Our second stop in Iceland was at Akureyri. Although we knew that Iceland was a land of active volcanoes, bubbling geysers and hotsprings, we hadn't really seen any of those at our previous stop in Ísafjörður. It became more obvious as we cruised into Akureyr and saw steam rising into the air from where water from the Foss Steam Baths cascaded into the sea.
We had booked an excursion with the cruise line for that day. The first stop in the excursion was at Goðafoss Falls, one of the most amazing waterfalls in the world. If you go to Iceland it's a must see stop.
Our next stop was at Skútustaðagígar a "series of pseudocraters formed by lava flow, surrounded by Lake Mývatn wetlands, known for birdlife." We didn't get any pictures of birds, but the landscape was beautiful and unlike anything we'd ever seen.
As in many parts of Iceland, there was steam venting from numerous places nearby, as you can see in the above picture. Some of the steam vents are from power generation facilities, some are from water feeding steam baths, some are both with the runoff from power plants feeding the steam baths. The tour guide had even pointed out a football field at a high school that was heated during the winter using geothermal hot water, so the kids could play sports all year round.
Our next stop was at Dimmuborgir Lava Fields. There we saw a number of rock formations each of which had a fairy tale-like story behind its formation. Most involved trolls who were turned to stone when they were exposed to the light at sunrise, much like you might have seen in Lord of the Rings. Based on the number of stone figures we saw, and there were many, these trolls weren't very smart.
Our final stop of the day was at the Myvatn Geothermal Area. There we saw boiling hot pools of water and rotten eggs smelling steam coming from vents in the ground.
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