Iceland Outback

The evening of our first day in Reykjavik stayed nice and clear; we had a beautiful sunset and hoped that Mother Nature would be nice enough to provide some night-time colour in the form of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. The astronomer who had presented on the Queen Mary 2 told us that the sun is in a particularly active phase, which means there is a greater possibility of seeing them, but it still needs certain amount luck…

Monica with a hot toddy in the new Palm Court. Nice sweater, eh?

As it turns out, we didn't see them, although we had a great opportunity to check out some constellations that aren't usually visible from southern Ontario.

Wednesday began with fairly calm winds and bright sunshine, but the forecast was for a new weather system to move in – just in time for us to leave that evening. We hoped that the tour would stay ahead of the weather, and we set out on our 4x4 Adventure and Lobster Lunch.

The whole tour group fit into four customized 4x4 off-road vehicles. We climbed into the biggest one, at the front of the line. Good thing, because the tour guide was in our car and we could hear all of her commentary quite clearly; some of the people in the other cars had some trouble as it was broadcast to them via the inter-vehicle radios. We also had 'the Boss' as our driver – he had built our vehicle himself, out of a Ford F-350 truck (the front half) and a Ford Expedition (the back half) with an interior from Harley-Davidson. And a REALLY BIG engine from we know not where! Here's a photo of Larry and the truck:

As we left the city, we passed the local golf course. Our tablemates Suzanne and Jim were supposed to be playing, along with about 20 other guests and the golf pro; we found out later that they heard the weather forecast and 'wimped out'. But it looked rather intriguing, nonetheless:

We really didn't have to go that far outside of Reykjavik to reach the lava fields since virtually all of Iceland is an active volcano. After a short drive on a well paved highway, we turned off onto a dirt road and shortly found ourselves driving along the shore of a lake formed by an ancient volcanic eruption. According to our guide, the lakes depth rises and falls with the local volcanic activity. It is currently at a low, leaving a large beach which we were about to explore. By way of a short drive off what appeared to be a cliff!!! Here is what it looked like from the beach!

After driving back up onto the road, by way of an almost-beach-level access we had actually passed on the way in, we headed for our next stop, the local hot springs. The land mass of Iceland sits on top of a constantly bubbling pool of lava. Ground water seeps down to the lava, is vapourized and escapes as steam that pops up randomly above the surface. The name Reykjavik actually translates as "Bay of Smoke" in the Norse language that the Icelandic language derives from and steam clouds can be seen everywhere as you drive along. This particular hotspring is one of the largest near the city and has a series of paths and overlooks so you can get up-close-and-personal with the bubbling mud. And the smell, a result of the naturally occurring sulphur that is a by-product of your average volcano. Think of "egg salad sandwich day" at your high school cafeteria. Times ten!!

'Bubble, bubble, toil and'.. horrendous smell!

Another interesting thing about the hotspring is its location in the Rift Valley. Iceland is actually part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which divides the North America tectonic plate from the Eurasia tectonic plate. The really interesting thing is that these two plates are moving in opposite directions, which means that one day in the distant future Iceland will become two separate islands. If you look in the background of the picture below, you will see the valley and a line of low hills in the distance. Those hills are on the Eurasia plate, while where we were standing is on the North America plate, making Iceland the only place where you can travel from Europe to North America without a passport. Something we did several times over the course of the afternoon!

After leaving the hot spring, we headed toward the coast, still driving among the lava fields, to visit an old church, known as the Strandakirkja, or Beach Church. It was built on the beachfront by some sailors who, after their ship ran against some rocks and sank, promised God they would put up a church on the spot where they might safely reach the shore. The original church was destroyed a time or two in its history, but has always been rebuilt in a similar manner.

The beach in front of the church at low tide

The church interior. Most village churches in Iceland have ceilings
painted blue with stars.

