Quick update about activities on the ship since the Greenland incident, the other day a lawsuit was filed against the cruise line. For Germany, you have to serve the operator while onboard the vessel of your expectation of compensation for damages (having significant wilful knowledge the ship couldn’t make Greenland for months / not allowing passengers to cancel). Letter is filed, more than 100 people signed it, filed it. Can’t wait to see what happens after this is over.
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FINALLY WE’RE HERE!!!!!
5 days at sea and we’ve reached Reykjavik. Perhaps the letter did something because we’re now arriving half a day early.
Our ship had to wait for this other vessel to park
Guess I have a pool view tonight
Early day tomorrow. Even though it’s only 8pm I’m calling it. Goodnight.
And good morning! Each year Iceland sees roughly 60 days a year of pure sunshine. Today we’ve been blessed to experience one of them. A positive of forever daylight, your sightseeing tour can go 11.5 hours. And that’s the plan today, see darn near everything in the back country of this city.
A positive to volcanoes is the ash refreshes the soil with rich nutrients. As a result, everything here is dark green because of the rich organic matter. The first half of the day will be headed towards the Ring of Fire.
In the 1970s someone imported the below purple flowers, believing they’d add more color to the region. After a few winters the strong blowing wind, seeds have been pushed ALL over the region. It’s nearly a weed now.
Just 15 minutes outside of downtown nature comes into full view.
First stop on our way to the Golden Circle, Þingvellir National Park.
Most people know this spot to be the location where you can walk between the American and European tectonic plates, which still move apart at a rate of 3mm a year.
The beauty wasn’t lost on those that first encountered this location, circa 900 AD. Þingvellir – which translates directly to ‘the fields of parliament’ – is where most of Iceland’s history started as it was their version of a house of parliament.
This would be quite the stunning location to gather and talk political, pass laws and debate topics of the day.
An image of what it was like as each tribe would setup their ‘office’ for the debate session.
If you needed a break, head to the nearby pool and drinking fountain.
Continuing the road you encounter all sorts of natural beauty.
I think I’ve located where the Microsoft Windows desktop art came from.
A great joy of traveling is stopping at random spots to meet the locals. This location is perfect for that. What a quaint little restaurant and rest stop.
In Iceland you need to be creative to find ways to maximize your income on what you grow or raise. These farmers decided it was easier to make ice cream for tourists and locals than to try selling milk.
And their ice cream is delicious! Nothing like you can get from any store at home. A scoop will set you back about $5.
Thanks cows for the yummy treat.
As far as you can see if landscape which reminds me of Missoula, Montana.
Stop to pet and feed local Icelandic horses? Yes please.
Towards the end of the road this mountain range rises up on the horizon.
These peaks are an additional 3 hour drive away from this photo
location.
When you zoom in you see the Langjökull glacier. At 400 miles in size, the water controls this region. Had there been more time, exploring Langjökull would have been on the list as you can do things like walk under it in sparking-blue caves.
Melt water from the glacier flows from the far distant mountains to this location. A slight mist appears in the distance from the Gullfoss waterfall.
Gullfoss is the second largest fall in the country. There were attempts to rip out the falls for hydronamic power. Pushing 1,727,556 gallons per minute drops over the fall, you can see why investors wanted this location. Thankfully the land’s owned by the family, their daughter, fought off developers. She was credited as the first environmentalist in the country.
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Along with the waterfalls, the nearby glacier feeds into the surrounding lava fields, which have very porous rock, and flows in a subterranean river to the geothermal area, where it comes bursting out of the naturally forms vents.
While not Yellowstone, the eruptions of the cold water escaping does produce some beautiful plums.
Before reaching the highlight of this trip our driver takes us to a spot which has only been re-opened for a few years after some sizable lava eruptions. These mudpits show just how active the region still is.
Volcanic pits do create some beautiful lakes.
The last stop of the day is the Blue Lagoon. I’ve wanted to see this place for ages. In the photo below, notice the gap between the left and right hills. In the very center is where the 2024 eruptions took place.
Lava ran from that gap, in front of the right hill and continued towards the lagoon. All that black you see below is new lava. If you look really closely you’ll see white smoke. That is the result of heavy equipment being used to grade down and remove part of it while it’s still semi-flexible and hot.
In the below photo, the white smoke on the right side is from the lagoon. Notice the wall in front of it.
This location is primarily a power station for the region, converting steam into electricity. The lagoon is a lucrative side benefit of power production. Recent lava came so close that it was determined to be financially wise to construct a 50′ wall in hopes of pushing lava flow away from the power station. In spite of the giant wall, workers and tourists were evacuated four times as flows pushed the wall inward.
On the non-lava flow size a entrance hole was cut.
Such beauty from the natural water.
A little perspective on how big the lava protection wall is.
Original to the facility is the entrance, carved out of ages old lava flows.
A very modern reception hall greets visitors.
Everyone receives a bracelet which grants you access to a locker and is your credit card for the day.
It is a pretty location. Such a creative way to reuse old lava fields and the byproduct of clean power production.
Essentially this is a giant bathtub with extra silica in the water. After sitting in the water for a while, rubbing two fingers together produces an odd, gritty, semi-slimy feel.
With your admission is one or two free drinks. Here’s the bar where you can get alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
Mini ‘islands’ like this are dotted around the pool, used to inject hot water into the lagoon. What’s odd is you’ll walk along and encounter warm and even cold water. Keep moving until your find your Goldilocks temperature spot.
Cheers to blue slurpees in a blue water pool under blue skies.
A question came from my friends – would I do it again? If you’re someone who finds enjoyment just going to spa and sitting for hours, you’ll likely enjoy time here. Should this idea fill you with angst or disgust, skip this as you’ll find it an over-hyped tourist trap with so many wanna-be social media influencers jocking for their perfectly posed photo. Did I mention all the people, many who lack social understanding / mannerisms of what this place is supposed to be??
10pm and the tour is winding down. Our driver brings us to one final spot locals go on sunny days to experience the sunset.
11:30pm, back on board, just in time to capture the sunsetting from the bow of the ship.
Tomorrow is exploring the main city.
