​Obviously, our whole purpose of this cruise was to see the Northern Lights which we had yet to see during all our previous cruises.  We knew based on poor weather conditions and overcast skies that we might not see them.  We had gone to Iceland a year and a half ago in hopes of seeing the lights but all we saw was rain and lots of clouds.  Well, this trip was different!
 
On our first day at sea the captain made an announcement around midnight that there was a sighting of Northern Lights at the bow of the ship.  We hurried and put some warm clothes on for the 25 degree windy weather and ran up to deck 9 to see these lights.  We got there and it was cold with a light rain coming down.  There was also a tall glass barrier at the front which prevented you a direct view unless you stepped back several yards to try and take pictures over the barrier.  At first when we looked out, we could see nothing at all and then we were told we needed to use our iPhone cameras to see the lights.  Sure, enough when we put up our cameras, we could see an eerie green glow off on the horizon.  When we tried to take a picture of it, we originally had difficulty in getting any clear shots of these lights.  We learned that iPhones automatically went into a night mode when there was little light and the shutter speeds were anywhere from 1 to 5 seconds.  You had to hold you phone very steady to get any kind of picture.  Taking pictures through the glass barrier didn’t provide very good pictures, nor did standing back away from the barrier.  We were able to get some pictures but they really weren’t very good although a few certainly did capture what we saw.  Regardless of the picture quality, we had FINALLY seen the NORTHERN LIGHTS!
 
On Day 2 at sea – OMG!  We threw all our pictures away from Day 1 because what we saw on Day 2 was spectacular!  We were just coming out of the Viking spa whirlpool area when the captain makes an announcement of a wonderful viewing of the Northern Lights at the bow of the ship.  This was around 5:30 PM which was surprising for how early it was (although sunset is around 2:30 PM in northern Norway during January).  We ran up to our room to take off our wet clothes and put on our warm clothes.  Instead of going up to Deck 9 again we went to Deck 7 which had no glass barrier in front of you making it very easy to take pictures.  As soon as we put our cameras up to the sky they lit up with colors.  There were lights directly in front of us and some to the right.  As we continued along there were some great lights to the left and even directly over the ship.  It was hard to imagine how beautiful they were and although we are very proud of our pictures, we know they do not do justice to what we saw.  What made it even more spectacular was the moon was shining bright in front of us and we were sailing by the city of Tromso, the largest city in northern Norway and the third largest north of the Arctic Circle.  Having the city lights and the moon in the background, only made our pictures better.  Besides just seeing the typical green lights we also saw some deep red and purple colors.  We saw hazy clouds of greens at times and sharp vivid colorful streaks in the sky at other times.  Sometimes the colors were wavy and other times they were layered.  One thing the photos don’t show is how the lights change over time. If you took the same picture in the exact same spot 5 minutes later, it might be a totally different looking picture.  There is movement and changes in the shape and color.  It was spectacular to see.  Although we know there are better displays of the Northern Lights, this viewing far exceeded our expectations of what we thought we might see during this trip.  We probably only stayed outside for 30 to 45 minutes admiring this display of nature at its best.  The weather was very cold and windy causing our hands to get very numb after a while.  The lights don’t usually last much more than an hour if that long and these lights were beginning to dim a little but still quite a spectacle.  Well after seeing this light display, we can certainly knock of the Northern Lights from our Bucket List!  (Although Sharon is hinting, she wants to come again in late 2024 or early 2025 – anybody else???)
 
Later that night around 7PM on our way to dinner the captain made another announcement that the “lights” were on the port side of the ship.  We went out and took a few pictures but they were nothing like we had seen earlier.  Again, later that night there was another sighting of the lights but once again not nearly as impressive.  We had been spoiled with what we had seen earlier in the evening.  We had been told that the Viking cruise before ours hadn’t been able to see any Northern Lights due to overcast weather.  Sometimes you just must be a little lucky!
 
When we arrived at Alta the next day we had a Northern Lights tour set up but we knew the weather conditions weren’t very good that night.  We did not see them that night, but we did have an enjoyable tour.  These tours that go out to search for the lights are very expensive - $200-$300 per person (or up to $500 if you take it with the cruise line!).  It is a shame to spend this type of money and not even see what you paid money to see.  Very few of these tours come with a guarantee that you will see the lights!
 
During our nights in Tromso we saw the lights a few times from the ship.  Once again, we took some pictures that will never be shared because they just don’t hold a candle to what we saw that one night.  We were supposed to do another Northern Light tour in Tromso but it was canceled due to poor weather conditions.  Although we would have loved to go on the tour and see the lights, it was nice to save $500 when you knew you weren’t going to see anything.
 
We also learned a lot about taking pictures of the Northern Lights during this cruise.  There was a lecturer that provided camera lessons throughout the cruise and did provide some valuable insight on taking pictures of the lights.  Unfortunately, this lecturer did not use smart phone cameras and didn’t know too much about them.  He said that smart phone cameras were not as good as DSLR cameras in taking this type of picture but he did say that good pictures could be taken with smart phone cameras and gave a few ideas on how to get better pictures.  We did not bring our DSLR camera but if we do this again or go someplace where we might see the Northern Lights, we probably will bring our DSLR camera with us.  These days smart phone cameras take such good photos we just don’t use the DSLR camera that much anymore.
 
Regards,
Sharon and Greg

We flew into Bergen on January 31st for our Viking Northern Lights cruise.  Our group consisted of 8 people from Peachtree City and 2 from Illinois.  We were welcomed by snow at the airport and a sign with the name of the city followed by a question mark.  We were told the question mark was just something to make you think about what you thought about their city.  After checking in at our ship and having a bite to eat we decided to venture out and see a little of Bergen.  We didn’t get more than a ¼ mile when we decided to turn back due to gale force winds and heavy rain.
 
The following morning, we had a walking tour scheduled through Tours By Locals to see the sights around Bergen.  Instead of the rain and wind we encountered the day before, the sun was shining and we needed sunglasses!  This was our first (but not our last) experience with how quick the weather can change in Norway during the winter months.  Our tour took us around the city and up a Funicular to see Mount Floyen which overlooks Bergen and provides some great views of the city and the surrounding area.  We learned a little about the history of Norway and their first king.  We were shown the Bergenhus Fortress which was built by the British for the first king of Norway to have his inauguration.  Today this building hosts musical concerts.  We passed by St Mary’s church which was built in 1180. 
 
While up on Mount Floyen we were almost run over by 10 mountain Floyen goats that came running down the path.  Although they were in the wild, they were certainly used to people and allowed you to pet them.  We took a picture by a giant troll statue and read a little about trolls and Norway.  It was also interesting to learn that the Funicular also made additional stops along the way every hour for residents that lived along the mountain side.  When we got off the funicular, we were greeted by some young members of the Bergen Pipes and Drums group who were out recruiting new members.  We walked up a little way to see the residential homes that are stacked right on top of one another.  Talk about zero lot lines – these homes had outside walls built within 6 inches of the next home!
 
Our tour eventually took us to the harbor area which is the iconic sight of Bergen in all the pictures you probably see.  You can find a MacDonalds restaurant located in an historical building built back in 1710.  Nearby to it is the only Starbucks in Bergen located in a modern building along with some other eateries.  As we walked towards the ship, we came to the Bryggen area which is a UNESCO historical district of old wooden buildings used by merchants back in the Middle Ages.  All of these buildings are maintained using the same construction methods used 500 years ago.  When a building is in need of repair it is closed off and a team of craftsman work on the building for possibly up to a year to ensure it is reconstructed in the same manner as it was originally built and is safe.  One of the buildings has its first floor at an angle which was caused by a massive explosion in the harbor during World War II.  These buildings are leased to shop owners  who sell some very nice merchandise for tourists and locals to buy.  Leases here are not cheap with the cost to maintain these historical buildings!
 
Bergen is a very nice place to visit and just walk around.  We didn’t get to see as much as we wanted because of time constraints but fortunately we are coming back here in August when hopefully the weather is nicer, and we have plenty of time to see all this city has to offer.
 
Sharon and Greg
 
PS: Last week we just booked a new group cruise for December 2024.  This is a 12 day Viking River Cruise that goes from Paris to Prague to see the various European Christmas Markets at the small cities along the river.  This was a cruise on Sharon’s bucket list and we have 5 couples already joining us!  We are leaving early in December to be back at least a week before Christmas.  Let us know if you want any information on this cruise before it is booked up.  Cruises book quickly these days!

After 5 enjoyable pre-cruise days enjoying Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls, our cruise line, Hurtigruten, flew us down to Ushuaia (see short blog on this city).  We were traveling with the Palmers (Dale and John) and the Sanchezs/Decoucy (Leo, Jo and Barb).  This was the same group that cruised the Galapagos Islands over 4 years ago.  Our entire plane, along with another plane, was a charter flight by Hurtigruten and only had cruise passengers onboard.  The boarding procedures at the airport were extremely easy.  We chose Hurtigruten as our cruise company because they have been doing expeditionary cruises for over 50 years.  We like Viking and considered booking with them, but last year was the first year they have done cruises in Antarctica and we were concerned they didn’t have enough experience yet.  After our short visit in Ushuaia, we boarded the ship, the Fridjof Nansen.  This was a brand-new ship that was on its second Antarctica cruising season.
 
We didn’t really know what to expect during the cruise.  We knew we would sail 2 days through the Drake Passage before arriving in Antarctica and another 2 days through the passage on the way back.  The 5 days we would spend in Antarctica was a big unknown to us.  As we attended the orientation seminars, we started to understand a little more on what to expect.  First we were told there was no specific itinerary except for Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc.  Antarctica is unpredictable and what looks good in the morning might not look good in the afternoon.  Plans would need to change based on ice conditions as we cruised, weather in the area, other expedition cruise ships in the area, etc.  We were told that typically we would do one landing each day and possibly a zodiac scenic cruise each day.  We were also given the opportunity to sign up for kayaking and the science boat.  We could have signed up for camping but going out on the ice at 10 PM at night and getting up at 6:00AM just didn’t seem that appealing when you had to carry your own tent there and go to the bathroom in a bucket.  Signing up for the kayaks was a lottery system since there were more people who wanted to go than spaces available.  We signed up and were assigned to group 6.  We also were assigned to group 2 for the Science Boat which was an opportunity to work with the many scientists on board who were in Antarctica researching different things.
 