After that, we headed for our Icelandic Lobster lunch. Our drivers took us to another small town, and to a beachfront restaurant – you try to pronounce that name! In true European fashion, everything was served family style; tomato, cucumber and lettuce salads – and then the waiters came around with these big bowls filled with lobster tails and boiled new potatoes. Looked yummy, and tasted really good, too! The lobsters are very small, almost the size of a jumbo shrimp, but also very sweet.

Attack! And that wasn't his first helping!!

Lunch break over, we climbed back into the trucks and headed out to where, as our guide said, 'the adventure really begins!'. But nicely visible in the distance we could see the three largest volcanoes of Iceland, including the one that erupted a couple of years ago and caused all the aviation chaos with its huge, thick ash cloud. Don't ask us to even try to spell its name, never mind pronounce it. One of the volcanoes is in the background of this photo of the Icelandic Horses. The horses themselves are quite interesting. Horses were originally brought to the island by the Vikings. No one else ever brought any others, so all Icelandic horses are directly descended from the Viking horses. The rules about these horses are so strict that, if ever a horse leaves the country for any reason, it cannot come back. These horses are in no danger of extinction, either. There are over 100,000 in Iceland; some may do some work, but most are owned as 'pets'.

Another village church

After a short drive from the town, we turned off onto a dirt track and our guide told us to make sure we were "buckled up". Good thing we were! For the next twenty minutes we raced along, across, over and right down the middle of a stream!!

One of the other trucks racing by to give us a
bit of a car wash.

Bounding out of the stream our driver made a bee line for what appeared to be yet another cliff, but instead of going around it, he went straight up the face. Or at least he tried to. Much like climbing a hill in a snowstorm, we slowly ran out of speed and slid backwards down the hill while the other vehicles raced past and up to the top. After fiddling with his gear shift, our driver commented "might work better if it was in four wheel drive", at which point we rocketed up the hill and over the top! And found ourselves on a plateau in the middle of a wind storm! Our guide announced we could get out, but when she opened her door and her short hair stood straight up in the air, we decided to pass on that opportunity.

Heading back down off the "mountain" we headed for our final stop at the new thermal generating station. As we mentioned earlier, Iceland sits on a vast lava pool and the Icelanders make use of this by tapping into huge pools of underground hotsprings and using both the steam and the hot water. We visited one of seventeen different thermal "wells" supporting this new generating station. The water comes out of the ground at 380C degrees and is piped about five kilometres to the generating station through massive copper pipes, losing only about 2C degrees along the way. The steam is used to generate electricity and the "waste" water is then piped to Reykjavik, over 50 kilometres away, where it arrives at 98C, or just below boiling point!!!!! It used to be pumped straight into the water system at that temperature, but they realized very quickly that doing so was not a really good idea as it came out of household taps at just about the same 98C. While it might be convenient to be able to make tea with your tap water, it is not a really good idea when taking a bath! They now mix it automatically with cold water so it comes out of the average hot water tap at a mere 40C, which is still awfully hot!!!! An interesting side note to the thermal springs. While we did not see them, there are apparently a large number of thermal hot houses in a couple of towns in Iceland where they grow bananas, as well as other tropical fruits, 12 months of the year!

The primary vent pipes

The new thermal generating station

On the way back to the ship, the weather finally caught up to us. We had been told to expect a change, and by the time we reached the ship the wind was howling and the temperature had dropped significantly. We were scheduled to depart at 5:00, and Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas was bobbing around off the harbour waiting for our parking spot. Unfortunately, there was little manoeuvring room where we were docked and the wind, now blowing very hard directly from the right, would not let the ship come off the dock! The Captain announced that he planned to wait until the wind decreased, but finally at 10:00 they had to call in the tugs to pull us off the dock and we were on our way. Never did see Brilliance, so we're not sure where it went, but if they had been bouncing around like we were soon bouncing around, we're betting they were really happy to see us finally leave!!!!

Next Stop, Iceland!

After leaving Dublin, the itinerary called for two days at sea before our next port stop in Akureyri, on the northeast coast of Iceland, but as the old saying goes about the best laid plans…….

