We disembarked our small ship at 9 am and climbed aboard our tour bus. We are experiencing the best weather of the trip. It is sunny and warm with no wind. There is a volcano erupting today. We can see the white steam and brown ash blowing out to sea.

We asked our bartender Richie to take a farewell photo. He is from the Philippines and his life’s dream is own a motorcycle shop in Manila.

Our first stop was Klavala Lake - glass flat with reflections in the water.

Our next stop was the Krysuvic sulfur and mud hot springs. I love the smell of sulfur in the morning.

We stopped at the Viking museum. There is a replica of Lief Ericsson’s boat Islendingur in the museum. Lief is the son of Eric the Red. Lief is alleged to have landed in North America (Vinland) 500 years prior to Columbus.

Here is a statue of Floki. In 868, Flóki left to search for the land found by Garðar Svavarsson way up in the north. He was accompanied by his family on his journey; his wife was named Gró and his children included Oddleifur and Þjóðgerður. From Western Norway he set sail to the Shetland Islands where it is said his daughter drowned. He continued his journey and landed in the Faroe Islands where another of his daughters was wed. There he took three ravens to help him find his way to Iceland, and thus, he was nicknamed Raven-Flóki.

Floki has a scotch named after him that is sheep dung smoked.

We stopped at The Bridge Between the Continents. This small bridge crosses the gap between the tectonic plates between Europe/Asia and North America. It is possible to stand on two continents at the same time.

In this photo I am holding up the Bridge Between the Continents.

So ends our saga in the Land of Fire and Ice. Until next time be well our friends.

We cruised on reasonably flat seas last night back to Reykjavik. The captain will not have to make any apologies.

This is our last full day in Iceland the land of fire and ice. Our first activity on Tuesday is to a get a COVID test so we can re-enter the USA. This will cost $160 for the two of us. We have our COVID vaccine passports that allowed us to enter Iceland. However we need a COVID test to re-enter the USA.

This was our view this morning to get our COVID test. The health care worker was energetic. I thought she might poke a hole into my brain to get her sample. Iceland has reinstated mask rules.

We asked our favorite bartender Richie to take our photo in our happy place. We enjoy sitting in the lounge on deck six with a panoramic view from the bow.

Today we explored the Golden Circle. That includes the Guillfoss waterfall, Geysir hot spring and Thingvellir national park.

We had a special surprise stop at a horse farm and hydroponic tomato garden. The owner and his wife had a vision 25 years ago to start this business. They have been very successful and advised the tourists piece of the business has become the most profitable segment.

The owner advised there are 100,000 horses in Iceland.. They were brought to Iceland by the Vikings and have a pure blood line going back 1,000 years. No horses have been imported to Iceland since the days of the Vikings.

Lunch consisted of tomato soup, bread and roast chicken. This is the dessert. It was served in a tiny flower pot with tomato jam. They also serve tomato flavored beer. They ship two tons of tomatoes to market every day. They maintain colonies of bees to pollinate their hydroponic plants.

Our next stop was the Guillfoss waterfall.

Then on to visit the Geysir hot spring. The water is 212°f. The geyser erupts every 8 minutes.

Icelanders tell it like it is.

Our final stop of the day was at the Thingvellir national park. This is the location where the tectonic plates for the North American and European continents meet. They are pulling apart at 2 centimeters per year.

The ship’s doctor travels with our tour group. He carries a mobile hospital on his back. Tauck knows their clientele very well and those clients are really old.

The tourist industry is bouncing back in Iceland. The gift shop parking lots are filling up with bus loads of tourists once again.

Here is one final photo from Haimaey Island. I took this photo from our cabin balcony. We have a lovely huge balcony that we never use due to the weather.

Tonight we will pack our suitcases and put them out in the hallway for a 5 am pick up. Tauck has so many passengers with flights late in the day that they arranged some excursions in the morning to help pass the time. Our flight to Chicago departs at 4:45 pm.

Heimaey translates to Home Island. At 13.4 square kilometres (8.4 sq miles) it is the largest and most populated island off the Icelandic coast. Heimaey is 4 nautical miles off the south coast of Iceland.

