Bonnetts Abroad Past Trips

Iceland

we got a lift from Deb's mum to the ferry terminal in East Cowes, the ferry was meant to leave at 10:30, but it was nearer to 11:00 before it got going. Because of industrial action only half of the ferries were running, consequently the ferry was very full.

We got to Southampton at just before 12. But it took a long time to get off as our bags were under the stairs which were jam packed with other cases, consequently we were virtually the last passengers of the ferry.

There were no taxis waiting, but one pulled in just as we were trying to phone for one. The trip to Mayflower cruise terminal cost £10.00

We dropped our big cases at the luggage points and went inside the terminal. There was a pre–screening to make sure we'd had the jabs and had tested for covid. Then we were directed to the check–in. Check–in was very straight forward, and with our boarding passes stamped we sat down to wait for boarding.

We only had to wait half an hour or so before our row was called forward to go through security and get on the ship. Security was no problem and we were on the ship by 1 o'clock and having reported to our muster station we were ready for a spot of lunch in the Horizon buffet.

After we'd eaten we spent quite some time queuing to get our pre–assigned dinning arrangements changed. In retrospect we needn't have done this as we could just turn up for freedom dining at any time.

After I'd rested for a while we went up on deck to watch as the ship sailed past the Isle of Wight.

When we were just about opposite Ryde the captain announced over the public–address system that the ship was going to do a compass swing and would therefore be pirouetting through 360 degrees. We stood on deck as the spinnaker tower came into view and then disappeared as we slowly turned on our axis until we were facing the right way again.

We then sailed serenely on between the Mortello towers and past Nab rock before heading along the channel.

By this time we were enjoying a drink in the Crow's nest. Deb sipping on complimentary champagne, and I had a Doom Bar.

We were on and 20:30 sitting for dinner which was a bit late for us so went straight back to our cabin after we had eaten.

We had breakfast in the Medina restaurant on a shared table with two other couples.

After breakfast we did a couple of laps of the promenade deck and then did a pub quiz in the champions bar. Another couple of laps of the ship and then it was time for lunch

In the afternoon we watched a film in the cinema “Gasoline Alley”.

We had some tea in the Horizon restaurant as well as sampling some to the light–bites on offer.

We sat for a while doing some crosswords before going to get changed for the formal night.

We decided to go for the freedom dining, but because it was a late decision we were told that we would have to wait for about 40 minutes for a table. They gave us a pager and we headed to a bar to relax and wait.

It was about 20:30 by the time we sat down to eat. Nice meal. The couple on the table next to ours were quite pleasant.

Being a 5 course meal it was 22:30 by the time we finished eating, so we headed straight back to our room.

No need for an early start today, we didn't get to breakfast until 08:30. But even so left for Kirkwall on the shuttle bus at 09:15.

The bus dropped us in the middle of Kirkwall and we sauntered down towards the main street.

We dropped in at a craft fair that was just setting up, some quite nice pieces, but we didn't buy anything.

Our first stop was the bishops palace, our English Heritage cards got us in for free and we spent the best part of an hour going round the earls palace and the bishops palace.

There was a service taking place in the cathedral so we didn't go in, but had a good look around the outside.

We headed down to the harbour and walked along the quay for a while.

We remembered seeing a CoOp in town so walked back to that to buy some tonic waters for our room.

We got the shuttle bus back to the ship, dropped our bags in our room and headed for lunch.

The afternoon was spent drinking tea, and doing the Everyman crossword.

Freedom dining for dinner and then a show at 08:30. A comedian.

Breakfast in Horizon buffet

Quiz at Champions 4 themes, sport, films, science, literature, were joined by another elderly couple

Laps of promenade deck

Sat and read

Lunch in Medina restaurant

more reading

Dinner in The Beach House £39.35

Breakfast in buffet

Quiz at champions, British sitcoms, joined by another couple

Bought Duty free beers

Black Tie night

Tender Ashore

We were booked on the 9:00 AM excursion “Lava Trails and Viking Tales”

Gathered in Carmen theatre at 08:15 and waited to be called for the tender

Trip ashore was uneventful. Once ashore we boarded a coach

First a bried stop at a viewpoint to look at a lava field on the snaefellsnesi peninsula

Next stop was for Helgafell Hill, a steepish climb, but not too tall. We heard later that some one had slipped and broken their arm in 2 places, and they hadn't even gone up the hill

We then went on the the village of Snaefellnesis where the plan was for us to look around the folk museum there, but it was locked, so we were left to wander around the village for a bit

We boarded the coach and header up the road for a few minutes and all got out to look at a church, but they were painting the front door, so no one could go in, so we just milled around outside for a while.

