Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 2

Up early’ish and into the shower. Extra cost for that as well. Decided that we would keep the shower in the Motorhome for emergencies as well as the toilet. Breakfast was had sitting in the sun outside and relatively warm already. We then set off to view the geyser. Our camp boss had suggested a path that went up the hill from the camp. You can look down on the geyser and it is a very scenic walk he said. OK, bloody hell. Even the goats would be suspect of this steep climb. Made it after a few rest stops and got to see the geyser blow, from above. And very scenic it was. Down the hill past a few other hot springs bubbling away and the slight odor of sulphur is there. Got down to ... read more

Welcome to Seydisfjordur. It is pronounced just the way it looks. This is our last stop in Iceland, but it is also a "tender port". For that reason we did not book an excursion, but David did go ashore later in the day. But that is getting ahead of the story. Let's start with last night. As the ship was sailing out of Akureyi, we were in the dining room watching the scenery while having dinner. One of our tablemates pointed out a waterfall flowing into the fjord, but it was creating steam when it hit the water. They had learned during their excursion that twice a stream of hot water was encountered while digging a tunnel for the road. The water was piped out onto the ground and it ran down the hill and into ... read more

Hello from Iceland again. Today we are in Isafjordur, which is in the northwest corner of the island. We did not have a excursion scheduled today because it is a "tender port", but it is actually more picturesque scenery than Reykjavic was yesterday. However there are a few things to add about yesterday before we go any further with today's activities. One of the colorful things about Reykjavic is that they built whole series of apartments looking the same, but with different colored roofs or balconies. So although they could look like cold cement buildings, they actually looked nice and bright. Also there were many places where blank walls were painted with lots of colorful figures. That could look like graffiti, but it actually comes across as artwork. We passed a small group of Islandic Horses ... read more

Welcome to Iceland. We arrived about 7:00 this morning as the ship pulled into Reykjavik Harbor and the harbor pilot came aboard to guide us to the dock. David had gotten up early to try for some scenic pictures arriving in Iceland, but it just wasn't happening. To start with it was heavily overcast rather than bright and sunny. Second is that Reykjavik is the major seaport in Iceland, and our arrival looked like most any other seaport. But we are here after 5 days at sea. The temperature today got up to 50 degrees, but with a mild breeze and occasional drizzle. Although it had been light outside our window for much of the night, it just wasn't the best of days weatherwise. We went to the dining room for breakfast, and it wasn't very ... read more

It was amazing to fly over Iceland and see the coastline, places that I recognized from my previous trip, and especially to see the recent lava flow from the eruption of the volcano last year. We landed on time and I did not even have to go through customs or anything, and since I just had carryon, I made my way to the shuttle to the rental car agency, Enterprise this time. The guy was super nice, but it was funny to know my car was twice the cost of Norway for half the time, and a much less impressive car - not to mention, the last time I was here we got screwed on some 'damage' that apparently insurance did not cover. So, I was much more careful with driving here and did as little ... read more