The 2-day voyage over the Drake Passage was uneventful.  The swells on the sea were large and walking on the ship was difficult at times but it really wasn’t too bad, and we didn’t see anyone who got sick.  During our voyage through the Drake, we were able to explore the ship and understand the differences between this small 530 passenger expeditionary ship and the larger ocean cruise ships we typically sail on.  There are only 3 restaurants on board, and one is a specialty restaurant.  We tried this specialty restaurant and wasn’t too impressed with it since it had a very limited menu and very few courses with the meal.  There was no salad and only one very small appetizer, but the cost was only $25 which is much less than the larger ships charge.  The main dining room seemed to alternate between buffet dinners and a small a la carte menu.  The food served there was very good.  The third restaurant was our favorite and served hamburgers, sandwiches, and other specialty items.  You could also order milkshakes and a Norwegian pancake type dessert.  At each restaurant you were served complimentary beer, wine, or soft drinks only during lunch and dinner hours.  Although there was no room service you could order take away from one restaurant.  Unfortunately, there was no coffee shop or other restaurant open between breakfast and lunch or open after dinner.  During the sea days you could go to one of the many lectures they had about Antarctic wildlife, icebergs, scientific studies, and exploration.  The WiFi on the ship was amazingly good although there were times that it was not available throughout our cruise.  There was a small fitness center on board, but it was typically busy.  A very nice shop was on board, and you could purchase high quality items for reasonable prices.  In the back of the ship was a small pool with two hot tubs.  The ship had a large scientific area where people could talk to the various scientists on board and learn more about Antarctica and its wildlife.  There was a very nice library there also with many books on Antarctica and the Arctic.  It was a well-designed ship, and we enjoyed our time on it.
 
When we arrived at the Antarctic peninsula on Day 3 of the cruise, or Day 1 of our Antarctica land expedition, we suited up because we were one of the first zodiacs to go to shore in the morning.  Suiting up involves putting on your long underwear and many layers of clothes in addition to wearing your down coat under your waterproof coat.  We had to buy a pair of waterproof pants on board because you needed to have them to go ashore.  Also don’t forget your wool hat, heavy gloves, hand warmers, and neck/face covering.  All this clothing for temperatures in the 30’s?  Besides the temperatures though, you must be prepared for the winds, rain, and/or snow.  Antarctica weather can change very quickly from sunny and calm, to 30 MPH gusts with rain blowing in your face!  We landed at Wordie House which was an old camp built in 1935 by the English and later abandoned in the 1950’s.  We were able to walk through this building which still had canned food items left over and posters from the 1940’s.  Across the inlet from the camp was the Ukrainian facility Camp Vernadsky which was sold to them for $1 by the British.  While on land we did a small hike to the top of a hill which gave us some good views of the surrounding area.  The weather was not bad but there was a little rain and a slight wind.  Temperatures were in the 30’s for the entire cruise.  Later in the afternoon we took a zodiac ride around the harbor and viewed the penguin colony around Camp Vernadsky.  It was especially fun to watch them swim.  Swimming penguins jump out of the water just like the dolphins do in the Caribbean.  We also saw one seal during the day.  Although the weather wasn’t too bad the sun was not out, and it was not a great day for photography.
 
On Day 2 in Antarctica the ship had moved to a new location in Orne Harbor where heavy snow was falling. We did another landing in the early afternoon and this time we had a significant hike to the top where there was another penguin colony.  We had a snow coming down most of the morning which was pretty to see.  When hiking on land you had to wear the boots provided by Hurtigruten and use the walking poles provided.  After a short walk from where we landed, we stopped to take photos of 4 penguins that were going down from the top of the hill to the sea.  They seemed to be having a lot of fun waddling around and moving around on their bellies.  After taking many pictures of these penguins, we started our long trek to the top.  Less than half the people who landed made it to the top.  As we hiked up, we would stop and enjoy the magnificent view and take a few pictures.  When we got to the top, we saw the large colony of penguins who lived there.  This was a long way from the sea which had their food (krill) and predators (seals).  There were a few chicks that you could see every now and then when they peeked out from their mother.  From the top we had a great view of our ship and the bay we were in.  After taking many pictures the sun “almost” came out and the visibility improved dramatically.  We started to retake all our pictures and had some excellent views all around us.  We ended up staying much longer than we were supposed to and took a later zodiac back to the ship with another group.  The pictures were just too good after the visibility improved.  The trip back down the hill was a little treacherous since it was steep and very slippery in the snow.  Many people fell on the way down, but we were fortunate to stay on both feet.  Later in the afternoon we took another zodiac cruise around the bay.  Unfortunately, the weather was bad with 20 to 30-mile hour winds and snow blowing almost horizontally.  The water was a little rough and it felt a lot colder.  We saw a few penguins on the coast with some other birds, but it really wasn’t great viewing weather, and we didn’t take many pictures.
 
On Day 3 in Antarctica, we were scenic cruising in the morning to get to our landing area in Paradise Bay.  As we cruised along, we saw several whales and many penguins.  Most of the penguins were swimming in the water but we saw some floating down the channels on icebergs.  The sun was out, and the pictures were great.  We stayed outside a few hours taking pictures.  We passed a Silversea cruise ship that had all its zodiacs and kayaks out.  We were envious of them having such great weather and could only hope that the sun would stay out for us once we got to our landing area.  When we got to our landing spot, we took an early zodiac to the landing spot so we could do the “Science Boat” later in the afternoon.  The sun was in and out, and the pictures were good.  Penguins were seen everywhere, and penguin poop smelled bad.  The smell and dirty snow was disgusting in the main penguin colony.  What was even worse, was the fact that these penguins lived right outside an active base where the people were coming back on the following week.  I would not want to live there with all those penguins!  At this stop we had another large hill to climb and the views at the top were very nice.  It was a little scary at the top because you were right next to a 100+ foot cliff drop.  There were some other places to walk at this stop to see more penguins and other parts of the base.  While we were there, we saw several instances where the nearby ice sheets calved into the water.  One of these was very impressive to watch.  In the afternoon we met our science team members who were going out on the boat with us.  The scientists on board the Hurtigruten ships elicit the help of cruise passengers to help in collecting data in Antarctica.  On this trip we performed a test for water visibility, obtained a water sample to analyze back at the lab, and sent out an underwater drone to record what was seen at different depths.  Everyone on the boat contributed to doing something.  The scientists could do this all themselves more quickly and efficiently but engaging the passengers created an activity that everyone enjoyed.  While out on this boat we saw many penguins, a seal, and even a whale in the distance.  Not everyone on the ship could participate in this science boat activity but we were lucky enough to win the lottery and get selected to help.  This was another fun day in Antarctica with our first day of sun and no rain or snow!
 
Day 4 in Antarctica was spent in Damoy Point (Dorian Bay).  Once again, we did some scenic cruising in the morning and the weather was spectacular with full sun for most of the morning.  The landscapes with snowy mountains were so impressive.  We passed both a Silversea and Ponant ship along the way in addition to several sail boats.  We were told that many of the sail boats go down to Antarctica when the Drake Passage is smooth and then stay down there for a long time.  There are so many beautiful channels to sail through and enjoy the magnificent scenery.  This was our day to do the Kayaks!  We were really excited to do this because it is quite an adventure.  They give you the suits to wear which consist of an insulated “bunny” suit with an outer waterproof suit that seals around your hands and neck to prevent water for leaking in (just in case you fall into the very, very cold water).  They also give you a pair of dive boots to wear.  After you suit up in your cabin, you go down to the embarkation area where they give you a life vest and your paddle.  You sit in the kayak to set up your foot pedals to the correct length.  Then you board a zodiac, while the crew attaches all the kayaks to a separate zodiac, and you ride out to a quiet spot where you board the kayak from the zodiac (hopefully without falling into the water!).  The zodiac trip was a good hour long with very calm seas and very little wind.  The sun was partially out, and everything was great.  Greg did most of the paddling while Sharon did all the photography.  Penguins were everywhere both on land and in the water.  We saw 7 seals and one was curious enough we thought he might jump into one of the empty kayaks.  We paddled a long way and even saw the Ponant ship again which was close to a large iceberg which we paddled up to.  It was a wonderful trip and one of our best kayak trips ever!  After our kayak trip we handed in all our suits and equipment, and then headed right to our cabin to put on our clothes for our landing trip.  We had just enough time to suit up and meet the rest of our group down in the embarkation area to head ashore.  There were penguins everywhere at this stop along with both an Argentinian and American base.  The American building had been turned into a museum that people could visit and see how the Antarctica explorers lived 50 years ago.  Near these two buildings there had once been a landing strip where planes had flown in to bring provisions to the nearby base camps.  You could do a lot of walking at this stop but there were no major hills to climb.  Penguins could be seen at many places along the walk.  The winds were relatively calm when we arrived but by the time we were leaving there was some very heavy gusts and it felt much colder.  After we came back the visibility started to be much more limited.  We were lucky to have gone kayaking and on land when we did.  This was our best day in Antarctica!
 
Day 5 started out as a disappointment.  As we were traveling to Deception Island, the waves and swells had greatly increased.  When we went through the narrow entrance (Neptune Bellows) inside Deception Island the waters were calmer but still rough.  Unfortunately, it was too rough to launch the zodiacs and we had to cancel our last land stop.  We did some scenic cruising on the large bay inside Deception Island which is a large volcanic crater.  Around the ring of land surrounding the bay are several smaller craters and lakes.  We had hoped to land at Whalers Bay, which was an old, abandoned whaler’s base.  The buildings looked in very poor condition and there were large storage tanks that once held the blubber oil.  We did some scenic cruising before heading out to try one more stop to see if we could make a landing.  We were told at the start of our trip that they always had Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc.   Well, we were off to Plan B – Half Moon Bay!  On our arrival the sun was shining, and the sea was not too bad.  We embarked on the zodiacs to Half Moon Bay and was very impressed with this stop.  Penguins were everywhere and they were up front and personal.  We had to avoid them as we walked, and they didn’t seem too concerned about us as we took our pictures.  The guides tried to keep us 15 feet away from the penguins but that was difficult to do at times.  Most of the colony was high up in the rocks but these penguins were much more active than the previous places we had been.  There were penguins everywhere walking in different directions.  We saw several penguin chicks at this site although more from a distance.  A seal was also spotted swimming in the water in addition to one very lazy seal on the beach by our landing spot.  Unlike other land stops we didn’t need to walk in any snow here and it was a very pleasant hike around the island.  The rock formations were very different on this island.  The wreckage of a very old boat was near our landing site which provided some good pictures with the penguins and sleeping seal.  Plan B turned out to be a great choice!
 