You can see on this map that we are off the coast of southern Iceland. It was a rolly polly 22 hour cruise to get here. We didn’t have lee cloths on the bed but they would have helped. This leg of the cruise was not good for those that might suffer from mal de mar. The captain made a comment this morning that he was sorry that it was a little bit choppy last night. He said it with cutest French accent.

Here is an arial view of Haimaey Island. Not my photo.

The entrance to the harbor is very narrow and according to the captain “very dramatic.” It is rainy and foggy today. I would add foul weather pants to my wardrobe on my next visit to Iceland.

The right side of the harbor entrance was almost completely blocked when the volcano erupted in 1973. The townspeople sprayed sea water on the lava to cool it and stop it. As a result the harbor is more protected.

This map shows how the volcanic eruption in 1973 increased the land mass of the island. In January 1973, lava flow from nearby Eldfell volcano destroyed half the town and threatened to close its harbour, its main income source. An operation to cool the advancing lava with sea water saved the harbour. Today Heimaey has 5,300 inhabitants.

Here is a brief history - In 1627, three Arab pirate ships from the Ottoman-controlled Barbary Coast raided several towns on the south coast of Iceland and outlying islands. They attacked Grindavík and Heimaey. In Grindavík, townspeople could flee into the lava field of Reykjanes and hide indefinitely. Heimaey was so isolated that it was vulnerable and people suffered. Many heroic stories were told of the people who survived the invasion, most notably Guðríður Símonardóttir. Better known as Tyrkja-Gudda (Turkish-Gudda), she was taken by the pirates from her home at Stakkagerði on Heimaey to the slave market in Algeria. From there she bought her way back to Iceland through Tunisia, Italy and Denmark—Iceland was then under Danish rule. Upon returning to Iceland, she married the poet Hallgrímur Pétursson.

The island children were terrified by stories of the bloodthirsty Turks that killed 34 men and women and took 200 slaves . Those who tried to hide in the cliffs were hunted down and killed.

We knew it was going to be a rough night when the crew placed sea sickness bags on all the railings around the ship.

We are docked next to a fish meal processing plant. It reminds me of towns that have paper mills. There is a constant odor from the paper mill that is generally unpleasant unless you are a salesperson selling items to the paper mill and then it smells like perfume. I am not selling anything to the fish meal plant.

We took a bus tour to the top of an extinct volcano and saw sheep and thousands of puffins.

When I was on Grimsey I saw an old man carrying a giant net. The handle was 8’ long. I asked him if he was catching giant butterflies. He said he was trying to catch puffins to kill and eat. He advised he was so hung over from drinking with his friends the previous night that his reflexes were too slow to catch a puffin. He had to find a secluded place away from the tourists because when he catches a puffin he wrings the neck like a chicken. He says they are very good eating. His plan is to not drink to excess and try again tomorrow.

Elephant rock is a local tourist attraction near the main harbor.

We visited the volcano museum. It was built on the site where the lava ended. They excavated several of the homes and built the museum around them. The entire town was evacuated to the mainland. Fortunately there had been a storm the day before the eruption and the entire fishing fleet was in port. The fishing fleet evacuated the population.

Here is a view inside a home that that was excavated inside the museum. A family of five lived here and barely escaped with their lives.

We only have one more day on our cruise. Our ship will sail back to Reykjavik tonight and we have a Golden Circle bus tour of the “Big Three.” That includes the Guillfoss waterfall, Geysir hot spring and Thingvellir national park.

Word on the ship is the owner of the mega yacht we saw yesterday in Akureyri is JK Rowling the author of the Harry Potter books.

We docked in Isafjordur after cruising all night. Once again the seas were flat and the ship was steady. Our good fortune will not continue. Isafjordur is similar to all the other fjord towns because it was started as a herring station and continues to rely heavily on fishing for its industry.

Here you can see where we are today on this chart. We are on the north west side of Iceland.

We took a tour boat to Vigur Island. It is the second largest island in Isafjordur fjord. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, the island is around 2 kilometres (6,600 ft) in length and 400 metres (1,300 ft) in width. The island is most noted for its thriving seabird colonies—particularly Puffins, Atlantic terns and Eider.

All the buildings on Vigur are clustered on this beach. The two story Victoria House built in 1860, is one of the oldest timber buildings in Iceland and is part of The Historical Buildings Collection. In the past there were as many as 15 farms on the island. Today, there is only a single farm located on Vigur.

