This morning we were up at 7.30am as usual, watching as the Bolette slowly made her way into Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. We had been to Reykjavik on two previous occasions, in 2006 and 2016, so we weren’t booked to do the usual touristy things like rushing to the Blue Lagoon as we had done this before. Instead we would spend an absolutely fascinating day learning about the geography and geology of this amazing island.
Iceland sits on the mid-Atlantic ridge, which is a is a massive underwater mountain chain running down the centre of the Atlantic Ocean floor. This is where the North American and European continents were joined together about 200 million years ago. Over the millennia, the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates have gradually pulled apart, causing a deep mantle hotspot in the earth to pump extra heat and magma upwards. As the plates diverge, mantle material rises and melts, creating vast amounts of basaltic lava that build the island’s bedrock. This process has been ongoing for roughly 16–18 million years.
As a result, Iceland’s landscape has been changing over the years as the earth’s crust forms volcanoes, rifts, valleys and fissures. Indeed, Iceland has 32 active volcano systems, the highest density of any country of a similar size, and at least one volcano will erupt every 4-6 years, adding more to Iceland’s landmass. Underneath the ground underwater lakes and springs seethe and boil and the steam surges out of the ground with great force.
No wonder Iceland is known as “the land of ice and fire”. 🙂
We were not scheduled to meet for our excursion until 10.45am, so after our breakfast in The View we pottered around the ship and took part in a game of indoor kurling at half-past nine, to try to accrue some more “Sail & Play” points. We were quite hopeful when we arrived at the Ocean Bar, because there were only a few people dotted around; most of the regulars were probably already ashore. A couple of stragglers joined in at the last minute, but there were probably only about eight people playing, so instead of the usual doubles, we were playing singly. Trevor and I found ourselves drawn against each other and, as I went first, Trevor had the advantage and knocked me out. We stayed to watch the remainder of the game, then went along to the Bookmark Café to enjoy one of our freebie ‘posh’ coffees.
By now, it was time to start getting ready to go on our trip. Looking at the weather outside, there was the usual low cloud over the mountain tops, so we packed our cagoules in the rucksacks along with whatever else we thought we might need, and went along to the Neptune Lounge to register for our tour; we were called to disembark more or less immediately.
We boarded the coach and set off through the incredible landscape, bypassing the main town of Reykjavik to head towards the Reykjanes peninsula. As well as being a geothermal hot-spot, the area contains KeflavÃk International Airport; not that we’ve ever been there – we’ve only ever arrived in Iceland by ship. 🙂
Our first stop was to the fascinating Viking Museum. Not only did it contain lots of examples of Viking artefacts like weapons and shields, helmets and clothing, film clips and information about how they lived, the main attraction was a full-sized replica of a Viking longboat, which was called Islendigur.
Constructed by Icelandic shipwright Gunnar Marel Eggertsson in 1996, it was built to replicate the 9th century Gokstad longship that it was believed was sailed by the famous Viking Leif Ericsson on his voyage to Vinland, an area of coastal North America explored by Norse Vikings around AD 1000. Just think about that – AD 1000. That’s almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America! 🙂
The Islendigur was brought to international fame in 2000 when Eggertsson and a crew of eight decided to sail in the footsteps of Eriksson. The ship set off across the Atlantic on 17 June 2000, and visited historic Norse sites in Iceland and Greenland before reaching L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland – the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America – and later continued to New York City.
Archaeological finds at the L’Anse aux Meadows site in the 1960s finally proved that Viking explorers had indeed discovered North America almost half a millennium before Columbus. This was incredible stuff, and it reminded me a lot of the story of explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his raft, the Kon Tiki. Don’t you just love learning about the early navigators and explorers? I certainly do – it never ceases to fascinate me.
Here’s a photo of the Islendigur, which we were allowed to board. 🙂
Our next visit was to the incredible “Bridge Between Continents”. I mentioned previously that Iceland sits on top of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates that diverged when the European continent broke away from the American continent. Well, the edges of these two tectonic plates could clearly be seen here, with the black layer of solidified magma between them. Some enterprising person had decided to construct a metal bridge between the plates to allow visitors to cross from one ‘continent’ to another. As these plates move apart by about 2cm a year (the new fissure fills up with more magma) it effectively means that Iceland is getting bigger by about a metre every 50 years. What will it look like in the year 3000? 🙂
Afterwards we all piled back on the coach to set off for our main objective of this visit – to explore Iceland’s geothermal phenomena. As we headed towards the peninsula, the landscape became more sparse, rugged, jagged and almost unforgiving, and we could detect a sort of “eggy fart” type smell which our guide told us was the sulphur that emanated from the hot springs and volcanoes.
The coach pulled up and we all alighted, and started to walk towards a large, plain-looking white building that spewed forth a never-ending billow of steam. This was the Gunnuhver power plant and hot springs.
As we walked along, our guide told us to stick to the designated paths as the ground was very hot and the steam, of course, was 100 degrees Celsius.
