Northern Cruise At Last!

We arrived in Norway with a day to spare, to explore, and meet our travel partner, Laura, at the Bergen airport. What caught our eye the most was the rooflines! This is the back of the historic Hansa Quarter (map link), close by where we were staying.

Finally, time to get on the ship! We weren’t allowed to just walk up the street to where the
ship was docked, where Dave nabbed this picture. No, we had to load into a coach and get a tour of the city, while they… prepped the ship? At 4 pm, they were ready for us! What with the pandemic delay and the 15 months that Lindblad suspended operations, they were happy to have us complete our reservation at long last, so they offered enticements. We chose a cabin upgrade, with a view off the stern and a bigger balcony. Hint: this comes in handy later!

Here’s Laura, toasting the start of our journey as we wave goodbye to Bergen behind us.

We headed overnight across the North Sea to Kirkwall in the Orkneys, where we were able to visit two 5000-year-old sites, the Ring of Brodgar, and the Neolithic village of Skara Brae.

As we came into the Shetlands, we cruised by the Cliffs of Noss, a treat for bird lovers.

Yes, there are other sites in the Shetlands, but watching the show Shetland meant we needed to see some of the spots it featured. This is what they used as the police station, though the actual station is around the corner.

For this stop, we were docked in Lerwick, and after individual outings in the morning, we were free to wander the town and get these shots.

Our first stop in the Faroes was a small port on Vágar. We had a hike with 4 options for speed (fast, medium, slow, and photography!), all along the same path, so nobody got lost. Well, Dave tried… On our way there, I spotted this boat, so I snuck off to capture all its glorious texture.

In the evening, we were trundled across the bottom of the island for a boat excursion, which included waterfalls, puffins, and a sea cave, complete with hardhats.

For our second day in the Faroes, the ship repositioned to the main town, Torshavn.

We opted for independent exploration today, and wandered into town, via lighthouses and sodded roofs, to get to the grocery store — how do people shop here?

We stocked up on snacks while we were there — fish chips for me, please!

On our last day in the Faroes, Dave & Laura opted for an excursion via Zodiac, to see a very small village that was excited to get their first cruise ship visit. They were welcomed with a taste of fish soup and a chance to shop for crafts.

Kudos to Dave for spotting this matching cabin & heat pump!

Unfortunately, the stuffy air and crowds in the indoor spaces might have been their downfall.

For our first day in Iceland itself, we toured black sand beaches, three ways. Dave chose the morning hike (aka walk all the way there), I chose the morning shuttle, and Laura had the afternoon shuttle — they didn’t quite know we were travelling together?

We met briefly for lunch, then had a big evening: dinner at the captain’s table. Unfortunately, by then, Dave wasn’t feeling well, so while he sat with us, he didn’t eat, and was masked. Good thing!

This morning, Dave really didn’t feel well, and when we checked in with Laura, neither did she. We woke the ship’s doctor up for Covid tests all around. Dave & Laura: positive, crap!

Protocol was quarantine for 5 days; sadly, the remainder of the trip. Dave got started on Paxlovid and slept off several days of fever. We masked up and ate separately. Here’s where the upgraded cabin came in handy: so glad we had a balcony for dining options!

The rest of the trip was all captured from here, or from a brief daily supervised outing on the decks, once most of the passengers had been dispersed on their outings.

Well, we weren’t going to take the excursion options today anyway. As the boat moved from Husavik to Akureyri, the expeditions were all-day outings to a lake in the interior — spectacular, I’m sure, but a LOT of bus riding, and lectures on culture & geology.

So, views from the boat for us quarantined folks it was. Sometimes, that wasn’t too exciting. Other times? Spectacular!

Happily, one of our views from the cabin was this iceberg!

We’d just come from Grimsey, crossing the Arctic Circle briefly, and were coming round to the Western fjords.

I made some art out of my view.

Throughout the trip, of course, there were birds. LOTS of birds! Dave was great at spotting them, with lots of help from the naturalists aboard. As we rounded the Western fjords, we sailed alongside Latrabjarg, a recently declared conservation area of high cliffs full of nesting birds: razorbills, guillemots, thick-billed murres, fulmers, puffins, and kittiwakes.

Here’s a gannet for you.

Puffins were spotted, but not well recorded. Plenty of photographers have done much better jobs here, just search online.

Terns were everywhere, dive-bombing us when anyone got too close to their nests. Little did we know walking sticks are a defense, if held above our heads, as the birds will attack the highest point. See how many you can spot in the clouds, below.

Our last day at sea was spent cruising the Westmann islands, with volcanic activity evident everywhere. Just to get to the port of Heimaey meant the ship had to navigate between cliffs and volcanic rock. This narrow passage was lucky to be open at all, as eruptions had threatened to close it off.  The town rallied by keeping the lava at bay, using every option for spraying water spray that they could find.

We cruised through the adjoining small islands during the evening, including Surtsey, which rose out of the sea in the 1960s. It’s now getting smaller, and hosts only visiting scientists for research.

And finally, they let us off the ship!
This was our view as we docked, of the concert hall — gorgeous.

We grabbed a rental car, explored with Laura for a bit before she had to fly back, then went to get settled in our rental place.

Just by exploring the area around the airport, we found a fine lunch spot, lots of seascapes, and this amazing spot that is the bridge between two volcanic plates. If you’re in this dip, you’re between Europe and North America, and it’s widening!

On our own in Iceland, we took advantage of so many sites easily accessed by car, within an easy day-trip loop. So easy, they call it the Golden Circle. Here are the stops we visited:

• Thingvellur National Park
• Strokkur Geyser
• Gulfoss Falls (left)
• Kerid Crater (below)

As we flew away from Reykjavik, working our way through to London, then Vancouver, then Seattle, we said goodbye with this amazing view of the active eruption that had captured our attention for the week.