Akureyri, Iceland

Finally we have arrived in Iceland!  The main reason we took this specific cruise was the trip through Iceland.  This was one of our bucket list items.  Akureyri is our first of three port stops in Iceland.  Well our luck finally ran out today with the weather.  All those sunny days caught up with us and we left the ship today in 40 degree temperatures with a steady heavy drizzle.  We took a third party (i.e. not the cruise line’s) excursion and on the first stop the winds were gusting with the rain coming at us almost horizontally.  (Note for tomorrow: jeans don’t dry very quickly when they get wet and it is amazing how cold they can be in 40 degree temperatures when wet.)  Welcome to Iceland! 

Akureyri is a small town on the north coast of Iceland only 70 miles from the Arctic Circle.  We probably crossed the Arctic Circle last night when we were arriving at this port.  This town was originally a trading center for the Vikings back in the 800’s and then became known for the fishing in the area.  Today tourism is one if its biggest sources of income and people come from all over the world to visit the area.  It is known for its geothermal characteristics: volcanoes, fissures, rock formations, hot springs, mud flats and steam vents.  It also is a great place to come whale watching and has a 98% success rate in seeing whales every time you go out.

Our excursion took us first to Godafoss Waterfall which is really an amazing waterfall to view.  Although it is not as tall as many waterfalls, the volume of water that flows over the top is quite astounding.  We next visited a volcanic crater in Stakholstjorn that was filled with water and then went on to Gongustigar where there are a series of rock formations (called Dimmuborgir) that were said to be trolls that were frozen in time.  These rock formations were actually formed from hot lava that heated underground water causing fissures to occur in the upper hardened lava crust.  When the underground lava flowed elsewhere the lava crust receded leaving these rock outcroppings where the fissures had occurred.  There are so many geothermal things to learn in this country.  From there we went to Namaskard Pass which has boiling mud pools with steam vents in various areas.  This was really an interesting area to walk around.  Our final stop on the excursion was a visit to Myvatn Nature Baths which is an outdoor hot springs spa similar to the more famous Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik.  Since we were not going to be able to visit the Blue Lagoon we decided to try out this hot springs and rented some swim suits and towels to take a dip.  It was extremely relaxing and well worth the extra cost for a nice relaxing soak before we went back to the ship.  We really enjoyed this excursion!

This was an excellent introduction to Iceland and even though the weather started off very wet and cold, it improved throughout the day and actually didn’t look too bad later in the afternoon.  The Iceland country side was fascinating to view and we learned a lot of interesting information from our guide about Iceland throughout the tour.  A great start to our Iceland adventure!
 
Isafjordur, Iceland

Our second stop to Iceland was Isafjordur which is a very small city of around 16,000 people in the West Fjords of Iceland in the northeast corner of the country.  This area of Iceland was very different from what we saw in Akureyri.  There is no geothermal activity in this area and it looks more similar to our stop in Flam, Norway although the fjords are not quite as steep and narrow.
Since our excursion we had planned was not until the afternoon, we took the morning exploring the small town.  As bad as the weather started off in Akureyi, the weather at this stop was perfect.  The sun was shining and the 50 degree weather seemed almost warm when you walked around.  The pictures we took at this stop seemed to have such vivid color and the reflections on the water were really amazing.  It is really nice to have great weather.  We walked through a few shops marveling at how expensive everything was.  The bakery shops looked great and although we bypassed them on the first walk through the town, we definitely made a stop by one of them before going to our afternoon excursion.  One of the bakery shops had an old delivery truck in front of their shop.  We also made a late stop for a beer and coffee which cost us only $17 ($10 beer and a $7 coffee).  We finished walking through the town seeing a local fisherman monument and an interesting arch made of whale bones. 

After going through the town we walked around the mountainside behind the city and got a close look at some of the high waterfalls trickling down from the mountain top.  It was amazing how the water finds a way down the mountain.  Sometimes you see a waterfall, other times you see some small creeks flowing through the vegetation and other times you see the water just seeping out of the ground.  The town had also made some huge walls to presumably protect the buildings from avalanches or rockslides.  These walls were 20-30 feet tall and were really just made of dirt and grass with a layer of loose rocks behind a wire cage.  It was a very enjoyable walk along this hill side and afforded us some great views of the town and ship.