It should be noted how much effort is required by the expedition crew to prepare each landing site we went to.  They had to clear out an area to allow the zodiacs to land.  In many places they “carved” steps in the snow and ice to allow passengers to walk in some of the steep areas more easily.  They marked all areas you could walk with flags to make sure people didn’t wander to an area that had a dangerous fissure or too close to wildlife.  At one stop they had even built a seat in the ice that many people enjoyed during the long walk up to a hilltop.  While people were out on land, they had crew members posted at various points to ensure the safety of the passengers and wildlife.  They helped all passengers get in and out of the zodiacs which was quite a task for some of our larger passengers that had limited mobility.  The staff worked hard for the passengers and their efforts were certainly appreciated.
 
We had 5 great days in Antarctica!  The weather got better each day and was never terrible except for one afternoon.  That is pretty good for Antarctica where you never know what to expect.  We saw thousands of penguins, at least one seal at every stop, and whales every day as we cruised from our different stops.  It would have been nice to see a few more seals or some Orca whales but you never know what you will see.  One of the guides told us the best time to see Antarctica is either in early December to see the large icebergs or March to see the wildlife.  In January, when we went, is the most popular time to see a little of both.  Next time we go we will probably go in late February or early March and hope to find more wildlife.
 
After 2 uneventful days at sea going back to Ushuaia, we boarded our plane to Buenos Aires and then connected onto our plane back to Atlanta.  Our Antarctica adventure was finally over.  We had a great time.  Sharon even mentioned her interest to maybe try it again some time if we found some other people who were interested in doing it with us.  If you have any interest in doing an expeditionary cruise to Antarctica in the future let us know!  Next time we might try Viking or Silversea and we would probably lengthen the cruise to include South Georgia Island and/or Falkland Islands.
 
We apologize for the length of this blog but there was so much to see in Antarctica, and we didn’t want to break it down to different stops.  


Here is a list of our future cruises:

• Caribbean cruise in March
• Tahiti cruise in April
• Family Mediterranean cruise in June
• Norway/Svalbard/Iceland/Greenland cruise in August
• Canada/New England cruise in September
• Greek Isles/Mediterranean cruise in October
• Vietnam/Singapore/Bangkok/Hong Kong cruise in January 2024
• Antarctica Scenic cruise in February 2024
• South America/Panama Canal cruise in March 2024
• Kenya/Masai Mara Safari in July 2024
• Amazon/Brazil cruise in January 2025
• Transatlantic/Cape Town cruise & Safari in February 2025

If anyone wants to join us on any of these, please let us know.
 
Regards,
Sharon and Greg

​After a 3 ½ hour flight down from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia we were given a very short tour of the town and allowed to walk around for an hour or so before we needed to board the ship.  We had been to Ushuaia around 10 years ago on our first cruise around South America.  It is considered to be the city at the bottom of the world since no other country other than Antarctica is that far south.  It is a city of around 100,000 people settled down below the Andes Mountains and the ocean.  The city has added much artwork and sculptures since we were last there.  There is one street through town that has all the shops and restaurants.  We found an old partially sunken ship along the edge of the harbor which was very photographic with the mountains in the background.  Down along the port area they had an arts and crafts area with many interesting items on sale.  There was not a lot to see or do here, but it was certainly worth spending an hour or so walking around.  Most people that come there do tours out on the water or up in the mountains.  Over 100 years ago it used to be a much more important port until all the ships started going through the Panama Canal.  It primarily gets cruise ships in there now.  While we were there, we saw a Celebrity, Norwegian and Viking ship in the harbor along with 4 or 5 smaller expeditionary ships, like National Geographic, Quark, and Ponant, on the pier.
 
From here we go to Antarctica!
 

​We had purchased a 3-day Iguazu Falls package from Project Expeditions who we had used a couple of times before.  The package included our flights to Iguazu Falls from Buenos Aires and 2 nights at a reasonable hotel including several excursions.  The cost was well less than half of what the cruise lines charged to go there.  We headed out to the airport at 6AM and arrived in Iguazu Falls just after 10AM.  Our guide was at the airport to meet us, and we went to the hotel first to change quickly before heading to the Brazil side to see the falls from there first.  When you enter the park you have to have a ticket which is used to board a bus which takes you to the falls.  It is a very long way from the entrance to the falls and walking isn’t very practical. 
 
Our first view of the falls was absolutely amazing!  This was a bucket list item for us, and it lived up to expectations.  The park has done an outstanding job of building walkways, platforms and even an elevator to help people see these magnificent falls.  Iguazu Falls isn’t one fall, but it is a series of many falls along a long length of the river.  It is amazing how much water falls in the river below.  Only a rain forest can create this magnitude of water.  After taking 20 pictures of the falls and us we were talked into having a photographer take some pictures of us in front of the falls.  They came out very nice and we bought a set of them for a reasonable price (after a little negotiation).  We walked along a path and took more pictures at different angles.  We could also see the falls on the Argentina side where we were going the next day.  After spending a few hours there, we took the bus back to the entrance.  From the entrance of the park, we walked to a helicopter tour office where we had purchased a ride to see the falls from the sky.  It was hard to take good pictures, but we got a great perspective of the falls and did manage a few pictures to keep.
 
We went back to the hotel and had dinner there.  There is a small town that has some restaurants, but we were pretty tired and the food at the hotel turned out to be pretty good.  Although the hotel was nice the location is a few miles from the falls, and we were cautioned not to walk on your own from the hotel because of the animals in the jungle.  Sharon even ran into a very large rat snake that wouldn’t let her cross the hotel’s path for a few minutes.  The hotel did have a very nice pool, but we really didn’t have time to enjoy it.  There were two hotels that are inside the park, and you can see the falls right from the hotel.  One hotel was on the Brazilian side and one on the Argentinian side.  These hotels cost about $800 per night but if we were to do this trip again, I am sure we would choose to stay at one of these hotels so we had more time to view the falls and take pictures.
 
On the second day we stayed on the Argentina side but instead of taking a bus to see the falls we were able to walk from the park entrance.  There were two levels of viewing paths in addition to a train that would take you to the long path to see Devil’s Throat.  This is the largest and most powerful falls on the Brazilian side which has a very large viewing platform directly over the falls.  Unfortunately, the mile plus walk way to Devil’s Throat was wiped out by a flood last October and the repair of this pathway will take many more months to complete.  We did spend several hours walking both the upper and lower-level paths and got some great pictures.  Once again it was amazing to see the falls up close and the walkways that were built were perfect to allow you to walk over the falls and rivers to get such great views.  After viewing the falls from the walkway, we boarded a bus that took us to the zodiacs which would take us up river to see the falls from a totally unique perspective.  You can really get a great view of the falls when they drive you directly into the falls with the water drenching every part of you!  It was an enjoyable boat ride and once again we got some great photos.
 
This turned out to be a great side trip on our way to Antarctica.  The weather was hot and sunny which wasn’t preparing us for the cold weather in Antarctica.  The falls were everything we had hoped and more!
 
The next day we flew back to Buenos Aires to join the Hurtigruten group and start our cruise. 
 
Iguazu Falls – First Bucket List Item of the Year – CHECK!

​On January 2, 2023, we flew down to Buenos Aires to begin our Antarctica cruise that included a few days in Buenos Aires and 2-day trip to Iguazu Falls.  We stayed at the Hilton in Buenos Aires which is in a nice centrally located area of the city and easy to walk around to see things.   In general, food and other items are rather inexpensive there.  Although we normally bring foreign currency with us on our trips, that was not possible in Argentina because US banks do not sell the currency due to the volatility of the exchange rate.  It was strange to dress in shorts for weather in the 80 and 90’s when you were about to go to cold Antarctica.
 
We arrived early in the morning after our red eye flight and were fortunate to get a room in our hotel when we arrived.  We had arranged a 4 hour walking tour through Tours By Locals for the afternoon.  Our guide, Fabian, was very nice and informative.  He showed us some of the sights around the center of the city including the “Pink House” which is Argentina’s version of the US White House although the president only works there and takes a helicopter back and forth to his house outside the city.  We saw his blue and white helicopter several times while we were there.  Fabian took us down a road decorated with various colorful statues of comic characters from Latin American comic strips.  One was very popular and had a line of people waiting to take their picture next to the character.  The main city park behind the government buildings was a gathering place for many people.  In the park was a monument where people placed stones with the names of loved ones who had died during Covid.  It was a very interesting way to honor the dead.  Unfortunately, when Argentina won the world cup a few weeks ago, there was quite a bit of vandalism around the area and this monument with the stones was significantly damaged.  You could see signs all around the city of Argentina’s great victory in the world cup.  Pictures of Messi, their star player was seen all around the city.
 
On the second day we were supposed to have a city bus tour but unfortunately the driver did not pick us up as planned and we decided to just do a walking tour on our own.  We went to the cathedral and spent some time looking at it.  Although it was nice, it was certainly not as spectacular as some of the other cathedrals we have seen around the world.  From there we went down a local pedestrian only shopping street and looked at what Buenos Aires had to offer.  It was amazing to see money changers at every corner yelling out to you to get you to exchange your dollars for the local currency.  There is a big black market exchange business there.  We walked across Avenue July 9th which is named after their Independence date from the Spanish.  There is a large monolith in the middle of this many lane road along with some large statues commemorating their independence.  We stopped for some lunch at a restaurant known for their empanadas that was recommended at the hotel.  They had excellent empanadas for a very low price and had some delicious desserts!  Our last stop was the famous cemetery in Buenos Aires.  It is an above ground cemetery with extremely expensive tombs created for the wealthy families of the city. The most famous person buried their (at least that we knew) was Eva Peron (who Madonna made famous in “Don’t cry for me Argentina”).  The cemetery was in great disrepair, and we later found out that the city was going to great efforts to locate the families of the people buried there to maintain and repair the tombs of their relatives.  Sharon meant a lady from America who was visiting one of her relative’s tombs where she had just had a stained-glass window installed.  She had been contacted by the cemetery administration that she had a direct relative there that she did not even know about.  After avoiding many of the calls, assuming they were some sort of scam, she eventually accepted a call and they sent her an  airplane ticket to visit the tomb.  After that she agreed to upgrade and maintain the tomb.  Hopefully next time we see this cemetery it will look much nicer.
 
The next day we went to Iguazu Falls and a separate blog is being written for this trip.  After our trip to the falls we came back to Buenos Aires one more night before our flight down to Ushuaia to start our cruise.  During our last night we went to the El Querandí Tango Show.  This is a tango show that is 100 years old and was quite entertaining.  It included a very nice dinner prior to the start of the show.  There were 4 or 5 different pairs of tango dancers along with 2 singers and 3 musicians who entertained us for over an hour.  It was hard to take pictures of the dancers due to the lighting and their fast movements.  The videos came out much better.  If you have never seen a real tango, make sure you do that when you visit Buenos Aires!

​Well after ending our 7-night cruise from Vancouver with two spectacular scenic viewing days in Glacier Bay and College Fjord, we docked in Whittier (45 minutes east of Anchorage) to begin our 5 night land tour.  Our first stop was in Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge which was a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Whittier.  It was a new lodge for us and was very nice with cabin like accommodations.  On arrival we changed and headed out for a few short hikes around the area.  One of the hikes took us along the Kenai River which had rafts floating down river and boats fishing for trout.  After our hikes we ate a little lunch at the lodge which has a large back porch that has a great view of the river and surrounding area.  We had a river float tour scheduled for the early evening and had a nice float down the river.  We saw a few eagles and their nests but the most interesting thing we saw was the significant impact on the area’s spruce trees caused by spruce bark beetles.  Everywhere you looked around the lodge and along the river you saw dead or dying trees.  Evidently this has become a serious issue in many areas of Alaska.  The float ride was OK but nothing spectacular, althouh it did end on a high note as we were getting out of the river and got a great view of fisherman lining the shores and wading in the water, in order to fish for salmon.  We were told that a few thousand salmon had started their trip upriver that day and the fisherman were out there to catch their share.  We saw one fisherman walking by us with a string of 4 or 5 salmon.  Too bad we didn’t have a chance to do a little salmon fishing!  After the float trip Sharon, and her brother and sister-in-law, decided to take a hike to Juneau Falls that a few people had recommended.  It turned out to be a pretty strenuous 3.5-mile hike in heavily mosquito invested areas but the views were spectacular when they got there.  Greg took a break from this hike but had some late dinner waiting for them since the bar/restaurant closed at 10 PM and they didn’t make it back until 11 PM.  With all the extra day light in Alaska it is easy to keep doing things late into the evening.
 
The next morning, we had breakfast and headed out to Mt McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge by bus.  The bus ride was around 4 hours but was broken up with a 2-hour lunch stop in Anchorage.  We spent most of our time in Anchorage visiting a craft show and buying jewelry and other souvenirs.  We met a photographer there who was selling some of his very interesting wildlife pictures.  During our discussion he offered to guide us on some tours if we came back in the future to some nice areas where he guaranteed an opportunity to see bear fishing for salmon and plenty of moose, along with other wildlife.  We took his card and plan to set up a land only trip back to Alaska in 2024 with 3 or 4 couples who would like to experience getting up close and personal with some of the Alaskan wildlife.  After a quick lunch we headed back on the bus to the Wilderness Lodge.  When we arrived, we were thrilled to have a great view of Mt McKinley (or Denali Mountain as it is currently called).  It is said that only 30% of the people that go to Denali Park have an opportunity to see this mountain because of the constant cloud cover and smoke that tends to always be around.  Mount Denali is the largest mountain in North America with an elevation of 20,310 feet at the summit.  Mountain climbers from around the world come to Alaska to attempt climbing to the summit.  Only about 50% make it and there have been over 100 deaths of people trying to make this climb.  For us just seeing the dark blue silhouette of the mountain in the distance was a real treat.  This is the 3rd time we have been to the Denali area, and we have been fortunate to see the mountain each time.  Shortly after arrival to the lodge we went on a pre-arranged horse trail ride.  It was a nice ride through the park and there were a few opportunities to see the mountain during the ride.  We didn’t see much wildlife, but the ride was enjoyable.  Unfortunately, once again we didn’t get back to the lodge until late and no dinner was offered there after 9PM.  We were frustrated with that because there is no other place to eat around the area within 45 minutes of the lodge.  You would think they would keep the restaurants open longer but they are having staffing problems due to Covid, like some many other places are having.  On our way to breakfast the next morning, we were shocked to look over at Mount Denali and see how clear the mountain looked.  It was like the clouds and smoke had all gone away leaving a crystal clear and colorful view of the mountain.  Once again, we felt blessed with this wonderful view! 
 
We then headed out on bus to go to the train station about an hour away to take a train to the Princess Denali Lodge.  During the bus ride we had two great viewings of moose crossing the road.  There was even a mother and her baby that came out.  The mother had crossed the road, but the baby was afraid of the bus which had stopped and was trapped on the other side of the road.  Eventually the mother went back over the road to get her youngster and head back into the woods.  The train ride was very enjoyable, and many people see this as one of the highlights of their trip.  Passengers sit up on the second floor of a specially designed railway car in some very comfortable seats.  There are several people there who share information on what you are seeing and where you are going, and they even have a bar to serve you drinks along the way.  The sides and ceiling of the car are entirely made of glass to give you great views of anything outside.  On the first deck below the seats is a restaurant on every car where you can have a nice meal.  The also have an observation deck on each car where you can go outside and get some better pictures without having the glass windows to deal with.  Sharon and her brother and sister-in-law spend almost the whole ride outside taking pictures and enjoying the amazing scenery.  Once again, we got some tremendous views of Mount Denali that were crystal clear and closer than where we had been at the previous lodge.  There were so many different picturesque spots along the way and the narration that was provided was extremely interesting.
 
When the train ride was over, we took a short bus ride to Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge which is located in a great spot along the river and just a mile from the park’s main entrance.  After getting situated in our room (which isn’t as nice as some of the other lodges) and having a little lunch, we decide to take a hike into the park.  During our last trip here, we had hiked Horseshoe Lake where you might get lucky and see some beavers.  As we did this hike again, it was amazing how different the experience was since the first time we did it.  The trails had been significantly improved by the park rangers and there were steps and a very large open trail.  There were also thousands of mosquitos!  When we did it originally 7 years ago, the trail was rustic, and you had to find your own places to walk but now there are signs, steps and graded trails – and lots of mosquitos.  It would have been nice to have some mosquito repellent, but we didn’t bring any on this trip since we did not have this problem last time.  We did complete a walk around the lake and ran into a very big beaver on the shore who spent a lot of time swimming in the water near shore which allowed us to take many pictures of him.  We also had some great views of several of the dams the beavers have made.  Although the hike was enjoyable, we liked it better when the trails weren’t as nice and there weren’t many mosquitos.  When we got back from this 8-mile hike, we once again couldn’t find any place open to eat in the lodge – you think they could at least have a coffee shop with some snacks open throughout the night.  Fortunately, in Denali there are other places to go other than the lodge.  We walked across the street and the only place open was a pizza place.  We went there and some people got some drinks and snacks while Sharon and I spent most of the time watching TV.  We were mesmerized to see 3 TV’s showing live feeds of the Katmai area where bears were in the river fishing for salmon.  On one TV there must have been 4 bears fishing in the same area.  We watched several bears catch their salmon and either eat it or walk away with their dinner to eat elsewhere.  We were watching this around 11PM and it was still sunny outside as we watched the bears going after the salmon.  It was extremely entertaining.  We learned that there are many observation decks near these cameras where people go to watch the bears and take pictures.  This is one of the areas we plan to go during our trip in 2024.  Go to this link to see these video feeds although I think you have to create a log in to see the live feeds, but they have the previous days feed recorded which can be easily viewed:
https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls
Fortunately, we had 2 nights in Denali, since we had learned from our earlier trips to spend most of your time here.  Unfortunately, a tour we had scheduled for the day had been cancelled and we decided to take a shuttle bus down the road to a trail that the park rangers had suggested.  The visitor’s center is very nice there with some interesting displays of the wildlife and plant life.  The rangers are all very helpful and friendly.  In past trips we have done the Wilderness Tundra Tour that takes you 50 miles into the park on a slow moving bus to view the wildlife along the way.  Due to a landslide that occurred earlier this year, you can only go about 13 miles down the road.  They have been working months to repair the road and hope to have it reopened sometime in September.  The hike we took went along a river where we were seeing constant signs of moose (droppings) and felt for sure we would see one somewhere along the way but unfortunately, we did not see any.   As the trail veered away from the river, it started to go uphill, and then more uphill, and the more uphill.  After going uphill for 2 miles of this 4.5-mile trail, we turned around the corner of the trail and looked up to see the trail going straight up the side of a mountain.  How depressing!  Greg looked at Sharon’s brother and said a nasty word or two, while we contemplated whether we would continue.  Sharon’s brother and sister-in-law didn’t contemplate it too long and said they were going back the same way we came.  Sharon looked at Greg, pleading to go on.  Greg looked at his out of shape body and grudgingly agreed to give it a try.  As Sharon ran up the mountain and Greg drudged far behind, we eventually made it up to the top after another 30 minutes or so of agony, at least to one of us.  The views were great but unfortunately clouded by heavy smoke in the area.  As we crested the mountain top, we were hit by 30-mile gusts of wind and cold air which was about 20 degrees cooler than we started.  Unfortunately, Greg only had on a t-shirt and was a little uncomfortable but kept following Sharon as she ran up in front taking pictures.  Down below the crest was ice covered snow to help remind us of how far we had climbed.  Sharon was the first to spot, what we eventually discovered were Arctic Ground Squirrels.  These were friendly little animals that came right up to your feet and were obviously being fed by hikers.  They seemed to love to pose for Sharon and we probably eventually saw 10 to 12 of these animals as we continued to hike.  Greg was the first to spot 4 Dahl sheep (mountain goats with heavy fur) up on the ridge in front of us.  After getting several hundred yards past the crest, the wind started to be blocked by the side of another mountain that the trail went around (fortunately not over!).  As we walked along, we came across another animal that we had no idea what it was.  We later found out it was a marmot.  This one was large and looked like it weighed over 12 pounds.  All it did was eat moss off a rock while Sharon took 30 pictures.  It certainly wasn’t scared by us.  The walk across the side of this mountain was not easy since the path was covered with loose shale which made it slippery, and you had to be careful where you put your foot.  There were several large rock outcroppings that were very picturesque.  When we finally came out of the last outcropping you could see the road below and the trails end.  Sharon noticed a bus up on top of a small rock formation halfway down the path.  Greg thought she was joking because it was actually a bus on the other side of the rocks down in the parking lot below but did look like an optical illusion that the bus had somehow gotten wedged up on those rocks.  When Sharon walked another quarter mile and couldn’t see the bus, she asked what happened to it and Greg explained that it really wasn’t up on the rock formation.  The path down was mainly rock steps and you had to be careful since some of the steps were large with loose rock on them.  When Greg reached the bottom and saw the trail marker, he went over and kissed it, thanking anyone who would listen that his ordeal was over!  From the end of the trail, we took a shuttle bus back to the Visitor’s Center and then walked a mile and a half to Riley Creek Campground where we were told a moose was being seen every day.  We walked around the campground but unfortunately did not see any moose.  As we made our mile and a half walk back to the lodge, Sharon saw a moose crossing the road about 20 yards behind us.  We walked across the road to take pictures of this large animal that was only about 20 yards away from us.  Fortunately, he was behind a row of birch trees and didn’t seem too interested in us.  In was amazing how many cars stopped when they saw Sharon was taking a picture of something.
 
