Iceland - 2019

As travelers seek new and unique destinations, Iceland has been “discovered,”perhaps due to its remoteness, its challenging weather and a certain mystique.  Tourism has increased significantly from less than half a million in 2010 to more than two million in 2018.

Tourists are drawn to Iceland by its stunning natural beauty with an endless series of snow-covered volcanoes, mountains, fjords and ice fields.  It has a rugged “other-worldy” terrain that really is different from any other in the world.

With only 364,000 residents, it’s the most sparsely populated country in Europe and its capital and largest city, Reykjavik, contains two-thirds of the country’s total population.

In 2006, as part of a trans-Atlantic crossing from England to New York, we did a one-day stop in Reykjavik.  With the limited time we had we hired a taxi to tour the countryside and see the Blue Lagoon.  We loved what we saw and promised ourselves we’d return.

In June, 2019 we found a cruise through the Baltic countries and Scandinavia that included five days in Iceland, and we saw this as an opportunity for a return visit.  The cruise, Holland America’s ship Zuiderdam, began in Copenhagen and sailed west about 1,400 miles to reach our first destination in Iceland, Seydisfjordur, on the eastern coast.  

A disadvantage of cruising is that you often have only one day in port, which doesn’t allow much tine for exploring.  In the case of Iceland, however, a country with more than one hundred fjords, a cruise was an excellent way to see the many scenic fjords, as we cruised around the entire island.  The five-day itinerary included stops at three small towns, Seydisfjordur, Akureyi and Isafjordur (fjordurmeans fjord in Icelandic).  

The ship would arrive in each town early in the morning, spend the day, and then cruise the fjords at night to the next town.  Because it was June, there was essentially no darkness and we had all evening to marvel at the magnificent scenery as the ship made its way, at low speed, through the fjords.  Several times the captain would stop and do one or more 360 degree turns, to afford better views of the coastline.    

We spent one night in Seydisfjordur and then, over the next several days, continued on to two other towns, Akureyri and Isafjordur, both on the north coast, before going on to Reykjavik, the capital.  Since we didn’t spend much time in Reykjavik on our previous visit, this time we spent two full days exploring the city. 

Seydisfjordur is on Iceand’s east coast and is the closest harbor to Norway, making it a first stop for many cruise ships.  It’s a tiny town of about 700 inhabitants with quaint and colorful homes shadowed by snow-capped mountains.  There wasn’t much to do other than walk around, admire the small homes and imagine what it would be like to live in such a cold and desolate place.  

Akureyi is a much larger town with a wonderful botanical garden, which we hiked up to.  It’s known as the Capital of the North with one of the country’s most beautiful harbors surrounded by fjords and mountains.  It’s also famous for whale watching.

We continued counter-clockwise around the island cruising through the Westfjords (Western fjords) into Isafjorour, the largest harbor in the Westfjords and the third busiest in Iceland.  

Our last stop was Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, the northernmost capital of a sovereign state. The ship stayed overnight, so we had enough time to explore Langavegur Street with its trendy shops, bars and restaurants as well as Harpa Concert Hall and the wonderful Maritime Museum.

Some interesting things about Reykjavik:  The name Reykjavik means “smoky bay” and derives from the steam that used to rise from hot springs and geothermal vents.  Reykjavik is a relatively small city but attractions are spread out so we used taxis and a hop-on-hop-off bus to get around.  There is no Uber or Lyft in Iceland.   And because Icelanders are ice cream fanatics, the city is dotted with ice cream shops.

We spent several hours in the Reykjavik Maritime Museum, easily the finest maritime museum we’ve ever seen and perhaps enough reason to warrant a visit to Iceland.  Prior to tourism, fishing and fisheries were the engine of Iceland’s economy.  The excellent permanent exhibit of Fish and Folk follows the development of fishing techniques from the 17th century to present times.  

One fascinating exhibit was about the Cod Wars which took place over a five-hundred year period between Britain and Iceland.  At issue were fishing rights, with Iceland establishing territorial limits and Britain challenging those limits. In 1976 peace was brokered through the United Nations with UK losing the unrestricted rights they had for more than five-hundred years.  

The museum also houses the Coast Guard vessel Ooinn.  We ended our visit with an outstanding seafood lunch in the terrace café. We spent half a day in the museum and I recommend it highly to any visitors to Reykjavik.

On our second day we visited the Harpa Concert Hall, an impressive structure of glass and steel that is nothing short of breathtaking.  While there were no shows playing when we visited, the building itself is enough of a show.

Our Iceland adventure ended in Reykjavik and we boarded our ship Zuiderdam to continue our Baltic cruise.