In the afternoon we took our planned excursion to Vigur Island.  After a 30+ minute boat ride out to the island we were given a tour around this small island.  We had taken this tour because we expected to see puffin and arctic terns but we were quickly told that they had migrated off about 3 weeks before we got there.  We had also hoped to see some whales and seals but no seals were seen and only one blow from a distant whale could be seen.  It was a disappointing trip for the wildlife we had hoped to see but it was a beautiful day and the island was enjoyable.  There was an old windmill on that island that had been used to make bread.  One interesting thing on the island was the large bales of duck feathers stacked that are used to make various down products (jackets, vests, sleeping bags, etc.).  With the large duck population, the collection of feathers is one of the main sources of income on the island.

We sat upstairs as the ship departed hoping to see some whales or other wildlife but only saw one whale on our departure.  The views of the fjords on the way out were definitely enjoyable.  That evening we went outside to look for the Northern Lights (Midnight Sun) and did see some color in the far distance near where the sun had gone down over two hours earlier.  We were told by our guide the next day that some of the color we had seen was due to the Northern Lights but it certainly was not the pictures you see in books and postcards.  Unfortunately most evenings we have been sailing in this area have been cloudy and you cannot see the lights unless the skies are very clear.  We have experienced some very rough seas at times and we had a couple of large crashes into the water on our way to Isafjordur.  We thought at one point that we had hit an iceberg when we felt the first crash.  The ship seemed to quickly slow down after this large crash.  Our ship has been delayed on a few occasions getting into each port because the captain has had to slow down the speed with the high winds, roughness and large swells.  We are off to Reykjavik tomorrow.
 
Reykjavik, Iceland

Our last stop in Iceland was Reykjavik which is the capital of the country and contains 330,000 of its 360,000 people.  The city doesn’t look that big.  We were hoping for some good weather in the morning because rain was forecasted for the afternoon.  It was actually partly sunny when we started out and the rain held off until later in the afternoon when we were coming back from our day long excursion.  We once again used a third party supplier for an excursion of the famed “Golden Circle” and our guide did a great job of staying ahead of the other cruise excursion crowds (going where we were going) and trying to avoid the rain.

Our long excursion took us first to Thingvellir National Park which has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site.  This was extremely interesting to walk through and view the huge continental shelf plates that are constantly separating (1/2 inch per year).  You can walk through these plates that basically divide North America from Europe.  Shifting of these plates has caused massive earthquakes in addition to a great deal of volcanic activity.  In this area is Althingi where most of the most significant events affecting Iceland have been celebrated.  From 930 to 1798 a general assembly has met here to govern Iceland and establish its laws.  The assembly just met on this “sacred” ground and pitched tents to meet.  When Iceland gained their independence from Denmark in 1944 there were over 20,000 people celebrating in this area.  There were many great views found in this National Park and you could see circular ridges in some of the lave flow in some spots.  The rock formations and the lake below were really interesting to look at.  We also saw another geothermal power plant not far from here as we went to see Gullfoss waterfall (the Golden Falls).  These are the most spectacular falls in Iceland.  They are much taller than the falls we saw in Akureyri and the water spray goes 50-100 feet in the air.  Our next stop was to view the geysers and hot springs.  Geysir is the name of the largest geyser and it only erupts sporadically 2 or 3 times a day with a height of up to 200 feet.  We did not see it erupt while we were there but did view its sister geyser, Strokkur, erupt many times.  It erupts every 5 to 6 minutes at a height of 60 to 100 feet.  Right before it erupts you see a big blue bubble appear that bursts into a geyser.  It was really interesting to watch and to try to get that perfect picture of it erupting.  Supposedly the word geyser is derived from this Geysir originally found in Iceland.

This basically concluded our excursion and our guide elected to skip a visit to a smaller waterfall (Faxi) and the Skalholt Catedral.  Instead he took us into Reykavick and showed us a few key points of the city.  We stopped at the Perlan which is an interesting building with an observation deck and restaurant on top.  The most interesting thing about the building is it is the city’s primary water storage tank for fresh drinking water.  Four large water tanks are the four corners of the building.  It is very unique in appearance and function.  We also made a stop at Hallgrimskirykja Church which is a large pointed concrete church.  It is not very decorative but very unique in its shape.  Unfortunately the concrete that it was built with has required significant repair and almost all of the outer concrete walls of the church has had to be repaired over time.  Evidently concrete construction has been a problem in Iceland because of the cold temperature causing many cracking and crumbling problems.  The church has a huge organ (5,275 pipes) inside and we were able to hear it being played while we were there.  It was very impressive.  There is also a huge statue of Leif Ericson outside the church that the US provided to Iceland in 1960.  That concluded our day long excursion which was really excellent.
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One interesting thing to note about Iceland is the lack of an “old city” portion of each town we visited.  Every European city we have visited has an old portion of the city where there are these beautiful churches and city halls that were built over 800 years ago.  We visited three different Icelandic cities and none of them had any buildings that dated back more than the 1800s.  When the Vikings and other Scandinavian countries occupied Iceland they created buildings out of earth.  The houses had roofs made out of dirt with grass growing on them.  None of these ancient buildings survived and no one ever built the huge buildings you see in almost every other European city.  It is an interesting difference to see how people built cities hundreds of years ago.
Another interesting thing about Iceland is the amount of water you see flowing down the mountains.  Most of the mountains have snow on them throughout the year and with the snow melting during the summer months along with the large amount of rainfall they get, there are literally thousands of waterfalls throughout Iceland.  As these small (but very tall) waterfalls reach the lower areas the water volume gets very large and is used to create a significant amount of hydroelectric power.  Almost 70% of Iceland’s power comes from the rivers (similar to Tennessee in the US).  The other astounding fact is that the other 30% of the power comes from geothermal sources.  This means that Iceland only needs oil and gas for the cars and they really don’t have many of those.  They are actually looking for some industries to bring into the country that our power intensive because they have only tapped a small portion of the energy that they could get from these two sources.  This is so much different than the US and other European countries that consume oil at such a high rate.  No reliance on oil.  Wouldn’t that be nice!

We are sorry to be leaving Iceland but really glad we took this cruise to have an opportunity to see this truly unique country.  We are sure we will be back again sometime because there are other areas we would like to further investigate.  As it turned out, we didn’t leave as quickly as we thought, our 6 PM departure was postponed because of rough seas and high winds.  We did not leave the port until late the following morning but we could not get off the ship not knowing when we were really going to leave.  This cruise has been interesting with the rough seas and high winds and although the weather has been rough on the ship we have been really lucky with good weather while we have visited each port for the most part.  We are now heading to Boston and will make up the lost time by going a little faster. 

Happy Cruising,

Greg and Sharon

Bergen, Norway

We have begun the third segment of our 5 cruise adventure.  From our hotel in Rotterdam we walked across a long bridge to the cruise terminal where the Caribbean Princess was ready for us to board.  The ship did not arrive until noon at this port and was not departing until 10 PM.   This is the first time we had ever began a cruise after the original cruise departure port which was Southampton for this sailing.  We elected to board the cruise in Rotterdam (Day 2 of this cruise) because of the much shorter distance in getting to Rotterdam from Amsterdam versus having to travel all the way to Southampton.  In order to board a ship later in the cruise itinerary you must get permission from the cruise line to do this and your travel documentation (boarding pass) must match the city you are actually departing from.  You also agree to the take on the risk that you must pay for your transportation to a later port to board the cruise if for some reason the ship is not able to make it to Rotterdam.  As it turned out, everything went smoothly and it was nice to board the ship with only 16 other people boarding at the same time.  We would certainly consider doing this again if the situation warranted it.

After having a relaxing day at sea we arrived at the port of Bergen, Norway.  This was once again a new port for us but we had been given some hints on what to do here by the travel guide we used in our previous cruise when we were in Oslo, Norway.  He had suggested doing this city on our own and using the funicular to go to the top of the mountain nearby and walk down.  This is exactly what we did and boy did we have a beautiful day to do this.  We had talked to a few locals who told us this was the nicest day all summer and it had rained 30 days straight prior to our arrival.  Once again we were very lucky with the weather.  We walked around Bergen first visiting the Bryggen district which was created by the Hanseatic League traders back in the 1300’s after the city was captured from the Vikings.  The Hanseatic League was a very organized group of German merchants who created a series of very colorful and uniquely styled houses along the harbor of Bergen where they performed their business.  From there we walked through the Fish Market admiring all the fresh seafood.  We walked around the city center visiting a few of the key buildings down town and the city park which primarily consisted of a large pond with a very unique gazebo.  We saw a few more churches in the area and then headed over to the funicular.

