Day 14 - Reykjavik - Text by Anna

Today was our last day and as we didn't have the car and hadn't really explored the capital, we decided we would do this today. We woke to heavy rain which was a bit disappointing, but didn't deter us. After a lovely breakfast we chilled in the hotel room for a little while, then took the free hotel shuttle bus into town. We had seen that you could do whale watching from Reykjavik and loved it so much the first time, we wanted to try again. We wondered down to the harbour and booked ourselves two places on the boat 'Edding' for 1pm. As we had a little time before we left, we took a little look in the local whale museum (not sure if it should be called a museum - its the hull of a boat, kitted out to show a few bones and a few films of whales swimming at sea) after the wonderful museum in Vik, we promptly made our exit for a wonder round the part of town we were in. We had a look in a couple of shops and took in a few sights, before returning to the boat. The boat was much bigger than in Husavik and we realised once again, how lucky we were to have had chance to see a whale in Husavik with a lot less people about. We set sail with a very helpful and pleasant guide to tell us about the area. After about 30 minutes we heard a voice on his walkie-talkie that an earlier boat had found a humpback whale so we promptly headed off in that direction. It seems the tour operators in the bay work together and let each other know when they find one. We were over the moon. We had fully prepared ourselves we might not see anything as we had been so lucky the first time but this was wonderful. And to make things even better, the rain had stopped and the sea was very calm. Then we saw the spray from its blow hole in the distance shooting up into the air. Our guide explained, that since April there had only been 5 humpback whales feeding in the bay and this one had been here only a few days. The usual o'clock system sprung into action as we watched it surface, break the water and dive over and over. A third ship now had arrived and all three ships were surrounding the whale (at a distance but still quite close) and then we had a real treat. The whale began to swim along the surface, sweeping its tail from side to side like a fish and then it turned on its side, showing its fin and kind of waving at us before rolling back onto its front, swimming a bit more then diving again. It was absolutely magical. If you zoom in on the photos here, you can see the distinct markings and scars on its fin. These are how scientists and experts tell each animal apart from one another as they are unique like finger prints. After a little while longer, our captain decided we should leave this whale alone and try and find some Minke whales that also feed in the bay. Our guide described to us, that the behaviour we had seen was either because the whale was relaxed and playing or that it felt a little threatened by the three boats and was letting us know. Probably the latter, so although it was a shame to leave it, it was nice to think the captain and tour company was being responsible. We then headed further out of the bay towards the whale gorge where we found a smaller Minke whale. We had seen one earlier, but were in pursuit of the humpback so had left it to feeding. The Minke whale was more agile as it was smaller, and the spray from the blow whole wasn’t as visible. It was also a lot faster so once it dived, it normally surfaced along way from the boat and changed directions a lot. We followed this whale for a little while then headed back towards an Island that had a colony of Puffins on it. We had a pleasant surprise on the way back – the humpback whale was swimming across the water in front of the boat so stopped to watch it swim and dive again. After a few dives, we ventured on and spent a little while with the puffins. There were hundreds of them like at Vik. Lots of them were flying in circles around the island, while the others were either happily perched on the rocks on the island or bobbing about in the sea before heading out to sea to catch some fish. We sailed back to the harbour and took a short walk up to the church which sits proudly on top of the hill that Reykjavik is built on. Like most of the modern architecture in Iceland, the building had a very quirky look to it but still maintaining a very Icelandic feel. Inside was beautiful and the organ was very impressive. We were lucky to hear it being played as a local festival was taking place over the following few days and they were in the church practicing. By now we were getting quite hungry so decided to head back to the main area to get some dinner. We ate again at Café Victor as we knew the food was relatively cheap and good. It was such a treat and we both enjoyed every mouthful! The last thing to see on our trip was the Ice Bar. It was one of the first things we had heard about so were very keen to see what all the fuss was about. We entered the main warm bar, was guided to an area where we were given quilted blanket/throws and led into a small room lined with blocks of ice and a huge air con unit pumping out freezing cold air. There was a little bar in the corner, where a tray of glasses, each filled with ice, and two seats made out of ice blocks with some animal skin draped over them. We were given our cocktail (gin and lemonade) and left to it. I soon began to feel the cold, shivering so much I nearly spilt by drink while Leigh tried to take a few pictures. We didn’t stay here too long. We both thought the whole thing was over priced and quite hyped up. It wasn’t as good as we had hoped it would be but we had to see what all the fuss was about. After a little stroll, we caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel, to get packed ready for our early morning flight.











































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