Our last full day... In Iceland...

For all you history buffs, our first stop was Hofdi House. Ring any bells? In 1986 this is where Reagon & Gorbatsjov had their summit which was/is considered the first step to ending the Cold War. (Did I get that right KK?) I loved another story better though. The British bought the house ( not sure the year) and owned it as the residence for their ambassador. In 1958 the ambassador convinced Britain to sell it to the city because it was haunted by a ghost called "The White Lady". No one has lived there since, it is used only for meetings, and it is not open at any time for tours. Certainly there was no sign of anyone this morning even though I thought it would be fun to catch a glimpse of you know who. The strange thing is... When I was choosing photos for the blog I was trying to decide between the two below taken in almost the same spot less than a minute apart. Notice the curtains in the double window on the bottom right? Was The White Lady trying to see if we had left yet?

Moving right along into the misty rain that followed us the rest of the day...

We went to the ON Power Geothermal power plant and exhibition. Great! Impressive! All you have to do is drill down into a volcano until you get to 300 degrees C. Do some magical things with steam and turbines and generators and presto, you supply 99.9% of all the homes in the Reykjavik area with 100% of their electrical, domestic hot water, and hot water for heating. It all runs underground too. The hot water is delivered to those homes at 176 degrees F. (I can verify that too, having very nearly scalded my hand a couple of times.) To make you electric car owners happy, they're rapidly installing quick charging stations to promote the use of electric vehicles. In the photo, the steam from the volcano/plant combined with the weather makes it look rather other worldly doesn't it? (Or is The White Lady following us?!)

We couldn't pass up, particularly because the weather was so nasty, a stop at a folk museum that featured old boats, old sewing machines, and bird eggs. I did take photos of all three (yes, they had them all) but blog space is limited. The boat in the photo is made of pine as were all fishing boats in this southeast corner of Iceland that were launched from shore, which they did until the 1030s? The boats didn't last as long but were considerably lighter than oak so they could be dragged into and out of the water easier. There are very few left. Isn't this a beauty?

And finally, for cousin Judy who loves light houses, a two for one... The man who last manned the big one for over 30 years before it was automated, is still alive, well, spry, and "sharp of mind" at age 94. We didn't meet him. Suspect he was down the road in the community "hot" pool rejuvenating.

Tomorrow we get an early start as we head home. Hope you enjoyed traveling with us!