A windmill, built in 1840, is also located on the island. It is the only surviving historic windmill in the country and possibly the northernmost windmill in the world. You can see the flag of Iceland in this photo.

This is an Eiger. It looks like a duck to me but it does not quack. Each year around 3500 nests of the Common Eider are found on Vigur. The nests are lined with Eider Down which is collected by the farmer once eggs have hatched and chicks vacated.

The Eider Down is dried, sorted and cleaned. The eiderdown sells for $1,200 per kilo (2.2 pounds). I would guess that a kilo of eiderdown would fill a large room.

Vigur is home to one of the largest puffin colonies in Iceland as well as a rare colony of Black Guillemot. It also hosts vast numbers of Arctic Tern. The Arctic Terns are very territorial. When they have chicks nearby they dive bomb the tourists to chase them away.

You can see the tourists in the other photo are waving sticks above their heads. They do this to scare off the Arctic Terns. Here is a supply of Arctic Tern defense sticks. The farmer points out you should only use the stick for defense and do not try to knock the birds out of the sky when they attack. Another option is to walk next a person that is taller than you. The birds will attack the tallest person. When we were on Grimsey one of our fellow travelers was hit in the head by an Arctic Tern and it knocked his hat off and scratched him.

Iceland's oldest seaworthy boat, Vigurbreiður, is also on Vigur. This boat was used to transport sheep across the fjord to the mainland. The sheep would graze on the slopes of Horse Mountain. They would carry up 30 sheep per trip in this boat.

This is a view of Horse Mountain across the fjord from Vigur Island.

All this could have been yours! Last year Vigur Island was put up for sale. It is speculated that it sold for at least 300 million Icelandic krona, which is somewhere in the region of $3,000,000. The island was purchased by two adventurers. The husband is from Iceland and met his future wife in Antarctica after she had completed a solo crossing of Antarctica on cross country skis. She is from the UK. They married and have a four year old daughter. During the winter they are the only inhabitants of the island. They supplement their income by welcoming tourists to explore their island. The tour companies pay a fee for each tourist and there is a very nice gift shop in the restaurant.

As I am writing today’s blog the wind and the seas are building. Tonight is our longest voyage of the trip. We departed Isafjordur at 2 pm and will arrive at Heimaey Island at noon tomorrow. This is a 22 hour leg. The winds are on the nose all the way at 20+ knots. The waves are already 4 - 6 ‘ with occasional 8 footers. So far the gyro stabilizers are earning their keep. We shall see how well our fellow passengers can handle lumpy seas.

We are anchored at the south end of the Eyjafjordur fjord.  This is a very rural area.  For the very first time I am smelling cow manure while on a boat.  

We are the blue dot at the bottom of the Eyjafjordur fjord.

We are at the dock in Akureyri. This is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fourth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's heavily populated southwest corner.  Nicknamed the "Capital of North Iceland", Akureyri is an important port and fishing center.  The area where Akureyri is located was settled in the 9th century. Alureyri means corn field. Corn was grown here 100 years ago when the climate was warmer. There are no cornfields in Akureyri today.

We took a tour bus to Siglufjörður which was one of the most important ports in Iceland and, on more than one occasion, herring exported from this town accounted for over 20% of the nation's total exports.

Herring was king from 1903 thru 1968. As the herring adventure progressed, a goldrush-like atmosphere settled over the town, leading to Siglufjörður been dubbed the "Atlantic Klondike". The town also became a magnet for herring speculators who came and went - some making considerable money during their stay. With its booming industry, Siglufjörður became a mecca for tens of thousands of workers and laborers seeking employment.

We visited the Herring museum. This is the largest maritime museum in Iceland. The museum provides a real life enactment of how herring are processed by Herring girls.

The herring girls cut off the heads and gut the herring. Then the herring are stacked in barrels with salt to cure them. Stories of Herring girls hooking up with herring fisherman are legend. On stormy days when the herring fleet was trapped in port there were no herring to process so everyone had a day off.

In the past the heads and guts were processed into fish meal. These days they fed to the seagulls.

The seagulls are enjoying their lunch.

The Herring girls provide entertainment singing period sounds from the 1920’s while accompanied by an accordion player.

