Akureyri

It was a really early day today. We docked at Akureyi at 7am and had to be ready to leave for our excursion at 7:15.

The clouds were pretty low first thing but it turned out to be a lovely day with blue skies. From our balcony I saw what looked like a steaming waterfall. On the excursion we drove past the spot and the guide explained what was going on there. It was the site of a planned road tunnel through the mountain as the existing road is often blocked in the winter by snow. However, when the work commenced a seam of hot water was struck, so that was being fixed before the tunnel proper could be dug. 

Our first stop was at the Godafoss Waterfall, very impressive. 

We followed a path along the river to connect up with the bus again - a bit muddy and precarious in parts.  Once everyone was back on the bus - eventually - we drove over to Lake Myvatn. This is a very volcanic area, with craters within craters.  It is also an area known for its midges, but luckily today they were not much in evidence.

From there, it was on to the area of hot mud pools and jets of steam - a very noisy area, with the hiss of steam, and a very strong smell of sulphur. 

Then our last stop before lunch where the guide walked us through an area called The Labyrinth, which showed that Iceland does in fact have trees and wild flowers too, despite the rocky soil. 

In fact, this side of Iceland has small woods of conifers scattered around, in places untouched by volcanic activity for aeons, no doubt. 

We returned to the ship at around 2 pm, pretty much tired out. The Rotterdam, which is 65,000 tons looks pretty small compared to the P&O vessel the other side of the dock!