Last day in Iceland

We disembarked the ship this morning and our transfer bus dropped us at the hotel around 10am.  Unfortunately the room wasn't ready yet, so we booked ourselves on a Puffin excursion which picked us up from the hotel.   The boat took us out to an island where the puffins were nesting and we got 30 minutes to watch them before heading back to Reykjavik harbour.
As before, the darn things were too fast to get really good pictures.

 After this it was back to the hotel for a farewell drink in the bar and a meal in the restaurant.

Tomorrow we have to be up at 5am to head for the airport for our early flights home.

Last day of the cruise

 Today was the last full day of our cruise.  We arrived at Reykjavik early in the morning.   The excursion we were booked on was the Golden Circle and a trip to the Blue Lagoon. 

Our first stop was the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. I'm taking the photo standing on the North American side and the mountains on the other side of the valley are on the Eurasian plate. 

The next stop was Thingvellir, which is where the Icelandic "parliament" used to meet from the year 930AD.   The flag pole in the photo shows the exact meeting spot of the chieftains.

And then ...... Yet another foss.  This one is Gullfoss (AKA the golden falls).

 It was a fairly packed day, so hot on the heels of Gullfoss we visited the hot springs where I managed to get a shot of the geyser Strokkur erupting.

We had a late lunch at a very interesting place.  It was a huge greenhouse complex where they grow tomatoes.   The greenhouses use geothermal heating and the lighting system (also based of geothermally generated electricity) provides 17 hours of "daylight" for the plants.   So the tomatoes grow year round and they deliver 2000lbs of tomatoes to the warehouses in Reykjavik every day.   The owner has recently decided to go into the tourist trade on the side and one of the greenhouses includes a restaurant where we had tomato soup, chicken and tomato kebabs and cheesecake with a tomato jelly for dessert. I must admit the tomato jelly cheesecake was too weird for me and I scooped all the jelly off the top before eating the rest of the cheesecake.

Another sideline that the owner of the place has is a stable where he owns and breeds Icelandic horses. The Icelandic horse is directly descended from the horses that the original settlers brought with them in 870AD.  No horses have been imported to Iceland since then.   It also has a unique gait called the tolt.  We were treated to a short demonstration of the horses in all 5 gaits. (walk, trot, tolt, pace and canter/gallop).  Afterwards we got to visit the horses in their stables and pet them.

The last stop of the day was at the Blue Lagoon, where we got to dunk ourselves in the hot water for a couple of hours with a free drink.  It was very  relaxing.   

We finally arrived back on board around 8pm, in time for a late dinner.  We now have to pack and get our cases outside the room for pick up before we got to bed.   Disembarkation is early tomorrow morning.

Heimaey and the Westman Islands

Surtsey is the 2nd youngest island in the world.  Underwater eruptions between 1963 and 1967 created the island.   I remember watching a TV program when I was a small child about how it got created, and I've wanted to see it ever since.   Today it's a nature reserve where they study how various species of plants and animals colonize new land, so the general public are not allowed to set foot on the island.  But we did sail past.  Surtsey is the island in the background.

We docked at Heimaey, which is the largest of the Westman Islands and the only one that is populated (population 4000).   We had a quick tour of the island, including the area where the first settlers had built their homes:

I finally got to see a puffin.  We walked along a clifftop where the birds were nesting.   We weren't allowed too close though.  There was a small hut which had been set up to watch from so that tourists didn't disturb the birds.   It was fairly distant from where the puffins were nesting and although I got to see the puffins  flying around the darn things wouldn't stay still for long so this was the only photo I managed to get:

The puffin is the black and which smudge in the middle.   It's a crappy photo, but at least I did get to see a puffin, so I can tick that off my list now.   Baby puffins are called pufflings and towards the end of July they leave the nests to start exploring.  Their parents are often gone for 24 hours or more once the chicks are big enough.  The pufflings leave the nest at night (such small hours of night as they get here at the end of July) and head for the sea by searching for the reflection of the moon in the water.  However, some of them get confused by the lights of the town and end up there.   The local children have a Puffling Patrol, where they rescue the pufflings from the roads (and the cats) and take them in cardboard boxes down to the water where they release them.

Our coach managed to hit every red traffic light on Heimaey (there's only 1 traffic light on the island).

Our final stop was at the museum dedicated to the 1973 volcanic eruption on the island itself. A huge fissure appeared on a night in January and the whole population of the island had to evacuate on fishing boats.  No lives were lost.  The eruption of Edfell continued for 6 months.  Many houses were covered by the lava flow and it also threatened to seal off the harbour.   Water pumps were brought in from the US navy base at Keflavik and sea water was sprayed on the lava to harden it and divert the flow in another direction.   An area that was originally covered with lava has been excavated to uncover one of the houses and the museum was built around it with the uncovered house as its centrepiece.

Back on the ship we had the Captain's farewell cocktail party and dinner, even though this isn't the last night on board.  The  final stop on our cruise (Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon) will involve an 11 hour tour and we probably wouldn't be up to a gala dinner when we finally get back on board.

Isafjordur

Docked in Isafjordur this morning.   Our guide was Greta from ...... Lithuania.  She came here intending to stay for 3 months, but that was 5 years ago.

We started our tour at yet another foss:  Bundarfoss. 

The water is so pure here you can drink it directly from the waterfall.  So we were all given a cup and got to dunk it in and have a sip. 
After that it was on to the Maritime museum.   Here they had put out some Icelandic fish delicacies for us to try.   I tasted the dried cod, but there was no way I was sampling the rotting shark. I don't think anyone in our group was brave enough to do so.

We moved on to the "fishing village'.   This is a recreation of the type of village the early Icelandic settlers lived in.   

Our final stop of the tour was a local church where a girl with a guitar sang us some traditional Icelandic hymns and lullabies. 

Back on the ship I finally managed to get into the Blue Eye lounge.  It had been closed so far this trip.  This is an underwater lounge bar with windows.  It's decorated to make it look like you're inside a whale and the 2 windows are the whale's eyes.   Sadly, you can't really see much out of the 2 windows except a cloudy green sea.  this is Iceland, not the Great Barrier Reef.  Still, it's pretty cool.

                         

We sailed out of Isafjord in the late afternoon.   Denise and I decided to go to the lounge for cocktail hour and discovered that there was a special ham tasting going on.   There were a few nice hams, but the highlight was something called Pata Negra.  I'd never heard of this stuff, but apparently it's the most expensive ham in the world.  It was very yummy, so I went back for seconds, and then thirds.  I'm now feeling so full that I may have to skip dinner again tonight.

 

 

Akureyri and Godafoss

Today we docked in Akureyri, which is the 2nd largest town in Iceland - also known as the capital of the North.  It has a population of 19000 people.   It also has the northernmost botanical garden in the world and this was the first stop in our tour of the region.

Our next stop was Godafoss, which translates as Waterfall of the Gods.  The story is that around a thousand years ago a local chieftain decided that Iceland should convert to Christianity.  To set an example he took all his statues of pagan Gods and threw them into the waterfall and this is how it got its  name.  It reminded me strongly of Niagara in both it's shape and the smaller falls on either end of the horseshoe,  but not quite as big.

We were brought back to the ship for a late lunch.   We have met a nice couple on board called Andrea and Alan.  Alan is suffering from a bad foot, and Denise can't really walk too far,  so Andrea and I walked back into Akureyri together in the afternoon and did some souvenir shopping.  While in town I made a new friend:

We sailed out of Akureyri in the late afternoon heading for our next stop at Isafjordur.   Denise and I were both exhausted so we skipped dinner in the dining room and ordered room service instead.
This is the first stop where I've managed to get a decent photo of the ship:

Le Bellot

Sea Sick!

