Iceland, Day 9

We leave Selfoss this morning, and it is super windy and rainy and cold. We so enjoyed
yesterday afternoon's clear skies...sigh.  We passed a church graveyard where Bobby
Fischer, the chess master, is buried.

Because of the worst weather day of our trip, there will be no outdoor photos to share.

Greenhouse flowers

Our first stop, however, was indoors. We visit a flower growing business in Reynholt, the town's name means "steam hill". Thermal waters provide inexpensive and plentiful heat, ideal for the hothouses. And hydro-electric power plants provide the electricity for the artificial lighting, also inexpensive.  This particular floral business has a significant
share of cut flowers sales in Iceland, we are treated to some insights into the second generation son who is running it now.

Rainy day flowers

Dodging the pouring rain from the greenhouses, we head to a river rafting camp, and believe it or not...I am going river rafting. With hindsight, it was not a good idea, but I came out of it with minor aches. Jim opted to not do this, oh wise man. 

Reynholt greenhouse

The river rafting company of rugged young men, let's say that they could not see any impediments to having a wonderful time, in driving wind and rain that stings like ice pellets. We managed to put on wetsuits with rips and missing zippers, helmets that let rain through them, wet booties. Life vests looked fine. No gloves, paddles in hand, getting instructions on how to perform various movements upon command. We're already soaked during this briefing, hands frozen, spirits sinking just a little bit.

Reynholt greenhouse owner

After boarding our raft, about 12 of us, we paddle through rapids. Following commands was hard, because it was noisy and windy...yeah, he said paddle forward, no backward, no left back and right forward. Dive and cover not so fun. There were a couple stretches of rapids that were moderately easy and fun when the wind stopped gusting hard. Oh well, I can at least say I paddled 4 miles on a Class 2 river. But nothing much to show for it!

Surviving this experience...we had a long quiet drive back to Reykjavik, all involved just wanted a warm shower. Still raining and cold, Jim and I had dinner at the hotel.  Let me say, that our food was really wonderful on this trip, but meals that Jim and I had on our own seemed to suffer for service. As Iceland does not practice tipping, and has a social safety net, there is no incentive to provide good service IMO.

On the issue of marriage and family values in Iceland, our guide quipped that Icelanders tend to combine their marriage and second child christening ceremonies into one day.

Naming conventions in Iceland are interesting.  Women never take on the name of their husbands...which did pose a problem many years back, when they had difficulty registering in the same hotel room abroad!  Children are given a last name that refers to the first name of their father. Sons have "sson" added to their father's first name, and that forms the child's last name. Daughters have "dottir" added.  So Erik the Red, his son Leif was Leif Eriksson. If Erik had a daughter, her last name was Erikdottir.  In the case of single mothers, they can opt to apply their own first name to create the child's last name, but usually it's the father.

Icelanders also address others on a first-name basis.  No Mr. or Mrs. formalities, even children call elders by their first name, even the Prime Minister is addressed by his first name.  Telephone directories are also listed in First Name alphabetical order...and the Prime Minister is in the directory too.

And another interesting tidbit of information, as long as I'm talking about words.  Iceland has a Word Committee at the University in Reykjavik!  Icelanders are proud of their language, and seek to preserve it.  They try not to adopt words from other languages, instead finding a way to convert it into words of their own...the job of the Word Committee.  When new terms come about, such as "telephone", the Word Committee re-used a word Simi that meant "long line", an old word that was no longer in use.  When "computer" was invented, they combined Icelandic words for Numbers+Prophetess=Toelva.