The Last Morning In Iceland

The next day we got up and checked out of the hotel and met up with the same taxi driver who had picked us up from the ship and brought us to the hotel.

The ride to the airport was a flat rate and he gave us a discount as we had arranged it ahead of time with him.

He also gave us a bit of a tour on the way to the airport and interesting commentary.

We saw the harbor and some fishery monitoring vessels there. Note the cloud in the background.

After leaving the city, we went past fields of lava, and got closer to that interesting solitary cloud as we did so.

The cloud is a result of hot air rising from an active volcano, cooling as it rises into the air to form a cloud below the dewpoint.

That volcano is active and likely will be discharging more lava into these existing lava fields. The worry, however, is that the lava is projected to likely flow in the direction of the roads that link Reykjavik to Keflavik and the international airport there. That's going to cause a serious problem by cutting the capital off form its international airport.

A very pleasant ride and we got to the airport with time to spare. We then got in line to get our bags checked and 

We then went through security and of course my hip caused the metal detector to beep. So I got pulled aside for a pat down by a smokin' hot Icelandic lady security officer.   Sadly, my hopes were quickly dashed and she was replaced by a guy and the pat down was thus not nearly as fun as I had hoped, and in fact not fun at all.

Moving on we did a little shopping at duty free, and I purchased a bottle of Brennivin and a bottle of Floki single malt Icelandic Whiskey.

 

We then boarded and headed out.

We had a very pleasant flight, first to Minneapolis, where we had a layover and went through customs, and then boarded another plane to Detroit and that was the end of the trip.

It was a great time. We certainly enjoyed northern Europe and it was a neat and interesting place to visit.

Iceland - Ice Cream in Iceland

After Silfra, we headed back to Reykjavik, dropped off our gear at the hotel, and then did some more walking around and then stopped for lunch.

I had a different Icelandic Beer, a Gull Lite ,that apparently is gluten free if I'm translating the glass correctly, which is strange, but it was a light and refreshing beer all the same.

We ate some lovely salmon and accompaniments.

For dessert we all shared a Skyr Kaka.

Skyr as in Icelandic yogurt, Kaka as in Icelandic cake.

Tasted like an amazing cheesecake. Do not pass up an opportunity to try Skyr Kaka.

Then we returned back to the hotel and had a nap, as one does.

We then spent more time walking around Reyjkavik, and saw quite a few signs that mentioned some of the now urbanized areas had been historic farmsteads.

We also visited a park and people and dog watched.

We then walked around the downtown area again and stopped for ice cream at Valdis, an ice cream shop that was humming with activity.

After all, we were following a good suggestion:

Icelandic ice cream has the standard flavors you'd expect, and then some not so suspecting:

Like Rye Bread flavor, or Salted Black Liquorice flavor,  Dark Chocolate and Black Liquorice, and Danish Liquorice:

The Nordic countries really love black liquorice.

Yes, I had a scoop of salted black liquorice on top of a scoop of chocolate and black liquorice.  For science, of course.

If you like black liquorice, both flavors are really great. If you don't like black liquorice, you really would not have liked the ice cream.

The other family members shied away from black liquorice, and went with fun stuff like a birthday cake flavor, and a raspberry cheesecake flavor - both of which were also great.

Ice cream in Iceland, it turns out they make some really great ice cream there.

Iceland - The Silfra Rift

We had breakfast at the Hotel and I must say it was the best breakfast buffet at a hotel ever. Were talking a buffet featuring Icelandic skyr, fresh berries and fruit, smoked fish, eggs, sausage and more.  This gave both a tasty and auspicious start to our day.

We then were picked up by our guides for the trip and after picking up more people signed up for the trip departed Reykjavik and headed out into the countryside.

We soon reached Thingvellir National Park .  Home to the site of the first Althing, or democratic parliament of Iceland (since moved to Reykjavi) it is also home to the Silfra rift.

The Silfra rift is a glacier-water filled fissure that is the boundary between two tectonic plates - the North American Tectonic plate and the European Tectonic Plate.  

It offers a unique opportunity for a diver to be able to do something not many people get a chance to do: touch two continents at simultaneously.

The kids and Tash would snorkel, and I would dive the rift.  All of us would be wearing drysuits as the water is a cool 39 degrees Fahrenheit. 

So we all suited up and then split up. All entries into Silfra are required to be guided and  I would be diving with a divemaster, Julia, leading the tour, and a nice Australian fellow. We had a good safety and orientation brief, and were warned to be sure to make the turn at a certain spot with the divemaster, as if you did not and took the wrong turn, the current can pull you out to the lake, which would be problematic, and a rather long swim back to the exit point.

The area is rather crowded with snorklers and divers, so they time entries so you don't get crowded and have the feeling of being on a private tour all alone in the rift.

We were warned not to try and enter the caves along the way, as after all, caves are rather dangerous for divers and no one was equipped for a cave entry, but these ones have the added danger of being tectonically very unstable with a large chance of collapse.  No thanks.

We entered the water and descended down, dropping to 48 feet.

The water was amazingly clear, and was wonderfully fresh and cold, also very thirst-quenching.  Taking a sip at 48 feet revealed nice fresh, clean, and tasty water.

We then got to where the rift narrowed enough for divers to reach out and touch the sides.

Here I am touching two continents at once:

Bucket dive experience achieved.

That was a great dive,  I also earned one of the rarest PADI dive specialties as a result of this dive (and a little study and paperwork, including a written test) - Silfra Tectonic Dive Diver. Kinda neat.

We also got to see an Arctic Char swimming in the rift, which is rare as fish typically don't hang out in the rift as there is nothing for them to eat in there, and this fellow probably came in from the lake side of the rift. 

 Most divers and snorklers never see a fish in the rift, so we got lucky.

Then dive gets a little tight at times, and you end up constantly adjusting your buoyancy as the rift gets shallow, then deep, and then shallow again and on occasion you're crawling over some boulders. At some points depth was all of 3 feet.

Its amazingly beautiful though, throughout.

Here's a video of the dive.

 

The average depth for the dive was 18 feet and the whole experience lasted 20 minutes.

Kids and Tash had a great time snorkeling the rift, and they saw the same fish as well.

That was a great experience.  

Iceland Food Tour - That's Smoked Over What, Exactly?

Our next and final stop on the tour was a brewpub and restaurant.

Their signature beer is called the Flying Kock, which is really hard to order and keep a straight face, which seems to be the point.

Yes, the entendres were far more than doubled.

So along with the beer, came some smoked lamb on toasted Icelandic bread to the table to try as our next dish.

This is traditional smoked lamb, smoked in the traditional fashion.  Traditional means smoked over lamb dung.

Yes, dung. Iceland didn't have a lot of good smoking woods available, especially after they heavily deforested the island during settlement. So dung had to do, and it did.

Upside, I can report it had no dung in the flavor, just lamb, but it did have a very, very, heavy and strong smoke flavor to it.  Can't say as I'd recommend switching to dung as a smoking medium. I'll stick to wood, thank you very much. Most ppople on the tour who tried it stated it was not a hit.

That certainly was an experience, the beer was quite tasty though.

That was the end of the food tour, and it was fun, interesting, and educational and I'd highly recommend doing it if you ever visit Iceland.

We then walked back to our hotel to get ready for our next adventure the following day - The day I got to cross off an item on my bucket list.

Iceland - The Food Tour - Hot Dog!

Next stop, Icelandic Hot Dogs!

We went to the world famous Icelandic Hot Dog Stand. Note our awesome tour guide at the window placing our orders.

Even an American President, namely Bill Clinton, has eaten at this hot dog stand. 

The traditional Icelandic hotdog has lamb as part of the filling of the dog.  

Traditional toppings of a "one with everything" include ketchup, raw and carmelized onions (both placed under the dog not on top) two kinds of mustard - one of which is cut with mayo with additional spices as a remoulade.

In short, the result is hot dog nirvana.

I mean, that was truly a great hot dog.

Interestingly enough, President Clinton did not do the full Icelandic when he ordered his - he just had a dog with plain mustard. From that day forth if you want a hot dog only with mustard at the stand, you order a Clinton. You will be missing out on the full experience if you do.

Iceland - The Food Tour - Hákarl!

Next stop on the food tour we stopped at Icelandic Street Food for the ultimate tourist-in-Iceland challenge.

We started off with a light codfish and potato salad and more Icelandic bread.

Very tasty.

Icelandic food is typically very heavy on fish as the volcanic soil tends to not be very fertile, and for years starvation was a very real possibility which led to a constant search for protein.

Enter the Greenland shark.

The Greenland shark is native to the waters around Iceland, it's an interesting shark that is an apex predator in the north. Full of protein it sounds like an excellent food source for protein-hungry Icelanders.

There's a problem though.

The flesh of the Greenland shark is toxic, packed with Trimethylamine N-oxide.

The Icelanders, needing the protein to survive, figured out that the shark carcass can be fermented. Historically this was done with the carcass being buried underground and then after fermenting it can be safely eaten and that protein accessed. 

Now they do a different technique to get the toxins out rather than burying it but the result is much the same, and the poisonous Trimethylamine N-oxide gets turned into trimethylamine.

The result of the fermentation looks like this and is called Hákarl:

And it smells like concentrated ammonia.  Lots of ammonia. As in sniffing an open bottle of ammonia.

The challenge for tourists is to eat it and keep it down.

Hot tip:  Don't inhale as you bring it to your mouth.

Overall impression:

First bite, not bad, kinda firm, relatively chewy and kinda like a fish jerky, rather pleasant.

Second chew:  Well, the ammonia is certainly coming through.

Third chew: My, that's a lot of ammonia.

Fourth chew: Oh, that's a heckuva lot of ammonia.

Everyone kept it down, although one tourist at the table was turning a tad green.

Most of us of legal age then followed it up with a chilled shot of Brennivín, Iceland's native aquavit. 

That helped with the ammonia aftertaste immeasurably. 

Brennivín is mighty tasty stuff and was a welcome chaser to the Hákarl.

 

So we all survived the Hákarl challenge, and I daresay it was tastier and far more pleasant than eating durian. 

Having our mettle suitably tested, the guide took us on to our next stop that offered a far more pleasant and tasty bit of sustenance.

Iceland - The Food Tour

After the nap, we got up and wandered around Reykjavik some more, making our way to a square downtown to meet the tour guide for a walking food tour.

We got there a bit early and got to watch what appeared to be some grooming going on:

Older couple of Muslim guys with a bunch of chav girls.  Very interesitng to observe the goings on, including the girls being given a bottle of vodka, lots of swearing, mainly the f word back and forth and carrying on. Interesting to observe.

Our guide showed up soon after and we joined with 6 other people on the tour.

The guide was both friendly and informative.

We walked by Iceland's parliament building:

 

He gave a quick overview of Iceland's parliamentary history and stated that Iceland's government is one of the least effective around in terms of actually doing things.

He noted, as we walked, that Iceland lacked war memorials to unknown soldiers as it lacks an army Iceland has instead memorialized the unknown bureaucrat:

We then made it to our first stop, IDNO, for a nice start to the tour.

We sampled some Icelandic bread and lamb:

As we sampled the dish, which was great,  we got some more history of Iceland.

Iceland, per the guide, really started prospering during and after World War 2 when the US arrived. He note it has a natural carrying capacity of 40,000-50,000 people, and now with about 400,000 residents is very much dependent on trade and modern technology to grow the food that is needed to sustain people there, including a large number of greenhouses. Iceland also gets 1.7 million tourists visiting per year, and tourism has become its biggest industry, with fishing coming in second.

Then we departed IDNO and headed to a restaurant which offered the greatest food challenge that is posed to a visitor to Iceland.

Cruise Day 12 - Disembarkation and Iceland On Our Own

With great reluctance, we woke up on our last day and got ready to get off the ship.

We had chosen one of the latest times to depart, as our hotel in Reykjavik wouldn't be doing check-ins until 11:00 am anyways.

We ended up having breakfast in the local bar as that was the only place still serving breakfast.  Apparently we missed getting our last breakfast in at Hudson's by a matter of minutes as they had stopped serving.

Having decided there was no way we could stowaway for another cruise, we disembarked at our appointed time after breakfast, entered the terminal and picked up our luggage.

We then found ourselves in a very long line for a taxi to the city center. 

Eventually, we got a taxi, driven by a very amiable fellow named Jens. He gave us some details as we drove to our hotel.  Very nice guy and we arranged with him for a pickup at the hotel for our departure in a couple days.

We got to the hotel too early to formally check in so stored our luggage in their storage room and decided to walk to downtown Reykjavik.

 Reykjavik is a very nice and quite walk-able small city.

We passed by some neat street art:

We then headed down the main drag

The main street was car-free and had a "red carpet" out for pedestrians.

Lots of shopping, including a rather famous (and pricey) watch shop.

The raincoat store beside the watch shop had a neat door sign, and offered neat belts made from watch straps from next door - pretty much infinitely adjustable, and always in time to keep your pants up.

 

All this strolling around built up an appetite, so we stopped and sat outside at Forsettin Cafe to get a bite to eat.

I had a local Boli beer to go with a traditional Icelandic Cod Stew which we shared around along with some amazingly done Salmon and some other great little bites.

That sure hit the spot, and we then went for more of a walk around. and after wandering the area and checking more stores out, we walked back to the hotel and got all checked in.

We then all had a power nap and then went out a wandering yet again, as we later had a rendezvous that evening for our next adventure.

Cruise Day 11 - Last Night on Board

For the last night on board we decided to dine at a specialty restaurant and also do another special activity.

First, however, we sadly headed off to our cabins and packed for our departure and got our suitcases outside the cabins to be picked up for departure. 

We decided to try the French restaurant on board to make it a special night. Turns out it was a great choice. We got dressed up for it, and checked in for our reservation.

The food and service were top-notch. I'd have to say it was the best specialty restaurant on board.

I had the Dover sole and it was exquisite.

 Certainly some of the best fish I've ever tasted, anywhere.  All other dishes served were similarly wonderful. The desserts were pretty killer, too.

After dinner, we had paid for and booked the kids on a fun activity -- racing.

There happens to be a multi-level go-kart track on the Norwegian Prima, which is pretty amazing. It tended to get booked up rather quickly.

There were a couple of crashes during the race, but no one went over the side and interestingly enough, any crash causes all the carts to automatically stop where they are until reset by the operators.

Even after being hit from behind by an overeager fellow in one of those crashes, Leah stuck with it and ended up in second place out of 15 cars.

After that we admired the sunset for our last night on the cruise. A Disney ship was pulling out of the harbor, which made for some lovely sunset photos.

We then headed back to our cabins for the last night.

Cruise Day 11 - Reykjavik - Sky Lagoon

For Reykjavik we decided to do tours on our own rather than the ones offered by Norwegian.  

We did this as the cruise ended in Reykjavik we had no worries of an activity going overtime and missing the boat. We would be back on board for one more night and then disembarking the next morning.

So after a leisurely morning and breakfast, we setup our own trip to Sky Lagoon.

Not as well known as the famous Blue Lagoon, it has some advantages - being closer to Reykjavik, so less time spent getting back and forth and, since it is lesser-known, it tends to be a lot less crowded.

The passes we bought included transport from the cruise terminal, so we got picked up by a cab specifically sent for us, with a very nice and informative driver.

Sky Lagoon is right near the Reykjavik airport - a smaller airfield not to be confused with Keflavik airport that has international big jet service.

Sky Lagoon offers thermally heated waters in a stunning environment.

 

Yes, the water was very pleasantly warm and it was great to swim/wade in.

It has a neat infinity wall where it creates an illusion that the Lagoon goes on right into the ocean.

 

There is also a waterfall you can stand under or just admire.

 

They also had a bar you could swim up to, with local beer, cider, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages drinks on tap.  Most civilized. Icelandic beer is good stuff.

We did the full "Ritual":

This ritual was a lot of fun and a very relaxing experience.  Getting into the cold plunge, which was seriously cold, after being in the warm lagoon was rather bracing to say the least. The sauna was great, as was the steam room .

The ritual ends back in the lagoon where you can relax in the warm water or do the cold plunge again. We did and had a contest as to who could stay in the cold plunge the longest - yes, I won that one - and then I had to get back in the lagoon quick to warm back up again. 

We then had a snack there at the Lagoon which was awesome.  Lots of small Icelandic dishes like gravlax - fresh cut to order, a pate of some sort, Icelandic cheeses, freshly made bread and crackers and all of it was fantastic and hit the spot after the spa.

We then got to watch a helicopter flying around the pattern at Reykjavik airport as we waited for our same cab driver to come pick us up.

 

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We then headed back to the ship after a very enjoyable and relaxing day at Sky Lagoon.  

If you visit Reykjavik, I'd really highly recommend going to Sky Lagoon if you want a nice relaxing time in some lovely warm water.  You come out feeling like a million Icelandic Krona (That's only US$7,579, so you can feel like a millionaire at a bargain price!).