Voyage of the Vikings Redux – Reykjavik, Iceland Day 2

Cruise Day 26

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The alarm went off at 5:30 this morning as we had an early tour.  Our tour today is a ship excursion photo tour called “Picture Perfect Iceland”.  We did a similar tour on our last visit to Reykjavik and really enjoyed it, so we hope this one is equally good.

Another rainy day in Reykjavik.

We met at the World Stage at 6:30 and were the first group called and one of the first ones on the tender.  By the time everyone made it to the bus it was getting near 7:30, but this is pretty much the normal way these excursions work.

It turns out our guide was a professional photographer, which boded well for this tour.  It was overcast and raining when we left the port, but it began to look a little brighter as we drove south.  Our tour would take place on the Reykjanes Peninsula that stretches west with Reykjavik being in the northeast corner.

Reykjanes Peninsula

Our first stop was Lake Kleifarvatn, the largest lake on the peninsula.  It was a scenic spot, but unfortunately, we were still getting a little rain with some wind that made photography difficult, but by the time we had finished at that site, the rain had stopped, and the wind had died down.  That turned out to be our last rain of the day although we continued to have mostly cloudy skies.

It was a rainy drive to the lake, but things started to clear a little at the lake.

Next, we stopped at the Krýsuvík Geothermal Area that had thermal activity similar to what you find in Yellowstone, but on a much smaller scale.

Across from Krysuvik, there was a field of Icelandic horses grazing.  Since Val had already seen the geothermal activity, she was more interested in the horses.

Icelandic horses are a pure breed and kept that way.  No horses are allowed to be imported into Iceland, and if an Icelandic horse leaves Iceland, it is never allowed to return.

After that, we went to the fishing village of Grindavík and had a snack at a restaurant in a very active area of fishing boats.  We walked around a bit, but we were limited as there was a lot of activity on the dock and tourists weren’t really welcome to get in the way of things.  These weren’t just small fishing boats, these were large commercial boats that go out for days or weeks.

From the bus as we drove to Grindavík.

 

The area around the harbor of Grindavík

The seagulls were hoping to get some of the fresh catch being uloaded.

This fishing boat was getting ready to go back out and loading empty crates for the fish back in.  It was amazing how many of those crates they were able load into the hold.

From there we drove to the tip of the peninsula to Reykjanesvíti Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in Iceland.  The lighthouse was open for visitors, but we didn’t stop there, but drove out to a black-sand beach that was nearby.

Our first look at the Reykjanesvíti Lighthouse from the bus.  The pipeline in the middle of the picture is one of the numerous pipes carrying steam from geothermal plants to homes and businesses.

One last look at the Reykjanesvíti Lighthouse (with less fog shrouding it) before getting back on the bus.

Our last stop of the day was the Bridge Between Continents which crosses a gully that is the fault line where the European and North American tectonic plates meet.  When you walk across the bridge you are actually walking from the European Continent to the North American Continent.  This divide runs the length of Iceland and the last time we were here we went to similar spot in Akureyri only there it was a crack in the earth you could straddle.

The Bridge Between Continents

This gully is the fault line that separates the European and North American plates.  It continues to the northern coast of Iceland.

Even though Val and I were right next to each other, she was standing in Europe and I was standing in North America.

That was the end of our tour and it had turned out to be a very good one.  We visited several of the spots before, but they were worth seeing again.  It was great that our guide was a professional photographer, and he was very active in helping people and guiding us to the best photo spots.

Our visit to Iceland is over, we head for the tenders and back to the ship.

We didn’t get back to the ship until the Lido had closed for lunch, so we got some food from the Neptune Lounge and brought it back to the room.  It looks like I have caught the cold that Val had and although I don’t really feel very sick, I have a pretty bad cough which is annoying; this will be our first cold since the fall of 2019.

We relaxed until dinner, but since we had eaten lunch late, we weren’t very hungry for dinner.  We went anyway and decided to just have a couple of appetizers and dessert and skip the main course, and that worked out well for us.

We weren’t leaving Reykjavik until 11:00 PM so the casino wasn’t open tonight, but that was actually good for us as we were very tired after getting up so early this morning.  When we got back to the room, we also saw that we were gaining another hour tonight and setting the clocks back an hour.  My only worry was that I would cough all night and keep both Val and me awake.  It’s a sea day tomorrow so I’ll have some time to rest and recuperate.