The View From My Beer
I spotted this colorful Irish pub on my first visit to Reykjavik. Knowing I would return, I had penciled this pub in to be today’s view from my beer. I enjoyed a glass of Gull Lager, which is probably the most popular beer in Reykjavik. Given two thirds of Iceland live in Reykjavik, that probably makes it Iceland’s most popular beer too.
Reykjavik
Stop number five of my 16-day cruise to Greenland and Iceland. Around 61% of Iceland’s population lives in the Capital City area, which includes Iceland’s three largest cities – Reykjavik (132,000), Kópavogur (38,000), and Hafnarfjörður (30,000). I would expect with the population so concentrated that Reykjavik was the center for most things in Iceland.
My Walk
Even though I had only spent one day in Reykjavik previously, I felt like I knew the place pretty well and would have no problem filling in my day. It was forecast to start raining around 4PM, so my plan was to be heading back to the ship around then to avoid getting wet.
Reykjavik Harbor
After taking the free shuttle from the ship to downtown Keykjavik, I had about an hour to kill before my puffin tour began. I walked around the harbour area and visited a few places I missed on my first visit to Reykjavik.
Puffin Experience
The puffin tour was the highlight of the day. The tour I booked only lasted one hour. It consisted of a 20-minute boat ride out to Akurey, a nearby island that was a refuge for puffins and other birds. We spent only 10-15 minutes looking at the puffins before returning to Reykjiavik.
Puffin season was coming to an end. The puffins are on the island between April and September before they start migrating out into the North Atlantic. At this time of year an unknown number of puffins decide to leave each night. The tour operators never know how many will remain until they get to the island each morning. We were lucky that a few hundred still remained of the thousands that had used the island during breeding season.
The puffins were skilled at catching fish. And just like with our own society there were many others that preyed on their skills. Some birds would try and steal the fish as the puffins approached the island. On arrival, the puffins then had to pay a tax (in fish) to the local sea-gulls who protected the puffins from enemies such as mink. Whatever remained was then shared with their family. Puffins mate for life and would typically use the same nest each year, breeding a single baby each year.
This was perhaps the only time I felt limited by what I could capture with my iPhone. The puffins flew fast and in erratic patterns to avoid attacks from other birds. And the nests were far enough away from our tour boat that it was a challenge to zoom in close enough. I ended up appropriating some photos from other passengers and the Internet to allow me to fully capture my experience. I do this from time to time, as there are often other capable of capturing the same experience better than me. I have also started using AI as a way of enhancing my photos, especially when it comes to removing unwanted people from my shots. It sure beats waiting for everyone to get out of the way, and the results are pretty impressive.
Reykjavik
Hallgrímskirkja
My plans for today also included a return visit to Hallgrímskirkja, the large cathedral to soared above the city. After my first visit I saw some cool photos with differing perspectives than the ones I had taken and several cruise passengers on that cruise had suggested taking a look inside. SOmething I had not don previously due to time constraints. I ended having to make two trips to Hallgrímskirkja. On my first visit there was a wedding ceremony in progress and the public were not allowed to enter.
Tug Boats
After my return to the ship I decided to take another walk around the deck and ‘experience’ our departure. I had never really watched the tug boats operate and they were just pulling up as our ship backed away from the dock. I was surprised that they actually didn’t do anything to assist our ship position itelf back out to sea. Instead they took a position between us and the dock as soon as they could and merely kept a close eye on our departure. I assume if the ship looked like it would hit something, their role was to step in and give our ship a nudge back into position.