The funicular ride was very similar to others that we have ridden around Europe.  It is basically a small “train” with just a few cars that is designed to take people up a very steep slope.  When we got up to the top of the mountain we had some great views of the city below.  There were several hiking paths at the top and we walked a few of them until our time ran out.  We saw a few nice lakes and some lighted paths that were marked for cross country skiing.  The walk down the mountain was also enjoyable with some unique views along the way.  It was very steep going downhill.  When we got down to the bottom we had a little extra time before we needed to board the ship and decided to have a beer and a cider while we tried to make a few phone calls.  We then boarded the ship and headed to Flam, our next stop.

Flam, Norway

Flam is located at the end of the Sognefjorden which is a very long fjord with several other smaller fjords branching out from it.  We actually traveled 127 miles each way down this fjord to get to Flam and back.  Along the way are gorgeous views of mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, farms and small towns.  We have been to fjords in Alaska and South America but nothing as breathtaking as the fjords in this area.  For those of you who don’t know what a fjord is, it is basically a very deep valley between two mountains that is filled with water on the bottom.  The valley or gorge was created by glaciers thousands of years ago and the water in the bottom is from the glaciers melting.  Next year we are taking another cruise that just does the Norwegian fjords and we will be back to Flam again.  We had originally planned to do the local train here which is supposed to be very interesting with the steep slopes, many waterfalls and frequent tunnels.  We elected to do a boat tour when we began to get a little worried about train ticket availability with all the cruise people.  It turned out that wasn’t a problem but we felt we made a better decision doing the boat tour any way.

Once again we had our lucky charm on again for weather.  It was originally supposed to be a rainy day and then the forecast started to say it might only be cloudy and then we actually got some sun that peaked out every now and then with not one drop of rain.  Our boat tour went down the Naeroyfjord which is a Unesco Heritage site.  The views along this fjord were so much better than what we saw with the ship that we were certainly glad we decided to do this instead.  There were so many waterfalls along the way you couldn’t even count them all.  Some of these waterfalls had free fall drops of hundreds of feet.  Almost all of the waterfalls were over a thousand feet tall.   It is amazing to think of all the water that is on top of these mountains that has to make its way back down to the fjords.  It was really interesting to see the houses along the steep hill sides and the farming that could be accomplished in this type of area.  We eventually made it to Gudvangen where we got off the boat and took a shuttle bus back to Flam.  It is interesting to note that the boat was going on to Bergen where we had been yesterday. 

When we got back to Flam we took a few of the hiking trails around the area just to get a few more different views of this spectacular country.  One of our walks went down the coast line of one of the fjords and gave use an up close look at the very clear water.  We got to see one of the waterfalls very close also.  It was a pleasant area to walk and we look forward to coming back to this port again.  Maybe we will try the train next time!

Lerwick, Scotland

Lerwick is located in the Shetland Islands (home of the Shetland ponies) at the Northern Tip of the UK.  It is part of Scotland and is composed of 100 separate islands.  We had no real plans for this port visit and had very low expectations.  We were very surprised at what we  found.  The town itself was small but there were a few nice shops to visit and a fortress to walk through.  The City Hall was truly a remarkable building and the overall architecture was very appealing.  We walked outside the city found so many picturesque views along our walk.  There was even a small little golf course along the way.  There were cliffs and rock outcroppings in addition to a cemetery on the side of a hill that was graded at different levels for the various grave sites.  We met a few local people who were very friendly along the way and one person told us to keep our eyes open for seals in this one particular area.  We walked much further than anyone else on our boat and did eventually spot one seal swimming in the water.  As we continued to walk a little further we came upon a little corral with three Shetland ponies inside who were begging us to take their pictures.  We hadn’t expected to see any of these horses because we were told they were well outside the city when we had asked at the tourist center.  We also saw some sheep and many very pretty country side homes and farms.  It was an extremely pleasant walk and far exceeded our expectations.  This would be a nice place for someone to rent a car a drive around the country side.

