16th – 18th – Finishing touches

We were woken early as we had to hand over our bags by 0700 before going to breakfast. At 0815 most of us had disembarked and were saying goodbye to the guides standing around outside the ship. The tour had officially ended and we were now on our own.

As it was too early to check into my hotel I had a walk around town with a few others and had some lunch (as if we really needed more to eat) before retuning to my hotel and getting my room. As I entered the room I decided to set my alarm to remind me to get to the restaurant I had booked a table at, and it turned out to be a good idea as I ended up passing out only minutes after settling in.

The 5275 pipes of the organ in Hallgrimskirkja.

When the alarm woke me up I realized I hadn’t prepared for my northern lights tour that evening, didn’t know where I would be picked up and was generally just a bit besides myself. I managed to eventually sort everything out and left to go and have dinner. The place was basically a meat restaurant where I started with langoustine/whale/puffin sliders followed by a lamb/duck/beef platter and finishing off with a tasty chocolate & salty caramel concoction, assisted by a large glass of red wine and port (of course…) for dessert.

I had just an hour to spare so I went to a bar in town where the ship’s musician had a gig to meet some of the guides and other passengers before having to leave early to go on the night’s tour. At the pickup point I bumped into 2 others from the ship and we had a blast. The evening was improved by the fact that the lights were putting on an impressive show almost non-stop for the entire time we were there. And we could agree on trash talking some of the other people from the bus as they had no idea how to adhere to the light-discipline necessary to have the best chance of seeing the lights under the best of circumstances. Returning to Reykjavik around 0200 we once again said our goodbyes and I went back to the hotel and straight to bed for some much-needed sleep.

Last day in Reykjavik and as my flight was during the afternoon and I had nothing planned I decided to wait until the last moment to check out and then spend a few hours having my last walk around before getting picked up and going to the airport. The lounge there was not very busy, had an excellent selection of food (and desserts!) and had seats pointed out towards the tarmac. Flight home was brilliant; awesome food, free functioning wifi and great service. What a nice way of ending another trip!

The Icelandic Opera.

Big thanks to Lauren Farmer (expedition leader), Catherine Ardagh (assistant expedition leader), Stephen Anstee (zodiac master), Blaise Guld (musician), Kerstin Langenberger (naturalist), Mario Placidi Spring (naturalist), Gerard Baker (BBC documentary maker/naturalist), Dr. Annette Bombosch (marine biologist), Michael Bowen (firearms master), Phil Hunter (naturalist), Bismarck Sommerfelt (naturalist), Vera Thaler (naturalist), Heidi Krajewsky (marine biologist), Luyang Zhao (naturalist), Dr. Trond Hansen (ship’s doctor) and Jacqueline Deely (photographer). Big thanks to the captain Juraj Zeikan and the rest of the crew whose names I don’t remember or don’t know. You all did some mighty fine work making this tour amazing.

Big thanks to Andre, Kimbrie, Brian, Daniel, Lora, Brittany, Graham, Allison, Fiona, Yogin, Britta, Meg and everyone else I should have mentioned but haven’t. You were a cool pile of people and I hope to get to meet you again some time in the future.

You can find the complete album here.