Daydreaming of Vikings in 874
By David G. Molyneaux
Akureyri, Iceland
On a cruise to the North Atlantic islands that lie between Europe’s Scandinavia and America’s Newfoundland, your imagination may wander back 1,000 years or more, especially on the island of Fire and Ice.
To picture the Vikings’ first glimpses of tempestuous Iceland in the 9th century, get to sea, which is easier than ever as expedition vessels and comfy cruise ships are adding remote port stops to their itineraries.
Cruising Iceland’s waters not only offers visits to isolated fishing villages and daunting landscape, but also a sense of historic perspective of the wanderlust of the rugged Vikings who were a fitting match for this island.
Just South of the Arctic Circle
Much of the Iceland coastline has an angry, forbidding look. Huge swaths of cold purplish-brown lava are the result of eruptions from as many as 200 volcanoes. In March 2021, the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted after lying dormant for 800 years, and months later still was spewing lava and expanding its flow. Snow-covered, jagged mountain peaks form a backdrop. Huge Vatnajokull, one of the largest glaciers in the world, creeps toward the sea to the south.
Viking Ocean Cruises did a series of Iceland circumnavigations this year. On a one-week cruise aboard Viking Sky in July 2021 I could not clear my mind of the daunting welcome mat that nature has laid down. If you had arrived at the southeast coast centuries ago by small boat from Norway — water, food, and patience running low — consider your attitude: I sailed all these days for this?
And yet, discovery of Iceland — inevitable given its position and the curiosity of Scandinavian seafarers — turned out to be a triumph: The island is home to great fishing grounds and enough raw power on land, from water runoff and shooting geysers, to provide some of the cheapest electricity in the world to residents who live under what some experts consider today to be the oldest democracy on the planet.
Iceland, which is about the size of the state of Ohio, is situated on a curving group of islands often called steppingstones across the North Atlantic — east to west the Shetlands, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland.
Norse books say that Viking explorers settled Iceland about 874. Iceland’s Leif Erikson, son of the confrontational Erik the Red who founded the first Norse settlement in neighboring Greenland, is believed to have landed in North America nearly 500 years ahead of Christopher Columbus. Excavations in Newfoundland, Canada, have revealed remains of a Norse settlement occupied about the year 1000, supporting claims that Erikson and his followers — or perhaps other Vikings — were the first Europeans to “discover” North America; apparently, this is the land they called Vinland.
'Hot' Vacation Choice
These days, discovery is ticking upward in the opposite direction, some no doubt due to travelers’ curiosity about human DNA research that runs deeper and deeper into our pasts. Stories of Vikings from Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland grow ever more popular. They drew a significant audience 2013-2020 to the television series, Vikings, which began on the History channel.
Though the central interior of Iceland is largely uninhabitable, fascinating flatlands in and around fjords and rivers attract visitors to soak in steaming hot springs, to walk mudflats bubbling from gases beneath the Earth’s crust, and to straddle the European and North American tectonic plates that grind apart and tremble across the island (at one accessible spot you may stand, legs spread, touching both plates).
You may also notice sites filmed for the popular TV series Game of Thrones.
Island tours will take you to wild and lush lowlands surrounded by rugged mountains. Spas await to relieve tension. Fairy Tales and folklore about beasts and elves will captivate. Adventure tours will take you deeper and higher. Campers may see the northern lights.
Add the Reykjavik art scene and city restaurants that cook the local catch, and you have reasons for Iceland’s rise as a vacation getaway. (And don’t be concerned that you can’t pronounce any of their towns or natural phenomena; Icelanders won’t pay any adverse attention.)
To See Iceland from the Sea, Pick a Cruise
In 2022, numerous cruise lines are scheduled to call on Iceland, among them Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Princess, Celebrity, Regent, Holland America, Carnival, Cunard, Windstar, Oceania, Seabourn, Azamara, Crystal, Siversea, and Viking Ocean.
Viking Ocean chose Iceland as a destination to restart its cruises this summer after more than a year of resting during the early days of the pandemic (other Viking restarts were in Bermuda and Malta).
My Viking Sky itinerary from Reykjavik was to circle the island clockwise, stopping at five ports before returning to Reykjavik: fishing villages Isafjordur in the northwest and Akureyri, a college town only 62 miles from the arctic circle; Seydisfjordur, one of the earliest Viking settlements; Djupivogur, population about 300 and gateway to Vatnajokull, the biggest glacier; and the volcanic island of Heimaey, summer home to millions of puffins and other species who migrate to feed and breed.
In July, a successful cruise seemed reasonable, given the high vaccination rate in Iceland and preparations that Viking Ocean Cruises had taken, including the expense of building a full-scale laboratory on each of its cruise ships to test daily for Covid among the fully vaccinated and previously tested crew and passengers. Onboard, 760 passengers (with extra space on a 930-passenger ship) were fully connected with the ship’s medical crew. We filled out daily health questionnaires; had our temperatures checked at the entrance to breakfast; and carried a contact tracing medallion while on ship and ashore.
Unique to the cruising industry, we began each day with a substantial spit — 2 milliliters, which is about half a teaspoon of saliva aimed directly into a test tube marked with name and barcode. A knock would come to our cabin door at 8:30 a.m. — no sleeping late during summer in the far north — to collect our oral specimens. I heard few passengers complain about producing this juicy spit, which was required to be collected before brushing teeth or drinking coffee, not that any of the passengers said they awoke salivating over the prospect.
Early Cruises Require Flexibility by Passengers
Turned out that most of this summer’s restart cruises on Viking vessels went well. Ours? Outstanding ship and great seafood, as expected, but we missed about half the port stops, which were canceled because of ship protocols concerning the virus and concerned local officials.
We had kayaked in the bay at Isafjordur and spent a delightful day on a van tour (we booked privately) from Akureyri into the countryside of waterfalls, lava rock formations, and bubbling fumaroles of hot steam and gas (as well as a welcome homemade ice cream stand nearby to help return our mouths to a normal taste).
Alas, we were shut down at the port stop in picturesque Seydisfjordur when a passenger’s positive test set in motion the ship’s protocols for such an event: the passenger was placed in quarantine, and her contact tracer used to find and test additional passengers (who turned out to be negative). Authorities on land and the Iceland Coast Guard were notified; they requested that tour buses taking guests into the mountains to learn about elves be called back to Seydisfjordur.
At our next stop, tiny Djupivogur, population about 300, Viking Sky docked and excursion tours began, but the Coast Guard two hours later ordered the ship to head back to sea, skipping our last port stop the next day, and returning to Reykjavik.
When the Djupivogur decision was made, my wife and I were on a bus nearly two hours out of town, headed for a glacier adventure. With Vatnajokull deep in the distance, viewable though shrouded by mist, our bus turned around and headed back to the ship.
Viking Cruises emailed passengers that they would receive refunds for the unfulfilled shore excursions and be compensated with a 50% credit on their next cruise — probably in a different part of the world.
Though circumnavigating Iceland was a popular itinerary in 2021, ship itineraries already were set for 2022 (including four Iceland’s Majestic Landscapes cruises that are sold out). For more information, contact a travel agent specializing in cruises or VikingCruises.com. If you want to see Iceland from the sea during the next few years, you may need to book early.
Molyneaux, editor of TheTravelMavens.com, is a freelance writer who has visited more than 130 countries and sailed on about 150 cruises. This blog was published in the Napa Valley Register, Napa, Calif.
