August 16, 2024. We got off the ship around 8am and took a taxi to our room. To my surprise, Jeremy was waiting for us there and startled me when I opened the door. (I knew he was flying over from Ireland to sightsee with us, but thought we’d meet him in his room instead of ours.) But it was a NICE surprise and I was glad to see him and get a hug!
We wandered around the downtown area of Reykjavik for a while, stopping at the Hallgrimskirkja Church and the Sun Voyager Sculpture and walking through the pedestrian streets. Then, we walked over to the Saga Museum. We listened to an audio-guide as we looked at life-like replicas of historical Icelandic figures, based on descriptions found in the Viking sagas and chronicles. It was interesting enough and well done. My favorite part, though, was taking pics of Jeremy dressed in a Viking costume and fighting the polar bear, haha. We grabbed lunch at Reykjavik Fish Restaurant then walked back to the guesthouse. After resting, we went back out for dinner, to Icelandic Street Food for some traditional Icelandic soup! It was served in bread bowls, which were pretty tough to eat; but while we sat talking, Jeremy finished his entire bowl, haha.
August 17, 2024. We woke up early the next morning to eat breakfast at the sister guesthouse across the street then walk to the bus stop where we met our tour bus. We did the 8 hour Golden Circle tour, which had four stops (plus a quick stop to pet Icelandic horses):
- Þingvellir National Park (Thingvellir in English). Trails through geological formations, where the Earth is literally splitting apart! (Iceland sits atop a rift area where the North American tectonic plate meets the Eurasion tectonic plate; Iceland is not being “created” anymore as much as it’s being “regenerated”—it’s growing at the rate of about 2cm per year from these rifts that cuts through Iceland, but its coasts are being eroded at about the same rate!) Plus, it’s the birthplace of the nation, where Iceland’s history kicked off. This area was gorgeous and one of my favorite scenic places in Iceland!
- Gullfoss waterfall. Means “Golden Floss” and is one of Icelands most iconic falls.
- Haukadalur. A geothermal area. The Great Geyser has not been erupting lately, but the smaller one called Strokkur Geyser erupted every 8-10 minutes, so we got to watch it a couple of times while we were there.
- Secret Lagoon. This lagoon is the oldest man-made swimming pool in the country, built in 1891. It didn’t seem very warm at first, but once we got closer to the side where the geothermal water was flowing into the pool, it was plenty hot! We enjoyed the relaxing soak after the long day of traveling and walking.
Since it was a long day already, we went back to the room to rest for a bit before meeting for dinner at 2 Guys. Later, we met up again and used a Hopp car to drive to a darker area of Reykjavik after midnight, to see if we got lucky enough to see Northern Lights. The skies weren’t too cloudy and according to an Aurora app, there was chance we’d see them. But after looking for about an hour, we gave up. Oh well, it was worth a shot, I suppose.
August 18, 2024. On the third day, the Whale Watching tour we booked in a RIB boat was canceled due to high winds / choppy waves, so we walked to the Perlan museum instead and spent a few hours going through the exhibits. It included a Northern Lights presentation at the planetarium and walking through an Ice Cave at -5 degrees Celsius — brrr! We also walked around the observation deck which had awesome views of the city and ate pizza at the cafe in the museum.
We finally talked Jeremy into using scooters to get all the way across town instead of spending over an hour walking the 2.7 miles to the Lava Show. It still took us about 30 minutes, since we had to weave through people and traffic, but I thought it was more fun than walking. (Jeremy said he preferred walking — oh well!) The Lava Show was way cooler than I expected (actually, it was super hot!). We got a close look at a lava flow and learned a lot about it in the process! Plus, we did a short behind-the-scenes tour to look at their furnace for melting the lava.
August 19, 2024. I had rescheduled the RIB boat Whale Watching tour for our last day, but again it got canceled. So we decided to go out on the bigger boat instead, since it seemed like whale watching in Iceland was such a popular thing to do. We did indeed see a humpback whale while we were out and followed it around for a while. It even flipped its tail up once, which was the most exciting part of the outing!
Afterwards, we wasted some time walking through souvenir shops then went to the Grill Market for dinner. Our Golden Circle tour guide had highly recommended this place and it did not disappoint. We were all interested in trying the unique meats that Icelandic people eat, so we ordered Puffin, Reindeer, Whale and Horse to share. It was all very fancy and tasted great! We agreed that Puffin was our least favorite, since it had a mild liver taste to it. The whale was good, but we liked the Reindeer and Horse best. (The idea of eating horse was strange, but it pretty much just tasted like beef)
August 20, 2024. Jeremy had to leave his room around 3am to get to the airport, but Randy and I didn’t have to leave until around 6am. We walked about .5 miles to the bus terminal, for the 45 minute ride to the airport.
It was a great trip and I’m glad Jeremy was able to fly over from Ireland to join us. Iceland is an extremely beautiful country and worth exploring. It feels like a once in a lifetime experience, but there’s a chance we’d go back and explore the southern coast, since we didn’t get around to that this time. At least next time I’ll be more prepared for how expensive the meals are there.
By the end of the 18 days, I was definitely ready to go home and rest. On the bright side, all the walking we did during the 4 days in Reykjavik (probably about 15 -20 miles total) got rid of some of the weight I gained on the cruise! We were thankful for our friends, Kendrae and Ora, who picked us up from the airport and drove us to Home Sweet Home. Now, time to do laundry and get adjusted to the five hour time difference!
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