As a quick aside, on the first of our two expected sea days before Iceland, we had arranged a dinner at Prego for some of the Cruise Critic people as well as Jim and Steve. A couple of people couldn't make it, and instead we were joined by John Loesser. Here's the photo of all of us at the table:

From left: Steve, Jim, Larry, Monica, (the other) Larry, Nancy & John

After an uneventful Saturday spent sailing northward, things began to get just a bit rougher Sunday morning. Of course, we had been warned. At his morning update Saturday, Captain Zander said that the wind would come up and waves would grow as we headed north. That evening, at the Cruise Critic cocktail party he told us that the forecast for Akureyri was not looking good, with strong winds and 30 foot waves, meaning we might have to cancel.  Sure enough, at the Sunday update he announced that due to forecast winds of 50 MPH, waves of 30 – 40 feet and SNOW, he had decided to cancel Akureyri. Good plan!!! All we need to tell you, to describe how rough the seas were Sunday and Monday, is that we are on Deck 10 and about10:30 Monday morning a wave washed our balcony door! It looked like someone threw a bucket of water at the door. Scared the heck out of Monica who was quietly sitting in the cabin knitting! She even dropped a stitch!!!!!!!!

First view of Iceland, before the clouds and fog rolled in

How the verandah looked AFTER the wave!

On Tuesday we arrived in Reykjavik about 4 hours before our original schedule, so we had a little more time to explore the city. It was a pretty day, nice and bright and about 7 degrees C, but with the strong wind it felt more like 1 or 2 degrees. Since we were in no particular hurry to go ashore, we thought we would take advantage of the room service breakfast option before we set out on our day.

It turned out to be a good thing that we'd packed some extra warm stuff for the whale watching we were supposed to do in Akureyri; at least we still got the use out of it. There was a shuttle bus service running all day, so we decided to do some exploring and maybe a little souvenir shopping.

Our first stop was the Hallgrimskirkja, the main church in Reykjavik and the biggest landmark in the city. It took 40 years to build and was opened in 1986. It is quite an impressive structure from both the outside and the inside, and is a great example of minimalist design. The statue outside is of Lief Ericsson, acknowledged to be the founder of the Viking colonies in Iceland.

It is also only one example of modern architecture around Reykjavik. For some reason, we don't think of a country as remote as Iceland to be as progressive and modern as its equivalents in Europe or North America, but it is a very interesting mixture of traditional and new. It is in a way just a representation of the country's culture – the people mix a firm basis in tradition, such as their own language that has stood since the Vikings and which they don't want to lose, with new technologies and uses for the geothermal energy that is abundant everywhere due to the volcanic nature of the landmass. (We'll go into that a little later.)


One of the other traditions is the folklore around trolls and elves. Elves are the 'good guys' who are there to help if anyone asks, and the trolls are the mischievous ones who like to make trouble, so the elves keep the trolls in line. In this way, the Viking tradition was carried here from Norway. And into downtown Reykjavik!

Larry and his new friend!

On our way out in the morning we bumped into another couple we know who were already on their way back. They commented that there was nothing to see and their first impression of Reykjavik was correct "grey with a little grey thrown in for colour." We're glad we didn't take their advice. After visiting the church, and doing our bit for the Icelandic economy on the main shopping drag, we decided to just wander about and see what there was to see. And this is what we found;

After all that sightseeing, it was time for lunch, so we set off in search of a restaurant and some authentic Icelandic food. Found it!!!

Monica's lobster salad and Larry with his lobster sandwich

As we had a tour scheduled for Wednesday anyway, after lunch we headed back to the ship and a leisurely afternoon of high intensity relaxation. But we did pass an interesting boat along the way.

A sylized depiction of a Viking ship on the waterfront

A Day in Dublin

We opened the curtains on a slightly overcast but dry day, apparently an anomaly for this summer according to the shuttle bus driver who took us into town. Not that the Irish are at all prone to exaggeration, but he said that it has rained every day of the summer; we could only hope that the luck of the Irish works better for visitors than it does for locals.

