In preparing for this trip, I had heard that Iceland was one of the best places to go whale watching, with the opportunity to see lots of different types of really big whales. I had been whale watching 3 times before and had only seen orcas in Alaska. I really wanted to see some of these other kinds of whales. They have humpbacks a lot here and also, Blue whales (the largest), fin whales, Minke (which they eat in Iceland), beaked whales, orca and sperm whales. We had planned to go from Husavik, which was billed as the whale watching capitol of Iceland. The weather was just awful though and the trips for the day were cancelled. There was a whale museum though and so we went through that. Above is a pic of a humpback video they were playing.
The museum was interesting and one of the things they had done was reassembled a lot of different whale skeletons from various types of beached whales. This one is actually a blue whale.
It was found on it's back and they have it displayed the same way.
The ends of the flippers of whales look a lot like hands.
A different type of beaked whale.
The next day we were in Akureyri and were able to get a whale watching tour from there. The weather was improved from the day before, but still freezing when the boat was moving forward with any speed.
Cindy trying to survive.
Penny hanging on.
I was quite excited when we saw a total of 7 humpback whales. You really do spot them from their spout first as they come up for air. They are usually feeding singly, but we did find a pair together at one point. You mostly see the spouting, the backs as they get ready to dive again, and some show their tails or fluke's as they dive. They spend all their time here eating. They breed and calve down in warmer areas.
Dave and Penny. It was fun!
In preparing for this trip, I had heard that Iceland was one of the best places to go whale watching, with the opportunity to see lots of different types of really big whales. I had been whale watching 3 times before and had only seen orcas in Alaska. I really wanted to see some of these other kinds of whales. They have humpbacks a lot here and also, Blue whales (the largest), fin whales, Minke (which they eat in Iceland), beaked whales, orca and sperm whales. We had planned to go from Husavik, which was billed as the whale watching capitol of Iceland. The weather was just awful though and the trips for the day were cancelled. There was a whale museum though and so we went through that. Above is a pic of a humpback video they were playing.
The museum was interesting and one of the things they had done was reassembled a lot of different whale skeletons from various types of beached whales. This one is actually a blue whale. 
It was found on it's back and they have it displayed the same way. 
The ends of the flippers of whales look a lot like hands.
A different type of beaked whale.
The next day we were in Akureyri and were able to get a whale watching tour from there. The weather was improved from the day before, but still freezing when the boat was moving forward with any speed.
Cindy trying to survive.
Penny hanging on.
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