After walking for more than 35,000 steps that day we headed out on an ATV ride we had prearranged with Viator.  The ATVs are not allowed in Denali Park and there is a $1000 fine for every wheel that touches park land.  The ATVs were run in a mining area that is inside the park but no longer considered part of the park since it is an actively mined property.  They are still pull-out millions of dollars of gold a month out of this area.  The ATV ride was enjoyable but very dusty.  The views would have been nicer except for the heavy smoke.  While we were in Alaska on this trip, there were multiple fires in many different areas around Denali.  The fires are almost all started by lightning and not humans.  They burn millions of acres of forest each year, but this is just a drop in the bucket of the forests in Alaska.  Out ATV group was big but moved at a good pace.  We stopped at a river and was given a lecture on rocks and geology.  It was a nice ATV ride, but it certainly was dusty.
 
The next morning a bus picked us up and drove us to Fairbanks which was our final destination.  When we arrived in Fairbanks, we went straight to the paddle wheel river boat which was to take us on a 4-hour ride.  This turned out to be a very enjoyable trip.  The paddle boat itself was an original Alaskan boat that had been taking Alaskans for over 50 years up the river to Fairbanks.  The original captain and owner of the company died about 15 years ago and the Alaskan senator at the time held a moment of silence in the US Senate in remembrance of this Alaskan hero who helped pioneer the territory to a new state over 60 years ago.  The boat was well suited for tourist passengers, and we were able to see a demonstration of how the bush pilots of Alaska land and take off on the many rivers around the state.  As we went down the river, we saw some beautiful homes that people had built including the home of the wife of the original captain who started up the company over 75 years ago.   A little further down we stopped at the kennels of Susan Butcher.  She was the second woman to win the Alaska Iditarod back in 1986.  She ended up winning it 4 times in 5 years and Alaska even created a Susan Butcher Day after her last victory.  We heard many great stories about her and sadly she died of cancer in 2006 but her story continues with her husband running her dog sled kennels that she built 40 years ago.  We saw from our boat demonstrations of how they trained the dogs and even watched a small race of how the dogs performed by dragging a sled on wheels around the entire kennel area.  The boat we were on acted as a theater to watch these demonstrations with the Susan’s husband providing the commentary down on the shoreline with his dogs.  As the boat moved further down river we saw an Indian village on the left side and were provided a demonstration of how they fish for salmon with a small paddle wheel that scooped up the fish right out of the water.  We were then told and shown how they prepared the fish and smoke them.  Next to the demonstration we saw 5 elk that suddenly appeared which turned out to be part of the show but were very interesting to see.  The boat turned around in the river when it joined another river and we sailed back up to the Indian village where the boat docked and we got out to see several demonstrations on how the Alaskan Indians lived and survived in this rough country.  After boarding the boat again, we headed back to where we started and was given more information about Fairbanks and Alaskan.  It was really a very nice tour, and we recommend it to anyone who gets up to Fairbanks.
 
After checking into our lodge, we were picked up for our ATV ride that we had booked through Viator.  It took us a good 20 minutes to drive to where the ride was to begin, and the roads were pretty bumpy along the way.  As we were driving, we spotted a moose on a small lake.  We turned around and stopped to take a few pictures but got eaten up by mosquitos while we did that.  We got to the ATV shop and was given a brief operations and safety talk.  Our group was only 8 which was much smaller than what we had experienced in Denali.  The ATVs were much nicer, and we had two good guides.  The trip was great but dusty once again.  Fortunately, they provided goggles which really helped.  We road on dirt roads, dirt paths, and through the woods (in some areas where there was only a couple of inches of clearance between the trees and ATVs!).  We got a few sunset pictures with the ATVs in the foreground and stopped at a few places along the way.  We rode for hours and had a great time.  When we eventually got back to the lodge it was over 5 hours later, but we had a great time.  It was one of the best ATV rides we ever had!
 
Ending the trip with that excursion was a great way to end a great trip.  We really enjoyed our land stay in Alaska and look forward to doing it again in the future.  Before we go back to Alaska, we have several other trips planned:

• Kenyan African Safari – July 2022
• Caribbean Cruise – August 2022
• Mediterranean Cruise + Italy Land Tour – September 2022
• Antarctica Expedition Cruise – January 2023
• Northern Lights Viking Cruise – February 2023
• Tahiti/French Polynesian Cruise – April 2023
• Iceland/Svalbard/Greenland Cruise – August 2023
• Canada/New England Cruise – September 2023
• Vietnam Cruise – February 2024

If anyone has any interest in joining us on any of these upcoming cruises, please let us know.  The more the merrier.
 
Sharon and Greg

Well, we haven’t been writing many blogs recently, but we have started cruising again.  Last year we took a great Iceland cruise, and over the last 9 months we have taken over 10 other cruises or land trips.  Most of these have been Caribbean/Bahama cruises although we have tried the Moon Palace resorts a few times.  At any rate, we are back to cruising and wanted to share our latest adventures with you on our Alaska CruiseTour we took in June 2022.  This specific blog will discuss the cruise portion of this cruisetour including the 2 pre-cruise days we spent in Vancouver.
 
We flew into Vancouver a couple of days prior to our cruise because we really like this city and wanted to explore some new areas.  Sharon’s brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Gina Moll, joined us on this cruisetour and had never been to Vancouver.  After we arrived in our hotel, we spent several hours walking the downtown area, focusing much attention on Canada Place where our cruise was set to depart in 2 days.  This area seems to have been built up a little since we were last there and they have added many signs discussing various stories which led to the creation of Vancouver and allowed it to thrive as the city it is now.  From here you can spend hours watching the float planes land and take off right in the same harbor the cruise ships leave from.  These planes are a needed form of transportation for many of the remote areas north of Vancouver and are also used by tourists to get a good view of the surrounding Vancouver area.  We had dinner at a nice restaurant called Steamworks, one of the many nice restaurants in the Gas Town area.  The following day we had a 5-hour bike tour scheduled and this allowed us to explore parts of the city and Stanley Park that we had not seen before.  We learned that Stanley Park is much bigger than Central Park in New York City and was once the home of one of the last Indian tribes that were forced to leave Vancouver.  They have a very interesting totem pole display in the park.  The park still has a significant amount of wilderness and even has coyotes living there and beavers who are actively building dams in the area.  We saw Vancouver’s (very cold) beach which had a few brave souls out there and we passed by some of the structures left from their last Olympics which was highly successful for the city.  We even had to venture quickly through one of the low lights of the city where people with meth and hydrocodone problems live and openly use their drugs out on the streets.  Canada legalized hard drugs recently to try and help the people that are addicted to them.  During the bike ride we visited Granville Island which is a very interesting island right next to downtown Vancouver and has a great food court and many interesting shops that you can visit.  After our bike tour we went back to Granville Island to spend some more time.  The next morning before we boarded the cruise, we had our last breakfast at Tim Horton’s, Canada’s version of Dunkin Donuts.
 
We boarded our cruise early and was pleasantly pleased to look around our new ship, the Majestic Princess.  We had not cruised on Princess in several years, but we were very impressed with this ship that we are actively looking at new opportunities to cruise with them again.  This ship is a Royal Class ship which is Princess’ largest category of ship, but it was specifically built for the Asian market and therefore is a little different, and nicer in our opinion.  During our second day of cruising, we spent the day scenically cruising up the Inside Passage and tried out one of their nicer specialty restaurants that night, the Crown Steakhouse.  This is their best specialty restaurant in our opinion, and it did not disappoint us. 
 
On the 3rd day of the cruise, we arrived in Ketchikan.  This is considered to be the Salmon Capitol of the World.  Since we have fished for salmon there many times previously, we elected to do a kayak trip to see what wildlife we could spot.  We used Viator to book the excursion and we always try to avoid using the cruise line excursions because they are typically very costly and crowded.  The kayaking was enjoyable, and we saw many eagles and one harbor seal.  The only other wildlife we saw were underwater – star fish and jelly fish.  On our return from the kayak trip, we asked to be dropped off at Creek Street which is a recently refurbished historical part of town that was once the red-light district and is now made up of nice little craft shops.  We departed shortly after we returned to the ship and enjoyed a nice scenic trip up the inlands of Alaska.
 
We arrived in Juneau on the 4th day and had an early morning kayak trip in Mendenhall Lake.  Unfortunately, it was a little cold, and the rain was a fairly constant drizzle.  The trip was a deceivingly longer 5 miles than it originally appeared, but we got some good views of Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.  We were a little disappointed we didn’t get a little closer to each of these sights.  We were able to get close to some of the chunks of ice that had calved off the glacier and were floating in the water.  After this tour and going back to the ship for some dry clothes and a little lunch, we headed out to walk around Juneau.  We had considered going back to Mendenhall Glacier, but the visibility wasn’t great, and it was too cloudy to get any good pictures.  After a quick visit to the famous Red Dog Saloon in Juneau, we went out in search of Perseverance Trail that someone had mentioned.  Along the way we came across Mayor Overstreet Park which had a nice walkway along the channel.  This park had many signs to provide insight on the local wildlife and plant life.  It also had a huge statue of a whale which was also a fountain.  We took pictures of this whale and sent it to people showing them of the great whale breech we saw when we were whale watching!  Most people believed us because it really was very realistic.  We continued to Perseverance Trail which took us through some beautiful old homes on our way up the mountain that overlooks Juneau.  At the top is a trail head of many different trails that branch out in different directions.  We walked down the Flume Trail which was a wood boarded trail built over an old railroad track.  Along this trail was a fast-moving stream that was once a place where gold prospectors panned for gold.  Later we came across an area where a water wheel was erected to harness electrical power just a few years after Thomas Edison’s experiments with electricity.  This power plant became the beginning of Alaska Electric and Power who now is the power company in the area, 100 years later!  On our way back to the ship we passed many more seafood restaurants that were packed with tourists from the ship.  Although the seafood may be fresh, it certainly is not cheap with some of these restaurants selling crab at $75 a pound!  We decided to have our dinner back on the ship!
 
