August 15, 2023 Reykjavík, Iceland Day 1

Zuiderdam was scheduled to arrive about 11 a.m. to tender passengers to the Skarfabakki Cruise Terminal at Reykjavík, Iceland.

This morning we awoke to a cloudy sky, but no fog. The temperature was 11° C with a south wind at 13 km/hour. The water was calm.

We ate breakfast in the dining at a shared table. David, who was the single person from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the Acadia National Park bike tour and Josh, the pianist from the Lincoln Center quintet who lives in Honolulu, were seated with us. Then a few minutes later Regina, from California, with whom we had shared a table two weeks ago and Jan also from Tulsa, whose stateroom is just three down from ours joined the group. Josh and the other four musicians leave today to join the Nieuw Statendam. The musicians fly from Reykjavík, Iceland, east to Frankfurt, Germany, (a hub airport) then back west to Glasgow, Scotland to transfer to the ship which will be moored in Greenock, Scotland, about a 45 minute drive from Glasgow.

At breakfast Zuiderdam changed course as she started an easterly course passing the peninsula where Keflavik is located. We had booked a tour that would have taken us to Keflavik to see the 64° Reykjavík Distillery for a look behind the scenes. Two days ago we received a notice that there were not enough participants, so the tour was cancelled.

There are other cruise ships in port: Norweigan Star (2,348), Viking Star (800) and Celebrity Apex (2,910) at the terminal where the tenders boats are unloading, which is also a ferry pier. There are complimentary shuttle busses to the Harpa Convention Center for cruise passengers. At another pier close to the Harpa Convention Center near the city centre was Azamara Pursuit was moored. The Harbour Master decides which ships get to moor. Zuiderdam is anchored in the Viðeyjarsund Marine channel of Kollafjörður Bay, close to Viðey Island.

During the morning we walked Deck 3 and while the crew were preparing to lower the tender boats once Zuiderdam had dropped her two anchors. There was lunch today in the dining room, with a limited two appetizers three mains and two desserts “Express Lunch” menu. There were very few people in the dining room. There were three tours of at least eight hours in length leaving before 11:30 a.m. and a couple of four hour tours leaving at noon. There were probably several busses holding 40 or more for each tour. There was also a backlog of people with tender tickets just going into Reykjavík for private tours or exploring on their own.

Cee Kaye and Brad had the 7.5 hour Golden Circle excursion which was about a 300 km route that left at 2 p.m. this afternoon. They should see the Gullfass waterfall, driving through the Mosefellsheldi Heath, learning the history within Thingvellir National Park and watching the Geyser in the geothermal area. We took a similar bus tour five years which was spectacular.

After lunch we stopped at the Billboard tender ticket desk to get tickets. We got number 14s and number 7s were waiting to be called. We took less than ten minutes to grab our jackets and computers. As we returned to Billboard numbers 11, 12 and 13 were called together. We waited less than ten minutes to be called. The tender ride was about 15 minutes. We unloaded at Skarfabakki Cruise Terminal, where the Norweigan Star, Viking Star and Celebrity Apex were moored. There was a shuttle bus stop for all cruise passengers. The busses just shuttles people from the cruise terminal to the Harpa Convention Center, a few blocks from the city centre. At Harpa, there was free Wi-Fi for Larry to load the blogs of the past few days.

In less than an hour we were out to sight see. Across from Harpa was a stone and glass building under construction. Further along there was a small hill with a statue of Inglólfur Arnarson, who with his crew founded the first permanent settlers in Iceland. They named the place Reykjavík meaning Smoke Cove. The land had steam rising from the many hot springs.

The Reykjavik community was chartered in 1786, and in 1843 became the seat of parliament. Reykjavik became Iceland's capital in 1918, as well as the world's northernmost metropolis. The city is on Faxa Bay, surrounded by mountains

One street over from the Arnarson statue was Landsbokasafn, the Culture House and one of the museums. We continued walking and noted the black and white building housing the Mjúk Iceland store before turning uphill to reach Hallgrísirkja, the Lutheran Cathedral opened in 1945. Outside of the front doors was a statue of Leifur Eiríksson (Lief Erikson). The interior of the church is unembellished, however it has a magnificent 5,275 pipe organ, called Orgelsjódur.

Having seen the church, we began the 5.05 km walk back to the ship over half of which was along the harbour front. Along the street down to the water was a sod roofed restaurant called ROK. Near the water was the restored French Hospital that was built in 1902 by the French with timber from Denmark to provide medical care for the thousands of French fisherman in the area. It was staffed by Icelandic Doctors and nurses. By 1927 the fishermen were fishing elsewhere and the building was used for schools. The exterior was restored in 1988.

At the waterfront was a sculpture of a Viking ship frame. We passed several other public art sculptures on the waterfront walk that was separate from the bicycle path most of the way. There were not near as many cyclists as there was in the Netherlands.

We arrived at the pier as a tender was being loaded and were back at the ship in time for our 5:30 p.m. dinner slot, which we noticed a few days ago on the ship’s app had been changed to 5:15 p.m., but our keycard still reads 5:30 p.m.

The dining room had only a few more people than at lunch. It was about 15% full.

In the Rolling Stone Lounge at 7 p.m. was Ballroom Dance Hour. We were the only dancers for the first 45 minutes when we left.

Around 9 p.m. we climbed the stairs to Lido Market and found it teeming with people. Usually the market is closed and only the tea/coffee station is open. Due to the long tours returning after 8 p.m. Lido was kept open for an extra hour. It was close to sunset and we wanted to view Viðey Island’s Imagine Peace Tower, which is a column of light. It is a memorial to John Lennon from his widow, Yoko Ono. We waited 30 minutes after sunset in the Crow’s Nest Exploration Lounge, looking at the island only 500 meters away and did not see it. We will try again tomorrow.

Total steps 19,069. Flight of stairs / hills climbed 26