Iceland Intensive Cruise

  A rainy morning for our last day in Reykjavik. We had a relaxed breakfast at our hotel. The breakfast room is on the top floor of the hotel, and has a great view of the harbour. The Centerhotel Arnarhvoll has been a very convenient location, right across the street from Harpa Center. Rooms are fairly basic, but clean and comfortable and a good size. The rain stopped and we went for a short walk. Today there are 2 large and 3 small cruise ships in! There are 2 harbour locations, the larger one that we were at about 3 km from center of town, and the small one right in town. Only very small cruise ships can use that one - under 200 passengers probably. After check-out we caught the shuttle bus to the airport bus. The airport is about a 45 minute drive out of town. We allowed extra time at the airport as I remembered how chaotic it was last time. Luckily this time as we were flying Saga Class on Icelandair we were able to get priority in some of the lines, and access to the Lounge wh...

The forecast for today doesn't look too, good, and sure enough it starts to rain as we're waiting for our tour bus. We waited for about 20 minutes, then phoned the tour company. They didn't have our correct pickup, but then came to collect us. Several other passengers being picked up at the cruise had issues , so we were a bit late starting. It didn't affect the day though. We were on a small group tour through East West Tours, and it was very good with a fantastic tour guide. 17 people total. First stop at Thingvellir National Park, in the rift valley where the North America and European plates meet. The lake is the largest in Iceland, and it's also the site of the ancient Viking parliaments. It's a very pretty area, with good paths to walk around on. Luckily the rain had stopped by this point. I was here in 2017, and it's certainly a lot busier now. Next we drove through a farming area with mostly dairy farms. We stopped at one that has well known organic ...

 We woke up early, before our alarm and decided we might as well get up. We needed to be out of our cabin by 8am, and off the ship by 9am. Breakfast in the dining room was until 8:30, so we decided to go there and have a leisurely breakfast. Hardly anyone there, I guess they all went to the buffet. We're in no hurry to get off, as we won't be able to get into our hotel room until afternoon.  The information that Azamara gave us about transportation from the ship was very confusing. They had said that the port shuttle and taxis wouldn't be available from our dock and that unless we wanted to walk for over a mile the only option was their shuttle that went at an ungodly hour. As there was no way we were going to do that, we figured out our own way. And because we were there the day before we were able to check things out easily. There was a local bus stop about a 5 minute walk from the ship, a bus went every 1/2 hour and took us with-in a block of our hotel. So very easy. It ...

 There is a change in the weather overnight. From calm and mainly sunny to windy and mix of cloud/rain/sun. We wanted a fairly early start, so up at 7am and T to breakfast. Because the rain was lingering we delayed our departure slightly. The shuttle buses in this port are a bit confusing. There is some construction, so a lot of temporary arrangements. For today at least it's quite straight forward. A shuttle bus to take us to Harpa Center. Because it's Sunday morning it's very quiet in town. We had a walk through the old harbour, and the old town, then along Langevager street, the main shopping street and up to the church. No lineups, so we went up the tower. Great views from here. Then down from here to the small lake and around and down back to the old town. We bought our bus passes, 6000 ISL for a 10 ticket pass, about 6CAD. We went for a coffee and looked at a schedule. Figured out bus # to go to Perlan and back. Very smooth once you know the route numbers. We walked a...

 This was our first and only tender port. We weren't in any rush to get ashore, so we slept in a bit, had coffee in the room, visited the front desk to sort out some issues then went up for a late breakfast. We got ashore about 11am. It's a sunny day with a bit of haze, about 14C. This is a small town quite close to the main airport. There is a nice walkway along the waterfront with historical plaques. We passed a park with shelters for picnics, then a small marina and the "Trolls Cave" We followed the path up on a rocky peninsula with winding paths through the lupins. A little under 1 hour walk from the pier. There was a small museum that opened at noon, so we went in. They had some geological displays, some art works, some collections of various things like scale models of Icelandic ships, sewing machines, pens, plastic bags....An interesting old building as well. We walked back on the main street which was fairly small. A few restaurants, hotels and shops. Back on ...

 The White Night Party is a tradition on Azamara Cruises. This time it was planned for indoors because of the cool temperatures. But because it turned out a beautiful day, the decision was made to move the time a bit earlier and have it around the pool. I was actually in the shower when the announcement was made, so we had to  get ready quickly and head up on deck for 5:30pm. Every so often there was a cold blast of wind, but as we had a table in the sun it was really nice! The dinner was excellent, including fresh fish caught by some of the crew off a tender boat! After dinner there was a crew parade, and the band started. The dance floor was crowded and I think we were all glad that the party was outside. The ship was suppose to depart at 8pm, but the captain decided to delay departure so we could keep partying.Although the sun doesn't set until nearly midnight, it does cool off. So about 9pm the party moved indoors to one of the lounges. 

 Todays port arrival time was afternoon, so we had a nice relaxed morning. Coffee and yogurt in the room, and a chance to read and catch up on my Blog. The weather this morning was overcast and cool, only a high of 9C predicted. There was a deck barbeque for lunch - delicious ribs amoungst other things. The clouds were starting to lift as we approached Grundarfjordur. It's a small port, and we are the only ship in. The biggest attraction here is Kirkjufell, a mountain that is often used in Iceland advertising. But really, the whole backdrop of the bay is beautiful.  Once we walked off the pier there was a shuttle bus operated by a local man to take people to the base of Kirkjufell and Kirkjufellsfoss. 15 Euros round trip, goes every 30 minutes, about a 10 minute ride. It was much windier in this area, but the clouds had cleared. A beautiful mountain, but treacherous to climb. We could see the start of the path that looks easy, but it gets very steep very quickly. We just walke...

  We overnighted here and most people were up fairly early to do a full day tour. This is the 2nd biggest town in Iceland, and it's quite spread out. The weather has changed and today is cloudy and cool. We had booked a small group tour through a company called Imagine Iceland. Not only did they offer a tour to take us to all the places we wanted to see, it was a reasonable price and they promised to get us back to the ship on time! Their van was easy to find on the pier and our group of 8 set out. About an hour drive to our first stop at Godafoss, the waterfall of the gods. The clouds are low and a wind blowing, so we're glad of all our layers! The waterfall is very impressive and there is a huge volume of water. Lots of people around, but there are many viewing spots and paths so it's not crowded. Then on to Lake Myvatn, about a 30 min drive. There are still a few patches of snow around in sheltered areas. It's a very shallow lake known for the variety of birds and th...