Sunday 28th August 2016
This is our last day in Iceland, and the weather looks encouraging as
we sail into Reykjavik. It is chilly, around 9 C , but sunny, and normally the
days warm up considerably as the day goes on. There is only one other ship in
port, the Seabourn Quest, a smaller and more luxurious vessel than ours.
Docking is completed by 8 am, and people
start flowing onto the shore to meet up with the tour buses. We do not have any
fixed plan for the day, but rather intend to see what is availably that is not
run by Holland America.
Fortunately, we came across the tour
operator that we used in Akureyri. He had told us that he would meet the ship
in Reykjavik and there he was. We enjoyed our tour with him in Akureyri, so
signed up again with him to do the Golden Circle Tour, at half the cost for the
same trip booking through the ship. Whilst
he is very enthusiastic, he is not a great marketer, and there were only six of
us on the mini bus which was great for us.
We left the dock at 9am for our first stop,
Thingvellir National Park. The scenery along the way is stunning, very
volcanic, and green with lots of livestock grazing. There is still snow on some of the peaks, and
lava flows covered with moss in many of the valleys.
Thingvellir National Park has special
significance to the Icelandic people, as it was where the first parliament was
formed by the Viking settlers in the mid 900’s which is thought to have been
the establishment of the World’s first democracy. It is also the site of an
ancient fault line that marks the division between the American tectonic plate,
and the Europe/Asian tectonic plate. The plates are still separating at a rate
of 40mm per year.
The National Park occupies the land in the
valley, which is the fault line between the two plates.
After a good wander around the park, it was
back in the bus to move on to see a nearby thermal area, with an active geyser.
The area was quite small and not that outstanding, but the geyser did fire up
every 5-10 minutes.
Crowds at the geyser were much less than at
Thingvellir, so it looks like we have got ahead of the tour buses . We opt to
move on to the next highlight, the Gullfoss falls (or Golden Waterfalls), which
turn out to be quite impressive, and once again we are ahead of the tour buses,
so it is not too crowded.
Iceland has having a huge influx of
tourists and the infrastructure is straining to keep up with the ever
increasing crowds. It will be interesting to see what it is like in a few years
time.
There is good access to view the falls and
get wet in the spray if you get too close. Driving away from this sight a
little later we could see that the river feeding the falls is fed by a very
large glacier, not that far in the distance.
Before leaving the falls we had lunch at
the cafeteria there. Once again we were reminded about just how expensive
everything is here. A bowl of tomato soup and a smoked salmon bagel cost the
equivalent of $30.
The drive back to Reykjavik took us back
through more pretty country, and we arrived back in town at around 3pm, a bit
ahead of time, as we kept ahead of the bus tours and thus were not delayed by
the crowds at most places.
Getting closer to Reykjavik we saw a large
geothermal power plant, and the landscape was dominated by an old lava flow,
now covered with moss. It is about a thousand years old (so quite young in
geological history), and quite porous. Our guide explained that Reykjavik’s
fresh water supply came prom glacial water that collected under this lava flow
and that there is enough water there to supply the city for 40 years if it was
never replenished.
Our
driver/guide asked us if we would like a city tour to fill in the extra hour we
had allotted, which we readily agreed to.
He took us down to the harbour area where
there were lots of restaurants, fishing boats , tourist cruise boats etc, and
then past their “new” Culture Centre, a massive glass building on the
waterfront, which functions a bit like our Opera House.
We the drove through the city centre and he
pointed out the highlights along the way, before finally returning us to our
ship at 4 pm, with plenty of time before the planned 5pm departure.
The tour buses that did the same tour as
us, arrived back at the ship at 4.45pm, even though they left 30 minutes before
us this morning.
Having a cool beer upon deck before
departure we had a clear view of Videy Island, which is a bird sanctuary in the
harbour, and a ferry runs tours out there for a chance sighting of Puffins and
other native birds that nest on the island.
Leaving the harbour in beautiful sunny
weather was quite a treat as we just sat on the deck and took in the view as
Reykjavik receded behind us.
Iceland has been a real surprise. The
scenery is quite stunning, the population quite small (only 330,000), of which
about half live in Reykjavik. The people are very friendly and most speak good
English. Unemployment is non existent and there is virtually no crime, but it
is a very expensive place to visit.
We enjoyed it and look forward to our next
destination, Greenland., which has a population of 57,000 ! Our guest lecturer
, who comes from Iceland, explained to us the difference between Iceland and Greenland.
He said all we needed to remember is that Greenland has more ice than Iceland,
and that Iceland is greener than Greenland.
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