Heating and electricity are generally much cheaper in Iceland due to the country harnessing all this abundant geothermal energy and hydro-power. About 90% of buildings in Iceland are heated directly using natural hot water piped straight from underground geothermal reservoirs into municipal district systems. Because this hot water requires no complex conversion or fuel-burning to create warmth, home heating costs a fraction of what it does in other European countries. It truly is a gift from Mother Nature.
From where we were standing we could see a lighthouse on a hill up a curving path made out of black stones. We crunched our way up as our guide told us that this was Reykjanesviti, which was Iceland’s oldest lighthouse, and the white buildings at the base of the lighthouse used to be the former keepers’ houses but are now summer restaurants and restrooms. Fascinating.
Afterwards, as we were fairly close to Iceland’s newest lava field, our coach driver agreed to take us there. This particular area featured the freshest black basalt lava formations from recent activity spanning 2024 and 2025 primarily formed by the recent series of eruptions along the Sundhnúkur crater row and the nearby Fagradalsfjall system. (Who on earth can even read the Icelandic names, never mind say them? Apart from if you’re an Icelander, of course!) 🙂
The coach pulled up and we all alighted, as we wanted to walk on the lava and touch and feel it. I picked up a piece of porous, black rock which had a curiously sticky feel to it. Just think – it had once been molten rock and had started way below the earth’s crust before flowing down the mountainside as bright orange, red hot lava. And here I was holding it in my hand. 🙂
I was intrigued by the stickiness, so I Googled this phenomenon. It said that pieces of solid, cold black lava rock (like basalt or scoria) feel “sticky” to the touch primarily because of microscopic structural texture, rather than actual chemical stickiness .When you handle fresh or jagged lava rock, your fingers experience a physical sensation caused by how the rock cooled. As lava flows and cools, the surface tearing, gas venting, and rapid crystallization create millions of tiny, microscopic jagged hooks, spines, and sharp glass-like micro-textures. When you run your dry skin across it, these microscopic features act like tiny pieces of Velcro, snagging the ridges of your fingerprints and creating friction that feels like a “sticky” pull. Wow! I had to put the piece of rock in the rucksack to take home. 🙂
Afterwards, we all boarded the coach again to return to the Bolette. What a great excursion this had been; we had seen and learned so much. Fabulous.
It was just after three o’clock when we arrived back at the Bolette, too late for lunch but certainly not too late for a cocktail or two by the pool. We then enjoyed a half-hour power nap before getting showered, shampooed and changed.
Around 5.30pm, while I was putting the finishing touches to my hair and makeup, Trevor went out onto the promenade deck to watch the Bolette casting off and setting sail once more, then it was time to make our way to the Bloomsbury Restaurant for dinner once again.
As ever, we enjoyed our dinner. The food and service were fabulous and the wine flowed, as did the conversation, laughter and banter on table #207. After five evenings in each other’s company, the six of us got on like a house on fire, and it was all natural; there were no awkward pauses or stilted conversation. Once again, our waiter had to remind us that he needed to get the table ready for the next sitting. 🙂
Tonight’s featured entertainment in the Neptune Lounge featured the Bolette Show Cast in an original production called “Raise a Glass”, which told the story, in music and dance, of a lady who had taken over a run-down pub and really made it the hub of the community. I’m not sure whether it was based on a true story or not (I’ll have to look it up) but it was a show with a difference, and we enjoyed it a lot.
Then Trevor and I hotfooted it along to the Morning Light pub to try to reserve a table and six chairs for the quiz at 10.00pm. You have to get in there early (it was only half past nine) as the quiz is very popular and the pub fills up quickly. It was difficult trying to keep the seats when people kept asking us, every few minutes “Are these chairs free?” and we had to say no, we were waiting for others to arrive.
Shortly before ten o’clock Steve and Susan, Roger and Sue arrived and we all crowded around the small table to do the quiz. We got 13/15 which we thought was pretty good, but there were a couple of teams scored full marks and it went to the tie-breaker. So once again the bottle of Fred’s Finest Fizz eluded us. 🙂
We noticed that there was a Silent Disco on in the Observatory tonight, so we asked if anyone else was going along. Only Steve said he would join us for a short while, and we made our way upstairs. We enjoy the silent discos, but we prefer watching rather than participating as it is so entertaining. The headsets were given out and soon the dance floor was full and was anything but silent, as there were three different music channels and the dancers all sang along to the songs they were listening to, in a discordant, tuneless cacophony of sound. Age gaps and generations disappeared – there were people probably pushing 80 all the way down to the teenagers and children we’d seen around the vessel. Everyone was enjoying themselves as the Bolette sailed steadfastly off into the sunset.
At those latitudes, sunset had occurred just before 10.00pm, and there was still lots of orange in the sky and distant purple clouds which silhouetted Iceland’s dramatic, mountainous landscape. There was one mountain that appeared to have a conical top (maybe a volcano?) so I had to take a photo of it out of the Observatory window.
After having a drink with us, Steve said good night and left, while Trevor and I decided to have one more drink before returning to 3388 around midnight.
Tomorrow we had a day of scenic cruising to look forward to as well as…. something else. Something that had made us book this cruise way back in December 2024. Something that we would probably experience only once in our lives. A total eclipse of the sun.
We slept well.