Towards the end of the tour we also got lucky and spotted some humpback whales! We got to see their tails come up and then dive down a couple of times and that was really cool. Unfortunately it's really difficult to be fast enough to get some good pictures of these guys but I did my best. This is one where you can see the tail fin flipped up.
We all saw some puffins in the water as well- they are so cute! But they were no easier to photograph than the whales; as soon as I'd focus on one of them they would dive into the water. One nice thing I really appreciated was the tour operator had overalls onboard for us to wear. I don't think they were strictly necessary for today since it wasn't that cold, but it did make the 3-hour tour quite a bit more comfortable and therefore easier to sit up on top of the deck where the viewing was best instead of huddled inside trying to keep warm. Also, in typical Iceland style, it alternated between being sunny and sprinkling on us several times so the overalls were appreciated then to keep us dry. Plus, we look so cute!
At the end of the tour on the way back to harbour they provided some information on the whales we had seen and also passed around some of those filter-like plates that they have in their mouths so that we could feel them. It was pretty cool! They also passed around a vertebra bone from the minke whale and also an ear bone from one of the whales and they were both huge!
Oh, I almost forgot. The boat's name was the Andrea! (That's my real name for those that don't know...) So that was kinda cool!
After our tour we walked a short distance to Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, which is the most famous place in Iceland to get hotdogs (which apparently is a big thing here). It became more well known in 2004 when former US President Bill Clinton visited, then in 2006 a British newspaper called The Guardian named it the best hot dog stand in all of Europe. It's also one of the cheapest meals we've found in Iceland. The sausages are lamb-based and if you order "one with everything" then it comes with ketchup, sweet mustard, fried onion, and raw onion. That's what I had and it was okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the sausage myself but that's not really my type of thing. We had to try it though and Matt really liked his!
After lunch we walked along Laugavegur which is one of the more popular/touristy streets in Iceland. There were tons of souvenir shops and restuarants lining both sides and we took time and explored lots of them. There was also some really cool art painted on some of the buildings. Towards the end of the street we were near Hallgrimskirkja, which is the iconic church in Reykjavik, so we went to check that out as well. The outside is really pretty and on the inside there is a huge ornate organ! It's really pretty. There was a guy there playing it and it sounded really cool.
Our last stop was Valdís which we had read had the best ice cream in Iceland. It did not disappoint! It seems that Icelanders take their ice cream pretty seriously, which is something I can respect.
Tonight we are going to the famous Blue Lagoon! Our appointment is at 9pm so tune in tomorrow to see how that went!
For whatever reason my phone bugged out and didn't save any of my pictures after the whale watching, so now I don't have any pictures from the rest of the day. Sorry about this. I'm pretty disappointed by it, too.
Special Tours Wildlife Adventures sponsored our whale-watching tour but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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