Iceland: Day 2

Day two began with a European breakfast at our hotel and was followed by a walk down to the harbour where we caught a boat for a whale watching tour.  We have had a pretty amazing experience whale watching out of California where we got to see blue whales, a few seals and two types of dolphins, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect to see in Iceland in comparison.  We arrived, bought our tickets, wandered through the little museum, then boarded the boat.  Something Icelanders have figured out is how to take care of tourists – upon boarding every passenger was invited to take a snowsuit to wear over top of whatever warm clothing and jacket we were already wearing, and boy was I glad to have it!  Even with my winter jacket and tuque on, I was happy for the extra layer.  

Once on the water we got a pretty good view of Reykavik city – notice the Hallgrimskirkja church steeple towering over the city!? 
 

We did a bit of bird sighting along the ride out: lots of gulls, a number of these birds pictured here, but I can’t remember what they were called.  We also stopped by an Island that is supposed to be a nesting ground for over 1000 Puffins however I was unable to make any puffins out from that distance.

It wasn’t long before our first whale spotting.  It was a Minke whale.  Our tour guide suggested we saw about five or six different Minke whales in the area where we spotted the first one, but I’m not convinced it just wasn’t the same whale over and over again, because we never saw more than one at a time.  Far off in the distance we were also able to see some porpoises, but they were really too far off to get a good view.  We did however get a great view of six dolphins playing in the waves.

On the way back in we enjoyed the scenery of Icelands volcanic mountains covered in glaciers and the fertile plains around the edges.

With our feet firmly back on solid ground and our snow suits returned, we found ourselves a burger place for lunch.  It seemed like a pretty popular spot and the food was good.  From there we wandered the city, winding our way towards the Hallgrimskirkja steeple.  The church itself was apparently designed as part of a competition hosted by the city.  Designs for a new church with a steeple that would hide a radio tower were to be submitted, and this was the winning one.  The design of the front is supposed to simulate the Basalt columns that are found all over Iceland from lava cooling.  Later in our trip we saw another church designed by this same gentleman, but it looked much more like a typical Icelandic church (more on that subject later).

Here is a shot from up in the bell/clock tower looking out over the harbour where we had caught the whale watching tour boat earlier that day.

We wrapped the day up with a stop in at the grocery store, some perusing along the main street where all the tourist type shops can be found, and finally some ice cream at our hotel while we began to plan our next day’s adventures.