We arrived into port overnight and the ship was scheduled to dock at 09:00. When we woke up though, I found out that Simon was feeling quite ill. He tried to get out of bed a couple of times, but eventually gave up and sent me off to breakfast. By the time I returned, it was clear he was not feeling well enough for the excursion, so we agreed that I would go without him.

Since I was by myself, I scuttled off the ship and instead of there being a queue, the exit was practically empty. I suspect everyone else thought it would be crowded and were waiting a bit. We had booked online with IceAK and then found out that there were five other tours with this company and 6 others booked on the same vehicle as we were. The only problem was I was the only one from my group that showed up. We waited for about 30 minutes and were getting ready for me and the guide to just head out on our own when the first couple showed up, followed fairly quickly by the rest of the group. Saved from just me and the guide in a big 4×4 vehicle touring northern Iceland.

Akureyri itself is greener than Reykjavik but then once we got to the highlands though, it petered out to lava fields much like the rest of Iceland. Iceland is beautiful in a very stark way compared to lots of other places. Our driver planned to take us to the farthest spot out and then work our way back. This sort of thinned out the crowds but did make for a long first leg.

First stop was Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. It was interesting because as we approached you couldn’t really hear anything until you were about 200 meters away and then you started to hear a faint rush of water until finally cresting over a hill and staring at a huge powerful waterfall. After this we went quickly off road to a smaller waterfall that was further along the river.

Second major stop was the geysers at Strokkur. While they were interesting, the huge amounts of sulphur and the situation that I tend to find them uninteresting made the stop somewhat unremarkable. We then stopped for a bite to eat at the Green Lagoon, which is a more “realistic” than the Blue Lagoon. Our guide mentioned that the Blue Lagoon was the biggest “puffin selling” place in Iceland (the local way of saying something is a tourist trap, referring to all the stuffed puffins that you inevitably find in the tourist shop). The Green Lagoon seemed to have lots more Icelandic people visiting and was less than half the price of the Blue Lagoon. I also tried some of the skyr, which is like an Icelandic yogurt. It is high in protein and supposedly quite good for you. I found it remarkably filling and a lot like Greek-style yogurt, but even better. I saw they that have started selling it in London and I suspect I have my new breakfast food!

We then headed off to Grjótagjá which are pools of water in a large crevice that opened up. It was a popular bathing spot until volcanic eruptions nearby at Kröflu raised the water to over 60ºC and now the temperatures are in the high 40s. We then stopped at lake Mývatn, which is the 3rd (or 4th largest lake, as the largest lake is only the largest depending on the season in Iceland).

We finally returned to the fjord where Akureyri is located and got to see our ship in port. Our guide took us on a quick circuit of Akureyri before dropping us back at the ship. One interesting point he mentioned was that ice-cream is very popular in Akureyri and the colder it gets, the more popular it becomes, so often in snow storms, you can find a queue outside of the most popular ice-cream shop in town.

When I got back on board, Simon was still not feeling all that well, so after tending to him he encouraged me to go out and about on the ship all by my lonesome. I went to the show on board which was called “Mercury Rising” and was a comedic Freddy Mercury impersonator. I have to say it was one of the best acts that I have ever seen on a cruise ship and would have easily have paid to see him in person on land. He could carry Freddy’s voice very well, even in some of the hardest parts of the more classic songs. His humour was a bit too banal and played up to gay stereotypes a bit too much, but didn’t really detract for me, but was wholly unnecessary given his raw talent as a performer.

I finally landed at the Martini Bar and struck up a conversation with a random stranger next to me, as one does on cruise ships, only to then get drawn into a rather large contingent of gay couples (and a lesbian couple) from the Canada, UK and Australia and spent the evening chatting with a whole load of folks that I was finding out we had a lot in common with. It have lost count, but there has to be close to 20-30 couples on this cruise.