The ship was supposed to arrive in Reykjavik at 10 AM today, but due to the weather and seas the ship was delayed by two hours.
I woke up at 8 AM and got breakfast (Lucky Charms and some yogurt).
I was worried about making it off the ship, so I wasn’t planning to start my time lapse video, but I did which was good because it was a beautiful sail in, although the city was on the opposite side. And the ship did a 180 upon arrival.
I quickly packed my tripod upon arrival as the Cruise Director made an announcement that the queue to get off the ship was quite long and was near the piano bar entrance. I briskly walked to the area and got in the queue. The ship wasn’t cleared until about 12:30 PM. It was closer to 1 PM when I finally got off the ship.
I couldn’t find the tour company at the exit, so I called the number. They told me to look for another company because of my delayed arrival they transferred me to another company, GeoIceland. I still couldn’t find it, but they asked if I could find a store, which I couldn’t, so I walked over to the area where the other ship was docked and found the guy with the clipboard.
I wasn’t the last person to arrive and I wasn’t even in a hurry to get going. The van was a nice 15 passenger Mercedes which even had USB ports in the ceiling for keeping phones charged.
I took some pictures of the scenery on the way to our first stop.
The first place the tour stopped was Thingvellir National Park.
It was really nice and had a walkway along a deep crevice of rocks that are part of the tectonic plate. The driver met us at the bottom of the walkway which saved us a lot of time, plus it was easier to walk downhill.
Along the way to the next stop we made a detour to an area where the geothermal hot water was bubbling up near a lake. There were also people baking bread in the ground (bury a milk carton in the dirt near the hot water).
The next official stop was Gulfoss waterfall. This waterfall was much larger than I expected. It was quite spectacular and also had a rainbow intermittently when the sun came out.
A few more photos enroute to the next stop.
The penultimate stop was at Geyser, which is no longer active, however the smaller one named Strokkur was active and released water every 5-8 minutes. I captured some nice pictures and a couple of videos. It was pretty neat seeing the steam come out from the ground.
While driving we also found some Icelandic horses which have unique gaits.
The final stop was the Keirid crater. The crater has a lake on the inside and it is quite spectacular. With the change in the excursion I wasn’t exactly sure I was going to see it. I had enough time to take some pictures of it and walk all the way around. I also found a small bird with a very long beak.
While driving back to the ship the route the tour took passed by a large lava flow which was covered in moss. The moss is the first thing to grow on the volcanic rock left behind from the lava. It was really beautiful, however with the light getting low it was difficult to properly capture a picture of it.
By the time I got back on the ship it was 9 PM. It was a long day without food and water, although we did have an opportunity to buy something at the Geyser.
I had dinner at the Mermaid buffet on the Lido deck (too late for the 8:15 PM late dining). I grabbed a striploin steak, a slice of pork, linguini with sausage, vegetable fried rice, mozzarella sticks and a piece of fried chicken. I ate everything but the fried chicken.
I was still a bit hungry, so I stood in line at the Pizza Pirate and got a couple of pieces of pepperoni pizza, which was excellent, especially after I put some parmesan cheese and oregano on it.
I went back to the room to wait for the sailaway which was supposed to be around 11 PM.
The weather wasn’t great, but I started a time lapse video anyways.
Time to get some rest as the meeting time for the tour tomorrow is at 6:30 AM!
Today’s timeline:
