Suzy did not sleep well overnight because of the noise from the street outside our room. It didn't worry me so much because I take my hearing aids off when I go to bed. Mind you I did hear the motor bikes and the garbage truck at 5am.
However, went she opened the curtains, she noticed that the windows were open. This would explain why it was so noisy. The windows were double-glazed and so should be fairly sound proof. She decided that maybe we should stay in this room after all.
It left us wondering why they'd opened the windows. Perhaps it was because of the smell coming from the hand basin. The staff should have fixed this smell problem rather than just leaving the window open.
At about 7:30am, we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It was a buffet breakfast - adequate but quite basic.
The first task for today would be to go to the laundromat to do a load of washing. We decided to catch a taxi there rather than walk. It was a cool day (only 2C) and cloudy but not raining. On the way back, we walked along the main street to look at the shops.
At about 11:15am, we left the hotel to walk down to the lake to admire the view of the snow-capped mountains on the other side. I decided to wear an extra layer this time because of the cold. The weather was gradually improving with more blue sky and sunshine.
Next we walked along the path next to the lake until we reached an impressive stylised statue of a Viking ship. We weren't the only people taking photos.
Then we walked up the hill to the main street again. Further along, we walked up to the next street to take photos of Rainbow Street and a monument.
For lunch we went to Brennslan cafe which had great atmosphere and character.
The next task was to pick up the heavy thermal clothes that Suzy had ordered on line. Each of us got a very heavy coat and water-resistant pants and boots. Suzy also got fur-lined gloves.
We were now ready for anything on our tour which starts tomorrow. Waterfalls, glaciers, snow, ice, volcanoes - bring it on.
For dinner, we'd booked at the hotel restaurant for 6:30pm. Staff at the reception had given us two coupons for free drinks because of the problems we'd had with our room and so we went down to the restaurant at about 6pm to take advantage of the freebies.
Tonight we'd booked to go on a boat cruise out to sea to see the northern lights - hopefully. The cruise was due to depart at 9pm and we caught a taxi from the hotel at 8pm to take us to the wharf.
The boat was already there and so we found a comfortable spot inside to wait for the departure rather than being out in the cold on deck. We'd worn the heavy clothes we hired this afternoon.
One of the services they offered was to provide warm clothing. We didn't need to take up the offer but some did.
It seemed to be a popular tour because there were people on all levels. Many of the people had American accents.
Apparently the boat is used for whale watching tours during the day and northern lights tours in the evening.
There was never any guarantee that we'd see the northern lights and we thought the crew were going to give up at about 10:30 but then some light started to appear.
At first it was hard to see. Over a period of about ten minutes it got brighter and then took another ten minutes to fade again.
It looked like a long green cloud. There were no fancy colours or bouncing lights - fairly tame. I was unable to get any photos of it with my camera but Suzy got some shots with her iPhone. The photos she took looked better than it did to the naked eye.
Suzy had been very keen to see the northern lights. In fact, it was the main reason we'd come to Iceland. At least we could say we've seen them even if it wasn't spectacular tonight. We've got a few more days in Iceland and so there is still hope for a better view.
The taxi got us back to out hotel soon after midnight.
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