Seyðisfjörður, Iceland

July 24 - Weather: Sunny, hi temp in mid 50s

Another day, another fjord.  The ship docked around 7:00 and Jay went on deck and couldn't see anything.  Around 9:00 the fog started lifting and the pretty little town of Seyðisfjörður appeared.  About 700 people live in this east coast village that has always been involved in the fishing industry.  The homes in the Old Town section were pre-fabricated in Norway.  The town's claim to fame is that the first telegraph/telephone cable from Iceland was placed underwater in 1906 from here to the Faroe Islands and on to Scotland.  We visited the museum and took a tour--learned that the fiber-optic cable that was placed in 2003 had 11 million times the capacity of the first cable.  In 1906, 14,000 telephone poles were placed between here and Reykjavik to connect that city to the world.  In the pretty little church we learned that Iceland became a Christian country in the year 1000 and that the state religion became Lutheran in 1550.  The guide in the church added that both decisions were political.  Our guide yesterday said that pagans who became Christians believed they could keep their old beliefs about "hidden people" and other superstitions.  The ship left town around 3 o'clock and the fog moved in again very quickly.  We went to the Indonesian tea after trivia and tasted some of their sweets.  The bonus question in trivia was about the problem with the oscar Spencer Tracy received as best actor in Boys' Town.  We didn't know that the name engraved on it was Dick Tracy.  We did guess correctly that the Titanic had 20 lifeboats.

© Jay 2020