Our last land stop on this cruise was at Skagway on Day 5.  We were doing a later hike and float excursion in the afternoon and spent the morning walking through town.  It is a small town made up of many souvenir stores and jewelry stores.  Don’t ask us why each of these Alaskan ports have 30 jewelry stores just like you would find in the Caribbean.  I guess cruise passengers will buy jewelry anywhere!  We did stop at one store and have some fried dough sprinkled in brown sugar that was really good.  We had stopped there on previous trips and didn’t want to miss that stop!  In the afternoon we headed out on our tour which started with a two mile hike up some pretty strenuous paths.  From there we took a 45-minute float down the river in a raft.  The weather was great, and it was nice to just get out in the wilderness and enjoy some of the great scenery.  We didn’t see too much wildlife on this tour except for a few eagles on our drive out there.  That was our last land stop before reaching the mainland of Alaska although two more scenic sea days are left.
 
Out next day was spent in Glacier Bay, arriving nice and early at 6AM.  What a beautiful day!  No clouds, not much wind, and sun everywhere.  As we glided into the bay, we had constant whale sightings.  We passed one rocky hill on shore where you could see many mountain goats.  As we got deeper into the bay, we had numerous sightings of sea otters including one group of 12 otters just having fun in the water.  We even saw a couple of bears on the shoreline although they were too far away to get any good pictures.  As we got deeper into the bay, we started seeing some of the glaciers.  At one of the glaciers, we saw a few small boats.  One of the boats was large enough to send out tours on kayaks and we saw at least 15 kayaks out on the water.  Our primary stop during this scenic cruising was Margerie Glacier at the very end of Glacier Bay.  This was a large glacier that was glistening in the sunlight.  Although we did not see any calving (ice chunks falling into the water), there were large chunks of ice floating all around the area.  We have never been to Glacier Bay when the weather was so nice.  During the entire day we had several park rangers on board who made presentations, answered individual questions, and made announcements throughout the day letting us know what was going on.  You pick up these rangers at the station at the mouth of the bay where 35 rangers stay throughout the summer, and then you drop them off again as you exit the bay. We have cruised this area 3 times previously and this was by far the best day we have ever had.  The weather was perfect and allowed for some great pictures.  The wildlife was plentiful, and you got to see a little of everything.  We even saw 20 or 30 harbor seals as we departed Glacier Bay and cruised down Icey Straits to go back into the Pacific Ocean and one to College Fjord to see Hubbard Glacier.
 
Our last day at sea was a visit to College Fjord and Hubbard Glacier.  In the morning it was totally overcast with very little visibility.  We feared the worst with regards to getting good pictures.  Boy, were we wrong!  By the late afternoon blue skies were shining and the sun was beating down on us.  We had another perfect day to view the glaciers.  College Fjord was named after an expedition taken by a team of scientists, artists, and writers back in the 1800’s.  Many of them were Ivy League educated and named all the glaciers on the right side after women’s colleges and all the glaciers on the left side after men’s schools and therefore the fjord was named College Fjord.  One of the glacier most visited by cruise ships in Alaska is Hubbard Glacier which is at the end of this fjord.  It is very popular because it is very wide at the entrance point into the water and the glacier is constantly calving spewing out thousands of chunks of ice which float all around this glacier.  Although we have seen this glacier calve once, during this visit the glacier almost seemed to be performing for us, by displaying one huge chunk of ice after another crashing into the water with a thunderous roar.  Huge sections of the glacier’s cliff face fell into the water with mighty crash.  Before you saw the ice giving way, you heard a loud rumbling like thunder.  This eventually led to huge chunks of ice crashing into the water with a tremendous splash.  We have seen this glacier a few times in the past but never like this.  It was amazing to see the glacier lit up by the bright sun while watching it constantly calve in front of your eyes.  This was just another amazing part of this trip.
​
This concluded our cruise portion of this Alaska CruiseTour.  It is interesting to note that Alaska had its busy season in 2019, the year before Covid.  This year they expect to have 50% more Alaskan cruise visitors than 2019!  People are ready to get back and cruise!  We hope everyone that gets out and cruises again has the same wonderful experience that we had on this Alaskan cruise!  Can’t wait for the land portion: Kenai to McKinley to Denali (2 nights) to Fairbanks.

​Intro
We traveled to Iceland after 1 ½ years of no cruising due to COVID.  Until our flight left the US to go to Iceland, we really weren’t sure if we would make it.  With the COVID resurgence due to the Delta Variant it looked like everything might get shut down again.  While several European countries closed their borders again to Americans, Iceland continued to allow tourists to visit – if you were vaccinated and provided a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of your trip.  We were thrilled to head off on a cruise again, but you must remain flexible in today’s COVID world and not be too surprised when things get cancelled or new requirements are given to you.  We made this trip with 8 other brave travelers, who also were ready to get out again and discover the world.  The group had all booked a 7-night ocean cruise on the Viking Jupiter which was doing a round trip out of Reykjavik around Iceland, making 6 different port stops.  Prior to the cruise all 10 of us came 2 days early to further explore more of Iceland from Reykjavik.  After the cruise, 4 of us were staying for 3 more days to try and catch the Northern Lights in an exclusive hotel 1 ½ hours out of the city.
 
Day 1 – The Blue Lagoon and Reykjavik
When our plane arrived, we were picked up by Stefan our guide we had found from Tours by Locals.  We had looked at several guides in the area and liked the information about him from his bio on this site.  He turned out to be a great guide and a great choice to help us further explore Iceland.  If you ever go to Iceland, please let us know and we will give you his contact information.  We arrived at the Keflavik airport before 8 AM on September 5th.  It was a relatively short flight (6 hours) considering normal US to Europe flights. 

Prior to Stefan taking us to our hotel we had arranged a stop at the Blue Lagoon.  Reykjavik is about 45 minutes from the airport and the Blue Lagoon is only about 15 minutes from the airport.  None of our group had been to the Blue Lagoon previously – Sharon and Greg were the only ones to have been to Iceland before, spending 3 days at 3 different ports on a transatlantic cruise about 4 years ago.  The Blue Lagoon is the premier hot springs in Iceland.  It was originally created back in 1970 as a byproduct of a power plant who was dumping out the excess hot mineral water it used to heat fresh water for the homes in the area.  They were dumping this excess mineral water into a lava field but due to the high silica clay content, this water did not just drain away into the lave rock.  The minerals clogged these porous rocks, causing the water to fill a large lagoon like area.  Local Icelanders began to come to this “hot water spring” as a bathing area and enjoyed this heavy mineral based water without the sulfur smell that is present in many hot springs.  Over the years the Power Authority fenced off the lagoon, built a changing shed and began charging a fee for admittance.  It was called the Blue Lagoon because of the milky blue appearance when sunlight shown on it.  As time went on it became a tourist attraction as it was included in many guidebooks.  The Power Authority eventually sold the rights to a private group who built the current buildings back in the 1990’s and created a world renown spa.  The admittance price rose to the point that no Icelanders go there now, and it is considered a tourist trap by locals, but all the tourists seem to really enjoy the water and do not feel the price is too bad. 

Our group had a great time there.  We had purchased the “premium tickets” prior to arrival that entitled us to admittance, towel, robe, slippers, one free drink and 3 free mud treatments.  We had a great time wading around in the very warm water while the temperature outside was around 50 degrees.  You got your drinks from the lagoon bar by wading up and ordering whatever you wanted.  The mud treatments were 3 different mineral applications (white, black and green silica) that you put on your face to rejuvenate it.  We all felt really rejuvenated when we left 2 hours later after having a very memorable experience!

Stefan then took us off to our hotel – the Holt Hotel – in downtown Reykjavik near the center of town where there were many of the restaurants, bars, and local attractions.  We arrived at the hotel around 1 PM and were trying to stay up if possible to avoid the jet lag you feel if your sleep cycle gets out of whack.   After checking in several of us did a little tour of the city spending a lot of time at the Hallgrimskirkja Church.  This is the iconic Lutheran Church designed back in the 1930’s and stands over 250 feet tall.  It took almost 40 years to complete the construction of this church.  You can go to the top of this church which has an observation area and see 50 miles in each direction.  In front of the church is a statue of Lief Erickson who is certainly believed by all Icelanders to be the founding father of North America having sailed there 500 years before Christopher Columbus.  Lief’s grandfather and father were some of the early Viking founders of Iceland having been exiled there from Norway over a thousand years ago.
 
Day 2 – Snaefellsnes Peninsula
While Stefan took the rest of our group to the Golden Circle for a day tour, Sharon and Greg decided to take a tour to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula which is just north of Reykjavik.  We had taken the Golden Circle tour on our previous trip to Iceland.  This turned out to be a great decision as the rain came down in buckets around the Golden Circle and only a few sprinkles were found on the peninsula tour.  We found this small group tour by Troll Expeditions on Viator.
After stopping for a coffee and snack in Borgarnes, our group headed out to Kirkjufell which is small crater looking mountain.  By the mountain is a very picturesque waterfall called Kirkjufellsfoss.  Icelandic names are long and a very descriptive.  Foss in Icelandic means waterfall and this name basically means the waterfall of Kirkjufell.  Most waterfalls, glaciers, volcanos, lagoons, and rivers are named in the same fashion. The waterfall was really very nice, and we took many pictures with the mountain in the background.

We also passed by an area where they collect the sheep each fall.  It is a series of gated areas built in a circle where the sheep are herded and separated.  The sheep are allowed to freely graze (without fences or barriers) in the mountains and surrounding areas in the summer and then they have an annual roundup where the farmers gather all sheep in their area and herd them to this gated area.  Once there the sheep are identified by markers in their ears to know which sheep belong to which farmer.  Each farmer then takes all their sheep back to their farms to collect the wool and butcher some of their stock.  This roundup on the Peninsula was set to begin in 2 days from when we visited.

One of our favorite stops was at Djupalonssandur Black Sand Beach.  It seems almost all Iceland beaches have black sand which is comprised of crumbled lava rock and ash from the many volcanic eruptions that Iceland has had over the centuries.  This beach was the jumping off point of fisherman in the area.  As you walk down to the beach, there is an area with 4 different sized rocks.  The fisherman would lift these rocks to determine their strength and what type of job they could get on the boats.  The weights ranged from a 335 pound “full strength” rock to a 50 pound “weakling” rock.  Walking a little further to the water you came across many pieces of wreckage from an English fishing boat that wrecked there 75 years ago.  As you got close to the water it was amazing to see all the smooth rounded black stones that made up most of the beach area.  These stones are called black lava “pearls” (djupalonsperlur) and you cannot take any, as they are protected by the Icelandic government.  All around the beach are high sea stacks and a row jagged peaks which makes this an extremely photogenic place.

We also visited other places on this tour such as a lava crater, church, and lava fields before making the long drive back to Reykjavik.  It was certainly an interesting tour as it allowed us to see another part of Iceland.

Back at the hotel we shared stories with the other members of our group and went out to have a dinner at one of the many restaurants.
 
Day 3 – The South Coast
Stefan picked us up early on Day 3 along with all our luggage to take us on a long 10-hour tour to Iceland’s famous South Coast.  After the tour he dropped us off at the ship to check in for our 7-night cruise.  As we drove a few hours out of town Stefan educated us on geothermal plants and entertained us with Icelandic sagas.  He was quite informative, and we enjoyed his tour immensely.  If you are coming to Iceland in the future, let us know and we will give you his contact information.

Our first stop was Skogafoss, which was another impressive waterfall in Iceland.  It is not as large as some of the other falls we have seen but had its own unique beauty.  It also had a very colorful rainbow around it that made it very fun to take many pictures trying to get it with the best angle.
After visiting the waterfall, we headed to Eyjafjallajokul.  This is the glacier on Eyjafjoll mountain which was made famous when this volcano erupted in 2010 halting European air traffic for several months.  This volcano put Iceland on the world map for a lot of people.  As we parked in the lot for the glacier, we were told that originally the parking lot was built right next to the glacier.  Now you must hike 10-15 minutes to see the glacier because global warming has caused the glacier to recede by 1000 feet every year!  It was interesting to see our first glacier in Iceland and watch people hike the glacier with the special spikes placed on their shoes and the small picks they hold to move along the glacier surface.  We are scheduled to do a glacier walk tour after the cruise – weather permitting.

On our way to Vik, the largest city in the area, we stopped at Dyrholaey Promontory.  This is a unique nature reserve with a lighthouse on it that has an amazing view a large natural arch in the water.  This is an iconic picture seen from the beach below.  The view high up in this reserve is really quite amazing and the wind was very gusty.

We then drove to Vik for a quick bite to eat and a little shopping.  We also viewed a local church in the area before we headed out to the Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach.  This a beautiful beach with both fine black sand and rocks.  From there was a great view in the distance of the arch we had seen from the promontory an hour or so before.  Surrounding the beach was also a large cave and basalt columns.  These hexagonal columns were naturally formed and appear very similar to what can be on Ireland’s famous Giant’s Causeway.  Care must be taken when walking on Iceland’s beaches as the currents are extremely strong and the water is very deceptive on how far inland it can come.  Several tourists have been sucked out to sea over the years and once out there it is extremely difficult to get back while in the frigid waters.

On our way to our last stop we found a herd of Icelandic horses on the side of the road.  We had requested that Stefan stop if he found a place, so our group could take some pictures of these very interesting animals.  Although they were imported in from Norway over a 1000 years ago, they have maintained their unique heritage.  No other horses are allowed to be imported and even an Icelandic horse that leaves the country cannot come back in later in order to ensure the breed remains pure.  It is a great riding horse and work horse.  We took many pictures of these beautiful animals.

Our last stop was Seljalandsfoss which was a waterfall we initially passed in hopes of getting better pictures once the sun was higher up in the sky than the early morning when we first passed it.  It turned out to be a great decision even though a rain cloud threatened to ruin some of our pictures.  This waterfall was even more interesting because you could walk behind it without getting too wet.  Our group had a great time taking the little hike through the waterfalls and taking more pictures.

Sadly, this was the end of our tour and we headed to the cruise port to board our ship.  We were blessed with some great weather throughout the day.  For the most part it was sunny with just an occasional sprinkle.  When you travel to Iceland you have to be prepared for good days and bad days.  The day before most of our group had a wet and windy day in the Golden Circle.  This day was beautiful with mostly sun and little wind.  Who knows what the other days will yield for weather although the forecast continues to look bad? (delete)
 
Day 4 – Reykjavik from the Cruise Ship
Originally our group had planned this as a Blue Lagoon spa day but because of recent COVID restrictions no independent excursions are allowed once you are checked into the ship.  Instead, we decided to take an excursion around the area guided by a photographer who could provide good picture taking opportunities and some insight on how to take the best pictures while in Iceland.  While the excursion was very good it certainly fell short in providing good photographic insight.  We saw a very nice natural hot springs area where the steaming water rose through small cracks into the earth and flowed with cooler fresh water from the mountains.  The colors in this hot spring were vivid and the bubbling water made this a very interesting place to stop and take pictures.  We passed by the active volcano that just began erupting in March this year.  Our guide pointed out the parking lots filled with cars of people who hike up the volcano to get a close shot of the flowing lava.  We hope to do that in 7 days from now when we depart the ship and have a rental car to go exploring.

After stopping for a little lunch at a local café, we made a couple of stops along the beach where you could see old lave flows that had gone in the ocean.  Once again you could see the black sand beaches and black rocks, we were becoming accustomed to.  There also were some unique rock formations formed by this flowing lava.  At one of the stops we saw the oldest Iceland lighthouse still standing (built in 1908) on top of a hill and you could also see the remnants of the original lighthouse located a little ways away that was the first lighthouse built in Iceland back in 1878. 
We stopped to look at the geothermal power plant in the area that provides hot water to the home on the peninsula.  This hot fresh water is used to heat the homes in Reykjavik.  It was impressive to see the steady stream of steam coming out of the large stacks at the plant.  Around the plant you could see many vent holes where steam was rising from the hot water that seems to rise out of the earth in so many places around Iceland.  There is a local Aluminum manufacturing plant very near this power plant.  Iceland has been trying to entice energy intensive industries to build plants in Iceland to take advantage of their cheap energy.

We made a final stop on our way back to the ship to see the bridge between continents.  The Euroasia and North American plates come in contact in Iceland.  There are a few places in Iceland that you can walk between these two continents.  They say that the gap between these plates widens by 2 mm (0.1”) each year.  Where we stopped, they have a bridge that crosses over these “plates”.  You can take some fun pictures holding up the bridge between continents.
Once back on the ship we watched our sail away out of Reykjavik heading to our first stop in Isafjordur. 
 
Day 5 – Isafjordur
We arrived at our first port in Isafjordur which is the largest city in the West Fjords, a region of Iceland in the northwest corner of the country.  In the morning we went on an included Viking bus tour which first took us by the stone walls which guard the city from avalanches.  We then visited a mountain stream and series of waterfalls coming down the mountainside.  This is something you see everywhere in Iceland.  The ice melt from on top of the mountains creates thousands of waterfalls and streams all over Iceland.  Some of these waterfalls are huge and others are small but may still drop several hundred feet.  Around the stream we were shown all the wild blueberries that seem to grow everywhere.

We then drove through a tunnel to a small city on the other side of the mountain where there was a small fishing town of less than 900 people.  We were told how this town prospered by catching cod out in the Atlantic, almost halfway between Iceland and Greenland.  These fish are huge (some can be as big as a man) and are caught on hooks that are inches long.  A large fish processing plant is in the town and almost everyone in the town is involved in the fishing industry in some way or another.  We were amazed to see a small 9-hole golf course in this town and were told that golf is played all over Iceland.  It is strange that this sport would be so popular in a country were the weather is typically very cold during most of the year.

After finishing this tour, we went off to our second planned tour which was an ATV excursion up into the surrounding mountains.  We picked up the ATV’s just a few blocks from the ship pier and rode the vehicles down the small streets to the outside of town.  The paths we were on outside of town were made of lava rock gravel.  Lava rock is seen throughout Iceland and at times it is in the form of gravel or larger rocks or large slabs.  We drove up the mountainside to get some great views of the town and our ship below.  Fortunately, it was not too windy and we were told the previous week they couldn’t even get off the vehicles on top of the mountain because the wind would blow the people down.  This was a great excursion to see the surrounding countryside and get a great view from above.
 
Day 6 – Akureyri
Our next stop in Akureyri was on the northern coast of Iceland and is located down a long fjord.  In the morning we took an excursion to go out and see Godafoss waterfall which is a huge waterfall in northern Iceland.  We had seen it once before, but the weather had been terrible with a cold bitter rain.  This time we were able to see it with some great weather and get some really good pictures of the falls.  The falls are very accessible, and you can get some magnificent photos from different places along the banks.

After viewing the falls, we went to see a turf house which was where many Icelanders lived 100 years ago.  These houses have dirt walls and grass roofs.  Although they look relatively small from the outside, they are quite large inside.  The house we went into seemed to be many interconnecting houses.  There were probably 12 different rooms inside this large house, and it was furnished very nicely.  It would have been a pretty comfortable place to live.  These were primarily farmhouses that were scattered around the country.
 
Day 7 – Seydisafjordur
The night before arriving at our next port we were informed about an approaching hurricane – Larry.  We were told this hurricane was going to create some bad weather and large waves out on the ocean.  Because of this our next port stop was going to be reduced in length of time staying there and the last two port stops were being cancelled.  Who knew hurricanes get to Iceland – Caribbean certainly – but Iceland???  This was obviously disappointing news, but we had come to Iceland a few days early and some of us planned to stay a few days later.

When we arrived in Seydisafjordur the next morning we went off on an included walking tour.  We were told how this was one of the closest ports to Norway and many items were imported in from there.  They even purchased homes from Norway that came as material kits which were assembled in this city.  The cost of these homes today is around $400,000 for a relatively small house.  We were shown the downtown area that consisted of a few shops, restaurants, and grocery stores.  The townspeople wanted to paint the downtown area to brighten things up, but the mayor didn’t think it was a good idea.  The people went out one night and painted the downtown cobblestone road in rainbow stripes.  It really provides a quite a unique appearance along with the some of the houses that also were painted very artfully.

We were then told about the massive avalanche/landslide they had just last year.  It destroyed about 20% of the town and people were in their homes when the avalanche occurred.  Some of these homes with people in them were pushed out towards the water.  It is a miracle that there were no deaths during this event.  It is also amazing how quickly the town has recovered, and you can hardly see too much left of this landslide just 9 months later.  If it wasn’t for the pictures showing the damage and the huge scars seen on the mountain sides, you wouldn’t even know it had happened.
 
Day 8 – Cruising to beat the hurricane
We spent the next day cruising instead of visiting a port.  It was great to have a day of rest after doing so many excursions over the previous week.  Our group got together and had dinner together.  Many of our group booked future Viking cruises while on board.  Viking has a pretty good deal if you book cruises on the ship – you get both a discount for the future cruise and an immediate Shipboard Credit on the current cruise.  Certainly, something to consider if you are on a Viking cruise.
 
Day 9 - Reykjavik Again!
Well with our arrival again in Reykjavik a day early, the Viking team scrambled to put together a few excursions.  We took one that provided a transportation and a ticket to see the Fly Over Iceland show.  This was like a Universal/MGM ride where they buckled you into a car and physically flew over much of Iceland.  There were breathtaking views of waterfalls as you flew over the top.  You saw the lava spewing down the mountain’s sides.  We had great sights of the Icelandic horses running through the fields and the many farms spread out through the countryside.  It was a very fun way to see areas of Iceland we hadn’t yet see and remember a few of the sights we had already seen.  A certainly worthwhile experience.
 
Day 10 – Hotel Ranga
We all disembarked from the cruise in the morning and took a private shuttle to the airport.  Six of our group checked into their flights back to the US while four of us stayed on to see a few more things and try to catch the Northern Lights.  The Richarts and Conrads rented a car at the airport to take us around the southern side of Iceland for the next 3 days.  Before leaving the airport area we stopped by a nearby health facility to get a COVID test.  Even though we had been taking daily COVID tests on board the Viking Jupiter and the ship had provided test results for all passengers to show when reentering the US, our departure time and date were too far out for these to be allowed for US reentry.  We had to take a COVID test sometime after 9:30 AM to have valid test results which meant we had to wait about 30 minutes to have our test before going out and continuing our trip in Iceland.  Welcome to travel during COVID times!

After getting our negative COVID test results we headed out to hike the active volcano.  Around 3 months prior to our trip Fagradalsfjall volcano near the airport became active and started spewing out lava in some relatively isolated areas of Iceland.  We wanted to see this fresh lave flow if possible since there were some good observation areas near this active crater.  Fortunately, during one of our previous excursions we had driven by the parking lot we needed to stop at and the guide provided some good information on where to hike.  We arrived at the parking lot in about 20 minutes from the COVID test facility and really couldn’t see any activity from the volcano on our drive there.  It took us just about 30 minutes of hiking to get to the fresh lava flow.  It was really fascinating, and you could walk out on this lava and seem steam coming up through some of the crevices.  We learned later that there was certainly fresh hot lava flowing through tunnels under our feet.  If the crust on top had fallen, which can happen, we would be toasty little critters.  Another lesson learned!  From the fresh lava fields, we continued to hike up to the observation areas a few miles up the mountain.  It was not an easy hike and quite frankly a little disappointing once you got to the top although the pictures were certainly better from this vantage point.  Although you could see the crater much better, with the smoke billowing out, you couldn’t really see any flowing lava except for a little pink shade in the smoke.  It was still interesting to see an active volcano by just hiking up the mountainside.  We later learned that on the following day they closed the trails because the lava was flowing so much there were safety concerns regarding any nearby hikers.  We were at least able to get an up-close view of the volcano even if it wasn’t overly active. (I guess you really don’t want it TOO active!).

From there we went to Raufarhólshellir to see the largest lava tunnel in the area.  We put on hard hats to go underground and learn all about lava tubes.  This is where we learned that we were most likely walking on top of flowing lava at the Fagradalsfjall volcano.  You could see various colors in the tunnel walls which indicated whether there was iron, copper or some other metal composing the wall material.  These tunnels were very wet with water dripping from the roofs.  In some places the roofs had caved in and you could see outside.  We were told the tunnels ran for miles although they had only created a walkway to go in about a ½ mile.  The walkways were very impressive throughout the tunnel to allow people to get a good view of a real lava tube.

From the lava tunnel we headed to Hotel Ranga to check in for our stay to see the Northern Lights.  This was recommended by our guide Stefan prior to our trip and as we did further research, we saw that it was the premier hotel in Iceland to try and view the Northern Lights.  They even provide you a wakeup call late at night if the Northern Lights are seen while you are sleeping.  The hotel has hot tubs outside so you can view the lights while you soak in the nice warm water.  Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Larry the weather was very overcast, and we would never see the Aurora Borealis on this trip.  Because of this weather forecast we canceled our 3rd night at the Hotel Ranga and booked our last night before our flight out at a hotel near the airport.  The restaurant in the hotel is extremely nice and people even outside the hotel try to get reservations there for their excellent food.  We had dinner there the first night and really enjoyed the meal although it was VERY expensive.  It is certainly a very nice hotel to stay at if you are searching for the Northern Lights!
 
Day 11 – Glacier and Glacier Lagoons
The next morning, we got up early and headed out to see Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon which was almost a 4-hour drive from our hotel.  This glacier lagoon was created by melting of the Vatnajokull glacier.  This is the largest glacier in Iceland and the largest in Europe.  We had a 1pm tour scheduled to do a Glacier Walk and since we arrived a little early, we took a quick visit to Diamond Beach.  This is a black sand beach with chunks of ice on the beach.  Ice that falls off the glacier floats through lagoon and goes out into the ocean where the tide will bring these large pieces of ice on to the black sand.  This is a unique sight to see around one hundred “ice sculptures” slowing melting on the beach.  The black sand provides such a great contrast, and it is called Diamond Beach because ice can look like diamonds glistening in the black sand. 

After our visit to Diamond Beach, we went to meet our group for our Glacier Walk.  We had booked this excursion through Ice Explorers who used Super Jeeps to drive you close to the glacier to begin your hike.  Super jeeps have extremely large tires and have exhausts that periscope high over the cars roof to allow these vehicles to go through deep water and rough terrain.  When we got off the cheap, we still had a 20-minute walk to get to the glacier.  Before stepping on to the ice we were outfitted with crampons on our shoes, helmets on our heads and belt harness around our waist in case we fell into a crevice and needed to be hauled out!  The crampons had many 2-inch spikes which dug into the ice as you walked along the glacier.  We hiked the glacier for about 3 hours and learned much about the glaciers.  You can see the glacier melting everywhere and creating small mini streams that flow along the surface.  These small streams cause crevices in the glacier that might run hundreds of feet deep.  The depth of the glacier can be up to one thousand feet in some areas.  Due to global warming the glacier continues to recede, and the glacier lagoon continues to get bigger.  Before our hike was over we were taken to an ice cave.  The glacier walk and the ice cave were highlight of the tour.  The cave was eerie with the blue glow of the ice on the roof of the cave.  A heavily flowing river ran down the middle of the cave with ice cold water.  The cave offered so many unique views and the ice was so crystal clear along the walls.  If you ever get to Iceland, make sure you visit the ice cave on the eastern side of this glacier.

We had a zodiac trip planned to go over the glacier lagoon, but we were so wet and tired after the glacier walk, we decided to cancel it.  We took a few more glacier lagoon pictures and headed back to the Hotel Ranga.  We needed to some gas for our long drive back but many of the gas pumps are self-serve only.  At the first self-serve pump we stopped at we were unable to get it to accept any of our US credit cards.  We were told there was a station at a café about 45 minutes down the road and we weren’t sure the café would be open when we got there – and we really needed gas to make it back to the hotel.  We made it to the gas pump before the café closed and as it turned out we didn’t even need any help as this pump took our credit card with no problem.  Before arriving at the hotel, we made a stop in Vik for a late dinner.  By the time we got back to the hotel it was late and we were tired.  (Thanks, Mac, for driving all that way!)
 
Day 12 – Thorsmork
Our last day in Iceland!  We took an 8-hour tour, booked through Mid Gard, to what is called Thormork (in Icelandic it is Þórsmörk).  This was another super jeep tour, and we were going into a valley that is surrounded by glaciers and volcanos.  Unfortunately, it was another overcast day with some occasional drizzle.  We drove through some fast-flowing shallow rivers, and it was amazing to see how these jeeps were able to get through.  On our way back, later in the day, we were able to view another vehicle who didn’t make it and they had emergency vehicles rescuing the tourists off the bus!  Because of how much water was flowing in the rivers we were not able to go as deep as what the tour normally does but we were able to see some nice sights.  At one stop we saw the Myrdalsjokull glacier which rests at Katla Volcano.  If the weather had been better, we would have been able to see the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano whose eruption back in 2010 stopped European air traffic for a few months!  There are so many glaciers and volcanos in Iceland with very difficult to pronounce Icelandic names.  After seeing the glacier, we stopped at another location that was used in the filming of Game of Thrones.  There were many areas of Iceland used in the filming of this hit show.  In another area we took a short hike to some of the other valleys and rivers.  One stop took us to a spot where we needed to walk gingerly on top of rocks through a river to see a beautiful waterfall.  Everyone in our group of 4 gave up except for Sharon who eventually got some great shots of this waterfall.  Unfortunately, she also stepped into the cold river a few times and suffered from the wetness and cold on our way to our next hotel.  Out last stop in the tour was another waterfall where you didn’t get AS WET in walking around some cliffs through a river to see it.  But we did get wet when we posed on a rock below the waterfall with spray from the falls washing over us.  It was certainly a worthwhile trip but would have been better if we had better weather and the water level wasn’t so high.

We drove to our new hotel after this tour.  After washing up a bit we went out to the Costco in Reykjavik to see if they had any nice Icelandic souvenirs, we could bring back with us.  Although we didn’t find any souvenirs to buy, we were able to have a very inexpensive pizza dinner there and filled up with very inexpensive gas.  We got a real treat on our way home where in the darkness we were able to view Fagradalsfjall volcano erupting from the road.  We took some pictures showing the red-hot lava shooting up in the air.  We were even able to see this active volcano from our hotel room when we got back.
 
Day 13 – Back to the US
The trip back was uneventful which was good, and we were happy to finally get back in good old Peachtree City!
 
Next year we have more group cruises planned to Alaska (cruise and land tour in June) and the Mediterranean (late September).  We also have an African Safari planned for July.   In 2023 we have group cruises set up for Antarctica, Norwegian Fjords (& Northern Lights), and Tahiti/Hawaii.  If anyone wants to join us, please let us know!  We love traveling with our cruising friends!