Rather than taking an organized tour from the ship, we took the advice given by a few people who had been here before, and just did our own walking tour. In case anyone's keeping track, the pedometer told us we had walked yet another 7 miles when all was said and done.

So here's what we saw of Dublin. It's a good thing that we're planning to be back here next summer on a British Isles cruise – there's still lots more to visit.

We wanted to start our tour at Trinity College to see the exhibit of the Book of Kells, but there was a lineup to get in and we weren't sure how long a wait it would be. So we decided to leave it until later. Instead, we walked toward St. Patrick's Cathedral. On the way, we found the bronze statue of Molly Malone, affectionately known either as 'the Dish with the Fish' or 'the Tart with the Cart', depending on your state of mind when you pass by.

Our route took us by Dublin Castle, so we stopped to check it out. It doesn't look that much like a castle, except for the church and tower, but it does have a very nice green surrounded by gardens (the green apparently also doubles as a helicopter landing area for the government departments that are located in the Castle – there's not another open piece of ground big enough that we could see).

We finally reached St. Patrick's Cathedral. What an impressive building, both inside and outside, although we had expected there to be a bit more decoration on the inside. One of the more interesting features is the church organ. The original organ was replaced over a hundred years ago, but it is on display, and is the same organ on which George Frederic Handel played his 'Messiah' oratorio in a church for the first time in 1742. Apparently he wrote much of the piece while in Dublin, and there is a plaque and a hotel bearing his name on the spot where the first actual performance took place.

This photo isn't just for the intricate floor tiles - people have hand-stitched
their seat cushions in some very beautiful patterns.

The original organ that was played by Handel

The plaque and hotel are just behind Christ Church Cathedral, which happened to be the stop after St. Patrick's on our little tour. It would have been nice to get more than one photo of it, or maybe visit the interior, but we walked all the way around and couldn't find anything that looked like a main entrance. Maybe you need to be a member of the congregation before they'll tell you how to get inside…

After all that walking, we decided to look around in the Temple Bar area, an older part of town that now houses shops and restaurants, and maybe find a traditional Irish pub for a spot of lunch.

Once we arrived, we discovered "finding a pub" would not be a difficult task. They are only side-by-side all the way down the three blocks of the main street in this very touristy part of town. After walking from one end of Temple Bar (the actual street name) to the other and back, we settled on The Original Temple Bar Pub. Looking through any of its many doors it was crowded with "locals" so it had to be the place for us. And we were not disappointed. Finding a spot at the main bar, we ordered a "traditional" Irish cold meat and cheese platter, complete with fresh-baked crusty breads and crackers. And a Jamesons Irish on the rocks for Monica while Larry had an NA version of a local draught brew.

And this is only the Irish whiskies!!

We finally managed to get into the Book of Kells exhibit. This is a hand-written and beautifully illuminated (decorated) Latin manuscript of the four Gospels that was used by St. Colum Cille to 'turn darkness into light', to spread Christianity throughout the country. It is said to have been written over 1,000 years ago, in the 9th Century, probably by monks on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. It was even stolen once, around 1050, when the thieves made off with the jewel-encrusted cover and threw the rest of the book into a gutter. After it was recovered it was cared for a little more carefully, and eventually ended up in Trinity College in 1661. We don't think it has been on display for all that time; if it had been the entry fee probably wouldn't have been as high. Of course, you can't take photos of the exhibit, but the few pages of the book that are open to view are quite impressive. There is probably a lot of info on the Internet if you're interested in checking it out further.

The ship leaves at 6:00 for the first of two sea days on our way to Iceland. Our table host last night, the Chief Officer, told us that we will once again (for us anyway) cross north of the Arctic Circle, and at the Welcome Party last night the Captain dropped some "teasers" about cold weather and rough seas. He commented that Serenity was in Istanbul, where it was 34C and that we could look forward to a temperature of 34 too. In Fahrenheit!!!! So I guess we will just have to wait and see what the North Atlantic has in store for us.

We'll leave you with a photo of us taken by Justine, one of the bar waitresses, in the Starlight Lounge before dinner and the party. This one's for you, Jane: