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.

We boarded the bus (which had free WiFi!) and made our way to the Blue Lagoon. A lot (most?) electricity in Iceland is geo-thermal electricity, where the natural geo-themal heat is used to heat water to generate the electricity. The Blue Lagoon is the run-off from a nearby power plant and originally the ponds were just a place to keep the water as it cools down. It felt that it was very touristy, but they are doing their best to make it work effectively. The ponds a very warm and quite heavy in minerals. I will admit I enjoyed the onsen in Japan much better than this essentially “tourist” trap and at €60 a person, it wasn’t a quick dip. It was relaxing though and at least we can say we did it!

We had booked into Q-Sine (produced cuisine), which we also had the Celebrity Millennium. It is an interesting concept of the restaurant, where the vast majority of dishes are “sampling” dishes intended to be shared. Think of it sort of as “world wide tapas” and they pride themselves in having cuisine from all over the world. We really enjoyed it on the Millennium and were looking forward to it on the Eclipse. They did not disappoint as they did have most dishes shared between our previous experience but also a few different ones. Since they have 20 and you might order 5/6 per sitting, we had a few that we hadn’t tried yet as well as a couple old favourites from our previous cruise. It was a gut busting amount of food though in the end and we also agreed to have a pudding, which we had found rather unspectacular on the Millennium, which again, we felt about the same here.

And now, having mentioned our Blue Lagoon visit to several ‘locals’ since Wednesday, we have learnt – beyond any doubt – that we have already experienced the most puffiny “Puffin Shop” experience in the whole of Iceland!!  Apparently, the only time locals are lured to the Blue Lagoon is when 1/2 price vouchers are buried deep in local newspapers, where tourists will never find them.  And by far the most common reason for Icelanders to visit The Blue Lagoon is because – of all the hot springs in the Reykjavik area – it opens the earliest, providing a unique (and apparently very effective) hangover cure to up-all-night revellers.

So obviously we jumped on a bus and drove 40 km out of town!

I’d heard about the Blue Lagoon courtesy of a co-worker who’d said it was the highlight of his trip to Iceland (after the Northern Lights failed to play ball).

It’s a hot water spring in the middle of nowhere, famous for its sheer size, and the supposed healing properties of the waters.

We’ve visited hot water springs before – notaby in Canada – and this was another experience, like those, which was more interesting for the people-watching than the snake-oil. It’s quite amusing watching usually-conservative groups of Japanese tourists egging each other on to do something crazy (like dipping a toe in!), and how quickly alcohol goes to the heads of those who decide that beer and bathing really do mix!

Several groups from our cruise ship took organised excursions to the Blue Lagoon. We got a taxi to a nearby bus depot instead, and then took a “local” bus service to the Blue Lagoon. Much more satisfying – not just for the 40 or 50 quid we saved, but also for the fact that it took a bit of planning.. and the plans worked out perfectly.

We’re back on board now, and floating toward our second and final Icelandic destination. Tonight we’ll be eating at one of three on-board restaurants that charge a supplement. Called QSine, it’s a “concept restaurant” where you choose half a dozen from a menu of more than 20 “courses”, each serving-up an (admittedly rather stereo-typed) national dish from various countries and regions. You choose the genres, then your waiter puts together a meal with the dishes served in the most suitable order. Generally that means seafood first, then white meat, and finally anything that resembles a burger or steak.

It might sound a bit naff, but it’s actually really fun. We did it three times when we were in the Far East last year, and I suspect tonight won’t be our final QSine of this cruise.

Simon has decided that I need him to be my personal trainer, and I have to admit, it wasn’t bad, though I am still sore from the workout! It is funny though how, especially on a cruise ship, you overhear people and think to yourself “boy, I am glad I don’t have to deal with them on a regular basis.” Ran into a couple more of those in the gym. The gym is really really nice. We thought the one on the Celebrity Millennium was well fitted out, the Celebrity Eclipse puts it to shame.

