Wednesday – Reykjarvik, Iceland

Today, we arrived in Reykjarvik, in Iceland. I had tour escorting duties, which meant an early start, breakfasted and on the quayside by 8am, ready for an 8:30am departure.

Before describing my day in Iceland, I should mention what happened last night…

I’d decided to hole-up in the cabin with a movie, to avoid all the dressing-up for formal night, and was distracted at about 9:30pm by movement outside my porthole. When I looked, I was amazed to see a massive flock of birds flying right alongside the ship. There were hundreds of them, and as I watched, I realised that they weren’t thinning out anytime soon, and I needed to get out on deck to see them, and film them properly. It was quite amazing to see them wheeling around, mostly on the port side of the ship; high, low, everywhere. At times, they would hover only feet away from the deck, and at others, they’d flash past like they were dive-bombing us. Masses of them… quite impressive!

It should also be said at this point, that it was still very light; something else that is rather fascinating me. At 10:30pm, Richard, the Cruise Director announced that we were approaching Sursey, and that a commentary would be provided on deck as we passed it. For the next hour, the front decks were thronged with passengers with cameras, to photograph Iceland’s newest island. Sursey was formed by a series of subterranean volcanoes that erupted between 1963 and 1967, and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site; no-one is allowed on the island except scientists, studying the creation of land and the steady of growth of organisms and vegetation. By 11:30pm, I was frozen from the keen wind, and headed back inside. I watched the remainder of my movie (Blackhat, in case you’re wondering) and went to bed… but it was still light, and remained light (or what can only be described as a strange twilight), for the whole night, with the sun rising properly again at around 4am. Quite peculiar – not in these parts, in mid-summer, obviously, but definitely not the norm in North Yorkshire!

The tour I was on today was called ‘The Golden Circle’, an all-dayer comprising of what they like to call ‘The Big Three’. Our first stop was in Thingvellir National Park, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was amazed to hear one chap say to his wife “I don’t know why anyone would want to come here… there’s nowt here… it’s just a load of rocks”. Well, yes; in a way, he was right. But he seemed to be overlooking the extensive views across the lake, the rippling lava fields, and the massive, deep chasm and towering walls that signify the rift where the European and American tectonic plates meet at the Continental Divide. Unlike the unimpressed gentleman, I was rather taken by the place. The coach dropped us off at the top, and we walked along a specially contructed pathway for about half a mile, slowly downwards through the chasm, to another car park where the coach picked us up.

Our second stop was to see the Gullfoss Waterfall. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about this one; it was truly magnificent!

The waterfall is located on the River Hvita, where it drops 96 feet in two falls. My first sight of it made me think of Niagra Falls (or what I’ve seen of it); the noise was thunderous, and the bottom drop was quite spectacular, with plumes of spray bellowing up into the air as it made its drop to the river far below.

Our guide told us that we were lucky that we were the only ship in port. They often have 4 or 5 ships in, with thousands of passengers all doing the Golden Circle, clogging up the car and coach parks, and making it difficult to get a good view of the falls. I walked down to the lower vieweing area, right alongside the falls, to try and get some good photos and video, and thought just how much less enjoyable it would have been if there had been a massive queue to do so.

Needless to say; I was impressed! We have some stunning waterfalls in North Yorkshire, and I’m often reminded of this when tours take us to see supposedly magnificent falls only to be slightly underwhelmed. The only mild disapppointment was that the sun didn’t come out for us while we were there, as the spray is supposed to produce a perpetual rainbow over the falls, as seen in all the guidebooks and information boards. It didn’t matter at all… there’s absolutely nothing underwhelming about Gullfoss Waterfall.

Our third stop was to a place called Geysir, an area where hot springs are particularly in abundance (I say particularly because the whole of Iceland seems to be a heaving mass of bubbling steam, which heats their water and generates much of their electricity). Strokkur is a geyser that shoots a spout of boiling water up to 60 feet in the air every few minutes and is naturally a hugely popular visitor attraction.

It didn’t disappoint; the geyser dutifully erupted much to the delight of the throngs of visitors. Other springs bubbled away and cast clouds of steam up into the atmosphere, but only Strokkur did the shooty-up thing.

Alongside the the geyser area is Geysir Hotel, which was where we had lunch. Having herded everyone into the dining room, and found them seats at tables with the corresponding coach numbers (there were four coaches), my guide surprised me by telling me that I had to follow him (I was about to sit down at a table myself). He led me out through a back door and down some steps… and I wondered what it was all about… into a small, slightly unkempt staff canteen. He explained that guides and escorts are not allowed to seat in the dining room… hm…

Considering the fact that there were four coaches; that’s four guides and four escorts, there were only two guides and two escorts in the staff canteen…. which meant we didn;t get the full treatment (which means I didn’t get my free beer). It also meant we missed, and were unable to influence or get involved in, the poor, slow service that apparently the passengers were being subjected to. Although we were there for an hour, some folks didn’t get their meal served up to them until 5 minutes before we were due to leave, which didn’t go down too well, as you can imagine.

Our next stop, after lunch, didn’t go down too well, either. We were taken to an industrial estate on the outskirts of a small town (which we weren’t allowed to drive into because the roads aren’t big enough for the coaches), and to a small unit described as a museum and gallery (where there would also be free toilets). Like many of the passengers, I took a dislike to the place the minute I walked through the door. An exhibition of modern art on is currently on… what can I say? A dozen or so sheets of paper screwed up and laid randomly on a low table about the size of a front door, and presented as an art exhibit had me turning around and sitting outside. I’d asked a lady who seemed to be in charge if there was any wi-fi (at leastt I could have checked emails while being bored and insulted), but was told no, there was no wi-fi. We had to endure 30 minutes here… and several passengers were quite vocal when it came to letting the guide know what they thought about THAT.

On the plus side; there was an old abandoned building right alongside the gallery, which had some fantastic grafitti on it (stuff that, frankly, put many of the gallery’s exhibits to shame).

Our final stop was to a place they called The Pearl, on the outskirts of Reykjarvik. It is a dome of glass built on top of six hot water storage tanks (each holding 30,000 gallons of boiling water, apparently). A viewing platform around its perimeter provided us wiith some stunning panoramic views of the city.

And then it was back to the port, and to the ship. Other than the lunchtime issues and the disappointing ‘museum’ stop, it was a good day. It was nice to finally see some of what Iceland has to offer, following our slightly frustrating trip to the island in April on the Voyager.

We’re now on our way again, heading towards Greenland…