Okay. Now I am officially angry. Really, steamingly angry. I have been deliberately swindled out of a VAT refund on my purchases by a bitch with a serious attitude problem. In her shop, I spent just shy of 5,000 krona – about 25 quid. I asked for a tax receipt so I could claim back my VAT. She REFUSED, because she said the minimum was 6,000 kr, although I was sure it was 4,000. When I get back on board, turns out, it is ANY amount, but you MUST have the special tax receipt. Never mind that you have to fill in your name address, passport number and credit card details on every single one you claim, that’s just stupid bureaucracy. But that bitch has denied me my refund, and I will be writing to the embassy in London to express my disgust at allowing such appalling treatment of visitors to this, otherwise lovely, country.

That aside, Akureyri is a funny place. It’s a big town, with a university, but it still only has one main street of shops, so it might as well be as small as Isafjordur. Stuff is about one third cheaper here today than it was yesterday. It mizzled all day. Basically a cloud was sitting over the town. You couldn’t see the tops of the mountains. But at least there was no wind cutting through you like a light saber like we had yesterday. We pootled, we shopped, we ate, we drank, we took photos, we bought souvenirs (and got conned in the process as above). Then mum and dad went back to the ship and I settled down in a hotel with a drink and a plate of nibbles to use their free wifi for a bit. Bob was 4.30, so we will be setting off any minute now, I imagine. We have a sea day between here and Torshavn, so a chance to unwind and recover from three ports in three days. And get the tax ranting out of my system, hopefully. Right, how do you address a letter to an ambassador?