Tag: Reykjavik

The Golden Circle-Iceland part 6

There are many “must do” sights in Iceland and when we were planning our trip, visiting the golden circle, the 140 mile spectacular route was one we had to see, and didn’t we just pick the day with the weather.

It’s out there somewhere

But nothing was going stop Amanda and I making the most of every single minute, including shrieks of amazement when our tour bus was leaving the industrial harbour and I saw a Firecrest painted on the side of unit.

The Firecrest might be the smallest bird in England, but that’s definitely the biggest bird I’ve seen in Iceland

Luckily the perceived wisdom about the weather in Iceland is to “hang about 10 minutes and it will have changed completely”. So as our tour bus arrived at one of the magnificent waterfalls, the mist parted to reveal Gullfoss, “the golden waterfall” Of course being part of the must do tour of Iceland meant we weren’t the only ones enjoying the view.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss  could be counted as two significant waterfalls, each worthy of a million photos

Back in the early 20th century an enterprising English man wanted to buy the waterfall from its owner, Tomas Tomasson, a sheep farmer. The plan was to use it to generate hydro-electricity. However Tomas refused to sell “his friend” but did agree to lease the land. This led to years of legal battles, because there was a loophole that Tomas hadn’t forseen. His daughter, Sigríður Tómasdóttir fought hard and sacrificed much, she frequently walked the 62 miles into Reykjavik to    After much expense and uphill struggle, to the point where she threatened to throw herself into the falls if construction started, Howell pulled out and in 1929 Gullfoss returned to the custodianship of the Icelandic people. Sigríður is recognized as Iceland’s first environmentalist

Sigríður Tómasdóttir

I wonder if I have a bit of Iceland in my heritage, wearing plaits.

But there’s no way I’m going to throw myself down there no matter how special it is.

We could have stayed and marvelled all day at Gullfoss, but our excussion was ready to move on. We didn’t have time to visit the Langjökull Glacier,

Langjökull Glacier


it was only after a closer look that we realised it was ice not cloud


We fancied something a bit warmer so it was off to visit geysers

Our geyser is Stokkur, and you can see the comparison to other globally famous geysers

With dire warnings not to go into the water as it was coming out of the ground between 80 and 100°C we all dutifully stood around the discreet barrier

Wait for it……

And were rewarded with several very dramatic expulsions of water and steam as Stokkur revealed its glory

Wow, that was impressive

It’s little brother, appropriately named Little geyser was spluttering mud most of the time

Again as we have seen throughout our visit, despite it being height of tourist season and the number of visitors, we never really felt the crowds spoilt our own enjoyment.

No throwing coins in the pool please,

We had one final location  to visit on our golden circle tour. Þingvellir, (thingvellir)This area is strangely unique as it forms both part of Iceland’s political heritage, and a significant geological feature. The newly arrived settlers gathered together at this site to decide how to live as a community. The Alþingi, general assembly was founded in 930 and continued meet until 1798, it is still revered as a national shrine.

the Assembly Plain

However impressive the sense of pride the Icelanders have of their country, we were fascinated by the fact that these rock formations were actually part of the earth’s tectonic plates. On one side we were able to reach out and touch the Americas,

Yes it was raining again, but who could resist touching America

whereas on the other we were in no-man’s land for the eurasion plates were now some 4km away and shifting by 2.5cm a year.


Thankfully thats only 0.07mm per day and we didn’t think the ground was going to swallow us up before we got home.

I’m glad we couldn’t see what we were walking over

We made it safely back to our ship in time for an early evening departure from Iceland. As we said our farewells we cruised past the Imagine Peace Tower, the right hand small white structure on Viðey Island. It is a memorial and symbol of international peace, erected by Yoko Ono in 2007,

the Imagine Peace Tower
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_Peace_Tower

on significant dates it is lit with 15 searchlights and prisms that appear to create a tower of light reaching 4000m into the sky

photo swiped from a Google search

Reykjavik-Iceland part 5

Another early morning treat when we threw open the curtains, our very cartoon volcano on the horizon. Thankfully it wasn’t an erupting one.

approaching Reykjavik


And being up early we saw the pilot arrive to guide the ship into Reykjavik Harbour.The skyline was full of promise of an exciting city to explore

We decided to forgo the organised excusion to the famous Blue Lagoon,  Back in March I had shared the locks on the Hatton flight with a family who turned out to be travel writers,  I flippantly asked for any tips about Iceland and was told I must visit the Sky Lagoon, it being newer, a better location, smaller and less busy closer to Reykjavik, and cheaper to boot -with more extras. And after hearing our fellow passengers accounts it seems we chose well. Needless to say you will have to form your own picture of Amanda and I bathing in the thermal waters of the infinity pool overlooking the ocean, of course with a cocktail in hand, before we entered the 7 step spa ritual with its sauna, again overlooking the ocean, the salt scrub and whale music, (don’t picture us leaping into the ice cold plunge pool, that wasn’t so pretty) etc.

https://www.skylagoon.com/

I could say that’s it for our trip to Reykjavik, but fortunately it wasn’t. With our radiant skin and chilled out minds we followed our taxi drivers recommendation and found ourselves a cafe serving proper icelandic food. And we sat on the pavement eating soused herring on ryebread

Yes it was delicious

After lunch we followed the rainbow road up to the magnificent Hallgrímskirkja, which although the most impressive of buildings, isnt the Reykjavik cathdral but the parish church. To me its sleek modern architecture summed up how artistic and stylish this island is. And interestingly it is known in English as the Church on the Hill, which is also what the Church our father in law was minister at for many years.

my photos don’t do justice to the scale of this elegant building, known in English as the Church on the Hill

And standing watch outside is a monument of Lief Ericsson, the explorer credited with discovering Iceland in the 10th century

Leif Ericsson

Perhaps not all of Iceland’s art is quite as stylish

But I did like the piles of rocks all along the shoreline

We perhaps didn’t make the best of our day exploring Reykjavik, there were many many more attractions that we could have visited. But we had booked ourselves onto a whale watching trip at 3pm so we only had two hours between the spa and what was to be the highlight of our trip. We got ourselves all togged in the gear

And we’re just heading down to the awaiting RIB…..

This was to be a joy ride extraordinaire

…..when our excitement was shattered. The sea conditions had worsened and the waves were now over 2m so our trip was cancelled. To say we were gutted was an understatement. Although with that sort of swell perhaps our guts were secretly relieved. Although it was still only 4pm the last, courtesy bus back to Borealis was at 5. We could have found a taxi and stayed out longer but our spirits were dampened, until of course we got back to the ship, and were met by our favourite waiter, Julius, who gave us a hot toddy before we boarded.

We like to think we were his favourite passengers

all the crew were lovely on board, they were mainly from the Philippines, they all spoke excellent English, and nothing seemed too much trouble for them. We quickly got to know who worked where on the ship, and madam Cheryl and madam Amanda were always greeted with a smile. We’d recommend Fred Olsen as a cruise operator any day. The little extras always made us smile

(And Hi to Steven the cyclist who stopped to say hello yesterday, who let us know he was enjoying the blog- thanks Steven we appreciate knowing)