walk home. Realizing how much I am enjoying walking in the evening, either by twilight or soft streetlights. I experience the bright LEDs of Berkeley as an assault and have started staying indoors at night. So good to feel free to wander about.
Too many museums! Too many restaurants! Too much to describe or photograph! Making myself lame, taking it easier today. Saw a wonderful show of Camille Pisarro's work from the 1880's in Eragny, he was such a master of light! Then had to also go to the Orsay, which I think was still a railway station when I was last here, with lots of everything, including Van Gogh's amazing Church at Auvers which stopped us in our tracks as we entered the room, and several of his wonderful portraits. Was also floored by Nature Unveiling herself to Science and works too diverse to mention.
It may be time to leave the apartment in search of lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment