Following the Faroe Islands, we sailed further north west to Iceland, headed first for the town of Akureyri at the end of the fjord ‘Eyjafjörður’. We had previously only ever been to Reykjavik and was expecting the northern coast of Iceland to be much more remote and sparsely populated and whilst that was true to an extent, the main towns and surrounding villages were quite well established with local industry based unsurprisingly on fishing and perhaps more surprisingly on sheep farming. From Akureyri, it was possible to visit 2 relatively local waterfalls and in doing so to experience the surrounding landscape: Goðafoss Waterfall, a 45 minute drive from Akureyri and Dettifoss Waterfall, another hour and a half from Goðafoss. Views of these 2 falls, the surrounding landscape and the town of Akureyri itself can be seen here.
After Akureyri, the next port of call was Isafjörður – a town in the far north west of Iceland (the Westfjords). This town sits in a dramatic valley between 2 steep sided fjords and again the local attraction an hour’s drive away is a dramatic waterfall – the Dynjandi Falls which cascade 100m down the mountain in a bridal veil formation. Unfortunately, the sun was behind the falls at the time we arrived and so photography was not ideal. As for Akureyri, all of these falls attract significant numbers of visitors, particularly in the summer and at these peak times, literally coachloads of tourists (ourselves included) arrive to see the sights which can be viewed here.
The town of Isafjörður (population 2,700) is also surprisingly well established with its roots in the fishing industry and now summer and winter tourism (skiing). For such a small population, the Icelandic government has invested in local infrastructure, drilling a 9.2km long tunnel (Westfjords Tunnel) through the mountainside to provide access to the next valley when winter snow made the overland road habitually impassible.
Most of the population (~60%) of Iceland are Lutheran though with immigration, those following the Catholic faith are increasing (~4%). In Isafjörður, there was no Catholic church and so a house was converted – now said to be the only church on Iceland with an integral garage.
The most famous church on Iceland is of course the Lutheran Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik, our next port of call. The classic tourist route from Reyjavik is the ‘Golden Circle which takes in the Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, the Gulfoss Waterfall and the Geysir Geothermal area, but we visited all these places, along with the Blue Lagoon, last time we visited around 15 years ago and so this time was an opportunity so see the city of Reykjavik in a bit more detail, including a trip to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja church tower which offers a panoramic view of the city. On this occasion, the weather was kind all day too. Reykjavik sights are available here.
The last area of Iceland to view were the Westman Islands archipelago and in particular the islands of Surtsey and Heimaey on the south coast. Heimaey in particular is quite large with a population of 4,500 inhabitants and contains an active volcano which erupted in 1973 threatening to destroy the town. The locals pumped seawater on the advancing lava to solidify it. We didn’t stop on this occasion but passed a Holland America ship which was at anchor there. Westman Island views are available here.
And of course, Iceland is well known for whale sightings. It’s not generally the case that you can just look over the side of the ship and they are there although that does happen occasionally (as it did one evening for us.) More usually though, one joins a special whale sighting trip on a smaller boat which can go in search of them. The usual sighting is a minor breach of their back from the water. Sometimes they will blow but the photographic ‘holy grail’ of a breach of the whole mammal from the water or even a substantial tail slap are rather more rare. On this trip, I preferred the greater certainty of landscapes (also not a given with the very changeable Icelandic weather).
Summary of gallery links