Simon booked us on a bicycle tour of “downtown” Reykjavik. We thought it would be a good way to see the sights. After a bit of confusion of where to meet our tour guide, we were off on a 3 hour tour. The city is quite interesting. The Reykjavik metropolitan area hosts a third of the the population of Iceland. While our guide wasn’t brilliant, he did more than adequate job of guiding us around. I think I have realised the Icelanders have an even dryer sense of humour than the British.

We headed back to the ship for a bit to eat about 19:00 and discovered that the ship was “deserted”. It seems that lots of folks had things planned in the evening. That suited us just fine and had a very relaxing, albeit quick meal in the buffet.

Because we were in the land of the midnight sun in July, Simon also booked us on a cave/hike/midnight sun tour. I wasn’t sure what to expect (and I don’t think Simon was either). I know Simon is going to write more on this subject, so I expect you would rather read his post.

By the time we got back to the ship, we were exhausted, but figured, having the sun not set yet, that we might go for a cheeky cocktail. The bartender at the Martini Bar on board (yes, ok, they have a whole bar dedicated to Martinis!) is rather crazy we discovered. You might have started to wonder if he had been drinking the Martinis himself. Simon order a Margarita strait up, which was rather quite full on for him. I had a “Cherry Lane Martini” which was quite tasty. Because we were staying in port overnight, lots of others seem to feel like we did and didn’t mind having a drink before retiring late after the sunset (11:58 to be precise).

So, shining our torches into the gloom as we clambered down into the entranceway of a very dark and impossibly tight-looking underground tunnel, I realised I’d got us into something quite unlike those sanitised childhood experiences…

But it was a lot of fun. In total, we navigated 800m of tunnels in 90 minutes, standing for almost none of it.

I had assumed the answer to the question posed by our guide – “how do you think we’ll be getting through there?” – had been a binary one: crawl on your belly, or somehow squeeze through on your back. But no… the only viable technique was in fact to roll through the less-than-12” ‘opening’ (“like kindergartners do”!). I admit (if it wasn’t already obvious) that the photo accompanying this post was staged, but in fact it makes the ‘roll space’ look considerably more spacious than it actually was!

Near the end of our caving experience we got as close as the geology would allow to seeing stalactites and stalagmites. Now these really weren’t as impressive as the Wales, Devon & Cornwall variety, but we did find one that look strangely like a wizard. “Guntha The Grey” our guide suggested… though I think he meant Gandalf!

Talking of guides, I thought he did pretty well, considering that he sometimes goes into that cave three times on the same day! As well as the caving experience, we hiked to the rim of a long-since-dormant volcano crater – complete with a surprisingly-interesting explanation for how the land around it had been sculpted the by the eruption that occurred there two millennia ago. And later, we were treated to an arial view of Iceland’s capital from the outside deck of a rotating restaurant known locally as the “tit of Reykjavik” (after the apparent likeness of the building to a breast!).

En route to the restaurant, we made a brief stop to experience – in the words of our guide – the “real smell of Reykjavik”.  We assumed we were to sample the whiff of sulphur courtesy of some bubbling Icelandic mud… but instead, we were introduced to the local wildlife:

This was just one of a few million fish carcasses left out to dry before being crushed and shipped off to Africa for use as a food supplement!

I am lingering more on our evening excursion than the 3 hour bike tour that kicked off our first day in Reykjavik because there isn’t – in all honesty – a whole lot to say about that. It was fun, but we didn’t see anything that spectacular or that interesting, and our guide had the most dry sense of humour which took longer than 180 minutes to get used to!!

We did learn an Icelandic joke though…:

“What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?”

“Stand up!”

Which doesn’t need explaining after you’re spent a few hours in this country! The trees really are mostly waist-high… and those which aren’t are imports.

As it was a 4km walk each way from the cruise ship to the starting point of the bike tour, we were – needless to say – a little bushed by the time we got back to the ship just before midnight. Good job the bars stay open late, as there was time for a little night cap before retiring. Well.. we are on holiday.