Happy Cruising!

Greg & Sharon

Amsterdam, Holland

Well we said goodbye to the Celebrity Silhouette and stayed one night at the Doubletree Hilton near Central Station.  Since we had seen so much of Amsterdam in our previous two visits we decided to take a short train ride to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills there.  This was a small town that recreated several working windmills to help preserve Holland’s historic past.  This was a really fascinating town where you got a close up view of real windmills and how they were used a hundred years ago.  They also had a wooden shoe factory that you could view and a cheese farm that showed you how they made cheese.  It was an excellent stop to take and was only a 15 minute train ride from Amsterdam.

The next day we went to The Anne Frank House.  We had to get tickets for this a month prior to our visit and were lucky to find just a few tickets available for that day.  It typically takes three months prior to your visit in order to get tickets.  It was a fascinating visit and very educational to better understand the persecution of the Jewish people by Germany during World War II.  It was very sad to think about what these families went through.  You got to see the exact rooms where Anne Frank’s family slept and where they made their basic meals in a small kitchen.  For over 2 years they had no contact with the outside world and then one day the German’s came from some unknown tip and found them hiding in this house.  They were all sent to concentration camps and only the father, Otto Frank, survived.  This is definitely an attraction you should not miss if you make it to Amsterdam.

We spent a few hours visiting Amsterdam that night.  This was much different than our last night visit with crowds of people everywhere.  We roamed the streets for a while just checking out different areas and it seemed like everywhere people were roaming the streets.
We rented a car and left Amsterdam after having spent 3 or 4 days visiting this fascinating city.  We will never get over the bikes you see in the city and how careful you must be walking around in order not to get hit by a bike.  They have bike lanes and walking baths and whenever you cross a street you must cross the bike lane first.  Heaven forbid you don’t look both ways at the bike lane before crossing the street.  The bikes expect the pedestrians to yield to them.  There are literally tens of thousands of bikes everywhere you look!

Since we needed to get to Rotterdam (one hour or so from Amsterdam) we decided to take a car to see some sights on our way there.  We went to the small fishing village of Marken and viewed all the quaint houses and shops along the harbor.  We went to Volendam and witnessed many wild drunken parties going on in the streets because of some special holiday they were celebrating.  We drove through Haarlem but really didn’t get a very good look at this town and went on to the beach area where we saw many wind surfers enjoying the very windy day.  We drove through the Hague just to check out this city where they try to handle International justice.  We made one last quick stop at Delft before checking into our hotel in Rotterdam.  Since we had the car until 1 PM the next day we decided to drive back to Delft the next morning and view the city a little closer.  They had several big churches and a great city hall in addition to a very unique bridge with twin towers.  That completed our car tour of Holland.

Rotterdam, Holland

We walked around Rotterdam and saw some impressive buildings (churches, city hall, World Trade Center, etc.), but the most impressive structures we saw were the Market Place and Cube Houses.  The Market Place was like none we had ever seen before.  It was all inside a huge shelter shaped building.  The inside walls and ceilings of the building were painted and the end walls were clear panels of glass that allowed you to see the city.  Along the walls of the outside of the building there are apartments where people live.  Inside this market where many things to eat: bread, donuts, cheese, fries, sausage, fish, candy, tapas, etc.  This wasn’t a farmers market but was more of a bunch of little kiosk restaurants.  It was really very impressive.  Outside the Market Place is a small community of cube houses.  They were created to revitalize the downtown area with creative architecture in building residential areas and small businesses.  These homes look like Rubik cubes positioned on a corner.  Supposedly you need to be very creative to find furniture to fit in this living area shape.  This is a very unique way to live but gives the area a lot of character.  This city also has many unique bridges in different parts of the city.  Rotterdam is very different than Amsterdam but it has its own charm and creative architecture.  Today we board the Caribbean Princess ready for our next cruise segment – Norway/Iceland/Transatlantic.

Happy Cruising,
Greg and Sharon


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