 We sailed overnight into the Arctic Circle.  The ship was rocking a lot so I woke up in the middle of the night and took this photo at 1.28am - just to show you how it never really gets dark here.  I think it was actually lighter at 1.28 in the morning than it had been at 1.28pm the previous afternoon (when it was raining)

I got up for breakfast but didn't have much of an appetite.  The ship was still rocking a lot.   I went to the theatre to listen to the destination briefing for the afternoon trip to Grimsey Island.  Halfway through I had to leave the theatre because I was feeling so ill.   I went back to the room and stood on the balcony for a while watching the horizon go up and down dramatically and hoping to feel better. Eventually Denise came back and saved my life by having a sea sickness patch in her luggage.  I had not packed any because I'm not usually sea sick and didn't think I'd need them.  I've done the Drake passage both ways (which is supposed to be the roughest stretch of sea in the world) and didn't have a problem, so Iceland should have been a breeze.   I've got a feeling that Le Bellot (the ship I'm on) does not have as good stabilizers as the Silver Explorer (which was the ship I sailed the Drake passage in).

I  managed a small lunch of thin soup and a bread roll and was beginning to feel a bit improved when the Captain made an announcement saying we had reached our off shore anchor point for Grimsey Island, but that the sea was so rough they could not drop anchor.   The decision had been made to sail on to another Island (Hrisey) which provided a more protected inlet, and to stop there instead.  We reached Hrisey at about 3.30pm, but I decided to stay on boat rather than taking the tender to shore.  I was still not feeling 100% and tomorrow will be another long day at Akureyri and Godafoss.  

A tender heads for Hrisey

Instead I hung around in the lounge listening to our French singer/piano player who is very good, and has an eclectic repertoire including Radiohead's "Creep" and Coldplay's "Fix You".  
I managed dinner this evening but decided to have an early night as the entertainment in the lounge tonight is a Karaoke evening and if anything will make me feel ill again that will.  Tomorrow we stop at Iceland's "second city":  Akureyri.

Grundarfjörður and a tour of Snæfellsnes peninsula

This morning we docked at Grundarfjörður.  The view from our balcony was of Kirkjufell.  This mountain appears in Game of Thrones as Arrowhead mountain.

We had a 5 hour tour of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. including the Snæfellsjökull volcano, which fortunately hasn't erupted for nearly 2000 years.

We saw the half troll statue at Arnarstapi

And after a stop for some coffee and an extremely yummy piece of apple cake, we took a walk along the coast to see some interesting rock formations where the Arctic terns are nesting.

Then it was back to the ship just in time to get dressed for the Captain's Gala Dinner.

Tomorrow we go to Grimsey Island and cross into the Arctic circle.

All Aboard Le Bellot

This morning we had to have our cases ready to be picked up from our room at 10am.  While the cases were being taken to the ship, we met our tour director: Keanu  (sorry I mean Mateo)

Then we were taken by bus to the Harpa Concert Hall for lunch.   During lunch we had our Covid tests done.  The whole testing process was a bit of a poorly organized mess, but eventually Denise and I got our negative results back - which was a relief.

After lunch we had a quick coach tour of some of the main sights of Reykjavik, including the Hallgrimskirkja (which is the biggest church in Iceland).

The last stop before being taken to the ship was the Perlan Museum of the wonders of Iceland, where we walked through an ice cave and went up on the roof to get a 360 degree view of Reykjavik

At 5pm we boarded our ship:  Le Bellot and I had a welcome cocktail in the lounge.

We had our orientation talk, safety drill and a nice dinner before the ship set sail at 9pm.   The sea is very choppy and the ship is rocking quite a bit.  Good thing I'm not generally sea sick!

Tomorrow we dock at Grundarfjordur and take a half day tour of the region.