The Herring girls could earn up to $10 a day packing herring. This was similar to the pay received by a policeman in New York City. This changed the economy of Iceland. By 1968 over fishing and changes in the Atlantic current ended the herring industry.

A mega yacht was standing by waiting for us to depart so they could take our place on the dock.

The pilot boat followed us for a while until the fjord pilot departed. Being a fjord pilot must be very easy job. Keep the land on the left and the right.

Tomorrow we will explore Isafjrdur.

Odin has been kind and the seas were flat all night and all day. The ship is riding steady as if she were a train on the rails. We had a delightful visit to Grimsey and got the money shots proving we have crossed the Arctic Circle. Here are some fun facts about Grimsey.

5.3 square km (3.2 miles) in size

41 km (25 miles) off the north coast of Iceland

This is the lat/lon of Grimsey - 66.53929 N and 18.00457 W

The population of Grimsey is 90 people and 3 million birds. This includes 40,000 pairs of puffins. Male puffins sleep on the water at night, then they feed and come ashore.

The main industry is fishing. Codfish make up 78% of the catch.

Grimsey has one restaurant, one grocery store, one souvenir store, one camp site one sauna.

There are no rodents, minx, foxes, snakes or mosquitoes

Orbis et Globus is located on the Arctic circle. It is a 3 meter granite sphere that is moved around the island to the exact location of the Arctic Circle.

Fotur is the northern most point on Grimsey.

Arctic terns migrate from Grimsey on the Arctic circle to the Antarctic circle. This Is the longest migration of any birds which is 40,000 mile round trip.

Here is a map of Grimsey. The Orbis et Globus is on the northern tip. It is six mile round trip hike from the harbor.

We have our Christmas card photo.

The photo spot shows the distance from the Arctic Circle to various major cities.

From this spot on Grimsey it is 1862 miles to Moscow, 9785 miles to Sydney and 2,667 miles to NYC.

This is the Orbis et Globus. It is moved around the island to match the exact location of the Arctic Circle.

Here are pictures of Puffins. We took these photos. They were not taken off the web.

More Puffins

This is one of our Tauck naturalists Marcos. We met Marcos for the first time during our Panama Canal trip. He has a telescope that allowed us to get close up views and photos of Puffins.

This photo was taken with the help of Marcos’ telescope. The Puffin has herring in her mouth to feed her babies.

This photo was taken at 12:30 am off the northern coast of Iceland, Yes, this is the land of the midnight sun.

Here is an overview of our trip itinerary. Tomorrow we will explore Akureyri.

Here is a photo of a photo of me at the welcoming gala dinner.

We are under way on glass flat seas on our way to Akureyri.

Overnight the seas flattened and the ship settled down around 3 am. We were up at the crack of 9 am to prepare for our shore excursion at noon. The wind direction was unfavorable for the ship to tie up at the dock.

We dropped anchor in Grundarfjord harbor and used the lifeboats to ferry to shore. We were met by Snaefeliness tour bus and had a 30 minute ride through the country side to Djupalonssandur. This fishing village was first settled by the French.

We climbed aboard a tour boat and cruised out to several small islands to go bird watching.

We saw many gulls and puffins. The puffins are not good at flying. They are much better swimmers than fliers.

On the way back to the ferry dock the crew set a drag net to collect shellfish from the sea bottom. They dragged the net for approximately 10 minutes and brought aboard a bounty of seafood. This included sun stars, star fish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and scallops.

The crew shucked the scollops and passed them around for us to eat. They also served sea urchin row.

We returned to the dock and walked around the fishing hamlet Arnarstapi. The town is built on a hill so almost every house has a water view.

We made a stop the Lutheran church.

Above the alter is a painting of a blonde haired, blue eyed Madonna floating over the mountains of Iceland.

Our tour bus took us back to Djupalonssandur and we returned to the ship. Tonight is the ship’s welcoming dinner. Priscilla and I will wear our fancy outfits.

Here is a quick catch up on fun facts that I have not previously mentioned.

Reykjavik means -“ smoke cove”. The early settlers observed billowing steam rising from hot springs in the area.

The Icelandic weather is very changeable because it is located at the confluence of the warm north Atlantic Ocean and the cold Arctic Ocean. The Norwegian Sea is on the east side.

