Cowbright: Reykjavik, Iceland

What a beautiful view to wake up to! Thirty minutes later we were enjoying a room service breakfast. With a day in port and nothing special planned, we stayed on board and enjoyed a very lazy morning. We saw a lot of the countryside when we were here in 2024, so we decided just to take the shuttle into town and walk around a bit. The weather has turned rainy, cold and blustery, so I personally wasn't interested in spending a lot of time outdoors.

The photo below was taken from our balcony around 7:30 this morning.

Mount Esja in background

Reykjavik, Iceland's government seat is home to half the island's population. It is a colorful city with concrete houses painted in light colors topped by colorful red, blue and green roofs. Its name comes from the Icelandic words for smoke (reykur) and bay (vik).

Iceland is known as the "Land of Fire and Ice" due to its landscape shaped by glaciers and active volcanoes. The tiny town of Reykjavik is surrounded by ice covered peaks, volcanoes and geothermal vents. Most of the homes here are heated by near-boiling water from the hot springs.

The majority of marine activities include whale and puffin watching.

Here are some interesting facts about Reykjavik.

It is the northernmost capital city of any sovereign state in the world. Because of it's location, it experiences dramatic light shifts, from just 4 hours of daylight in winter to the near constant "Midnight Sun" during the summer solstice.

Meaning of the Name: When the very first Norse settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, saw steam rising from the hot springs of the area, he named the bay Reykjavík, which means "Smoky Bay".

Zero Global Fast Food Chains: There are no permanent global fast-food franchises. The last McDonald's closed in 2009, making Iceland one of the few places worldwide without them.

City of Puffins & Literary Greats: It is the only capital city in the world with a major puffin breeding colony (located on the nearby islands). It is also highly celebrated for its literary culture, earning the designation of a UNESCO City of Literature in 2011.

The weather has been cold, windy and misting rain on and off all day. We took the shuttle into town and walked around so I could snap a few photos and then headed back to the ship. We are not cold weather people! I'll post some of the photos I took to give an idea of what we saw.