A Quiet Sunday in Reykjavik

A balmy 13.5 degrees today - at least it wasn't raining.   Denise and I took the hop on hop off bus into downtown Reykjavik this morning.  Reykjavik seems very empty.  Lots of big spaces between the buildings and not many people.
We got off at the old harbour and had coffee and "traditional icelandic cake".   It reminded me of  Linzer torte - but instead of the raspberry jam there was some unidentifiable flavour of jam.  I also increased my Icelandic vocabulary by one more word:  Kaffi

After that we walked along the harbour passing the Harpa Concert hall (where we will be going for lunch tomorrow),  desperately looking for some souvenir shops, or any shops really. 

Harpa Concerr Hall and coast guard ship

Eventually we managed to find 2 souvenir shops hidden behind the Reykjavik flea market.  A word of warning about Iceland - everything is expensive, but it's not because the Icelanders are trying to rip you off (indeed it's kind of hard to find anywhere that wants to sell you a souvenir).  It's just that most things have to be imported and since the entire population of Iceland is only 370 thousand people they can't import in bulk.   

Walking on along the harbour front we passed the Viking Ship sculpture and Hofdi House (which was where Reagan met Gorbachev in 1986 to end the Cold War)

Hofdi House

By this time it was late afternoon and we'd walked a long way.  So after a long day yesterday and an early start tomorrow, we decided to catch the HOHO bus back to the hotel and settle in for the night.

Tomorrow we meet our Tauck tour guide and board the cruise ship.

Summer in Iceland!

Today we took a full day tour of South Iceland, which (according to our guide) is the warmest part of the country.  Mid July and it was a sizzling 9 degrees (that's 48 fahrenheit for those of you who don't speak Celsius).   This scorching temperature was accompanied by a constant drizzle and wind that was so powerful that when it blew the rain in your face you felt like you were being slapped.

The scenery more than made up for the weather though.  It was a packed day and we began with a stop at Eyjafjallajökull (try saying that 3 times fast).  This is the volcano that erupted in 2010 and threw so much ash into the atmosphere that air travel over the Atlantic was affected for several months.  Sadly, it was shrouded in mist so I don't have any good photos.

Today I learned my first Icelandic word:  Foss.  This means waterfall, and there are an awful lot of them in Iceland.  We visited 3 altogether, starting with this Skogafoss.   You can actually walk all the way up to the top of the waterfall - but honestly the view is better from the bottom, that's my excuse anyway.

After that it was on to the black sand beach at Reynisfjara.  Don't miss this place if you get a chance to come to Iceland.  There were amazing hexagonal rock formations, lots of caves and also some rock formations out at sea (called the trolls).   

 

 

The beach also has some pretty impressive waves which can be dangerous.  Every so often a much bigger wave comes along and can drag some unsuspecting person who's ventured too close to the water off into the sea.  They've lost a few tourists this way!

 

 

 After the beach it was off to the small village of Vik (shown below from a vantage point up on the hill above the village) for lunch at a local brewery where we got to sample some Icelandic beer.

 After lunch we went to Myrdalsjokull glacier.(try saying that 3 times fast after you've had a beer for lunch).  

 Then on for a quick look at some turf houses.   This was the way the Vikings built their homes when they first settled in Iceland around 870AD.  But this technique was still being used as recently as 100 years ago. 

Finally, we visited 2 more waterfalls, Selajalandsfoss and another one that was unpronounceable but in English was called "The Gorge".  Then it was another  1.5 hour drive back to Reykjavik where we arrived exhausted and sodden and have now settled into our room for the evening.

Tomorrow we're taking the hop on hop off bus around Reykjavik to see the sights and do some shopping. Hopefully the weather will be better .....

Arrived in Reykjavik

 Arrived in Reykjavik this morning.   While waiting for my suitcase to come out on the carousel, a guy driving a buggy drove over my carry on bag.  Fortunately, my laptop was not in it.

Checked into the hotel now.  Very nice inside.

We're on the 7th floor - so a nice view from our room as well.