I mentioned that Iceland is the size of Kentucky but another comparison is it is 75 times smaller than Australia.

Iceland has the lowest energy costs in the world because they generate electricity with solar and geothermal energy.

Reykjavik was first settled by Ingolfur Arnarson in year 874.

There are 141 passengers on our ship and 117 crew members. The majority of the crew are below decks and we never see them.

There are no snakes and no mosquitos in Iceland.

Tonight our ship will sail north to the Island of Grimsey and we will cross the Arctic circle tomorrow.

Our small ship is rocking and rolling in 6 - 8 swells cruising north from Reykjavik to

Grundarfjordur. We are in the North Atlantic Ocean so I am not surprised.

After our welcome luncheon for our Tauck tour group at the Harpa center we toured the Perlman museum with a walk through an ice tunnel. Our next stop was the Lutheran church that has a pipe organ with 5,275 pipes.

The most popular mode of transportation in Reykjavik is the electric scooter. There are scooter rental kiosks all over the city.

There are sculptures all along the water front. Here is a sculpture that depicts a Viking ship.

We made a brief stop at the Prime Ministers house and proceeded to the harbor. We boarded our ship at 5:00 pm after having our temperature taken by the ship’s doctor. Everyone on the ship has been vaccinated and we must wear a mask in public places unless eating or drinking. Everyone plans to be eating or drinking all the time. We had our life boat drill which made me think about icebergs. I am sure there are no icebergs this time of year. One good thing is there is no darkness. This is the land of the midnight son. The sky turns to dusk between 1 - 3 am and then returns to daylight. You know these things when you have a little jet lag.

My only other experience with Iceland was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafallajokoll volcano. In April 2010 an ash cloud led to the closure of most of the European airspace. Consequently, a very high proportion of flights within, to, and from Europe were cancelled, creating the highest level of air travel disruption since the Second World War. I was in Moscow at that time. I had flown to Novosibirsk, Siberia which was west of the ash cloud. Upon returning to Moscow I was scheduled to fly to the Ukraine. The Ukraine flight was cancelled and I was unable to depart Moscow for a week. You can read all about that adventure in this link - https://www.captainfatherjohn.com/travel-adventures-blog/volcanic-ash-cloud-from-iceland-strands-me-in-moscow

Despite the COVID epidemic it has been only fifteen months since our last cruise. Priscilla and I cruised the Panama Canal and Costa Rica in March 2020. We are now embarking on a cruise on the same small cruise ship we traveled on in Panama. The ship is the French Ponant line Le Dumont D’urville. We were able to reserve the same upgraded cabin we enjoyed previously. This ship is more like a mega yacht and is only 430’ long with a beam of 59’ and a draft of 15’. She carries 160 passengers. This allows the ship to enter ports that larger cruise ships cannot enter.

We found that Iceland was the first European country to open up to tourism after COVID. We immediately booked with Tauck and were fortunate to get a cabin. Flying directly from Chicago to Reykjavik is a 6.5 hour flight with a four hour time change. We departed at 7:30 pm and arrived at 6:30 am the next day. Our arrival is one day prior to the tour so we can get over the jet lag. We will stay at the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica.

Iceland is 40,000 square miles and is 300 miles wide from east to west and 200 miles long from north to south. It is about the same size as the state of Kentucky. Much of the landscape is dramatic with volcanoes, geysers, lava fields, hot springs and tundra. The population is only 370,000 people.

Tourism has returned to Iceland. The lines at airport immigration were very long. Everyone entering the country had to preregister online. Upon arrival we had to show proof of vaccination. Everyone on our cruise has to provide proof of vaccination.

We checked into the Hilton at 8:30 am and were immediately assigned a room. That is the power of our tour company Tauck. Normally when you arrive early at a hotel you can leave your baggage and return at 3 pm to get into your room. After breakfast we took a four hour nap and then took a taxi to downtown Reykjavik. We had a dinner reservation at 6 pm at the seafood restaurant Sjavrgrillid. The food and the service were excellent.

Many of the streets are painted with bright colors and designs.

Our ship the Le Dumont D’urville.

On Wednesday we will go on a city tour and board our cruise ship at 5 pm.