Final stop of this tour was the Shark Museum, here we were given the opportunity to try Greenland shark. This is poisonous when fresh, but after it is left to ferment for a few months and then left to dry for a few months more it is considered to be a delicacy, when washed down with Schnapps. The taste and texture was not dissimilar to Whelk.

Instead of going straight back to the quay side they took us a little further to see a famous mountain. This is “Arrow Head Mountain” from Game of Thrones.

After breakfast we went ashore. There wasn't a lot of space on the quay side, so they had set up a system whereby a bus stopped by every 10 minutes, picked up a few passengers and took them to a different part of the quay, were they could catch a shuttle bus into the city. The shuttle bus was £4 each.

The shuttle bus dropped us by the Harpa concert hall on the waterfront.

We wanted to see Hallgrims Church, so set of towards the city centre.

The road leading up to the church, Skolavordusugar, had been painted as part of a gay rights celebration.

We looked around both inside and outside of the church. It is possible to get a lift up the tower, but there was a long queue for that, so we gave it a miss.

The original plan had been to get the hop–on hop–off bus, and as we'd seen that it stopped where the shuttle bus had dropped us, we headed back towards the concert hall, via a different route, heading down Frakkastigur towards the water front, passing the French hospital on the way.

On the waterfront there's a sculpture representing a Viking longboat

We found that we had half an hour to wait for the bus, so we wandered around the old harbour for a while. Very interesting information board on the history of the harbour. There was an old harbour shunting engine.

We went back to catch the bus, and did a complete circuit of the tour, to get a feel of what there was to see.

Back at the Harpa centre again, we walked up Laekjargata towards the city hall and old town.

Past the Prime Ministers office

Towards the Pond

And then back down towards the waterfront on some different roads

We got on the hop–on hop–off bus again which took as, eventually, back to where the bus would take us back to the ship. We got back to the ship at about half past three.

We were in port overnight

We were booked on the 8:00 AM excursion “The Golden Circle”

First stop on the tour was Thingvellir National Park, this is a Unesco World heritage site. It is the site of Iceland's first parliaments and is the place where the North American and Eurasian Tectonic plates a pulling apart to create a rift.

The coach then moved on to The Gullfoss waterfall, it was a short walk from the coach stop to the waterfall, a path of wooden boards, so was very easy. There were steps down to the bottom of the waterfall, but we didn't do those, just stayed at the top.

It was then on to the hot springs of the Geysir region

Here we had a buffet lunch, served with a glass of wine. Nice soups, salad and cured Salmon and Herring. With a good selection of deserts.

We were then left to walk around the hot springs by ourselves.

Next stop was the Kerid crater

Final stop of this tour was the Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant

Another tender ashore

We were booked on the 09:45 Excursion “The Best of Isafjordur”

The old Icelandic settlement of Ósvör – now an open–air museum – a skin–suited fisherman will extend a warm welcome and show you around the 19th–century fishing base. Take a look at the salt and drying huts and the various tools from days gone by.

The village of Bolungarvík for an Icelandic music recital in the pretty Hólskirkja church,

The Ship sailed to Isafjordur overnight and anchored of shore

We were booked on the 09:45 Excursion “The Best of Isafjordur”, so we had to meet in the Curzon Theatre for 09:00. Where we were grouped up and herded towards the tenders.

Once ashore we boarded our coach. Our guide was a student, from France, at the local university, studying Marine Ecology.

The first stop was the waterfall at Tunguskogur, Where Isafjordur gets its drinking water. We sampled some, cold and pure.

Then it was back into town to visit the Westfdjords Heritage Museum, here we could sample more Greenland shark, dried Cod and Schnapps, we went for the cod and schnapps.

The next stop was in the next valley, we drove through a 5.5Km long tunnerl to the open–air museum of the settlement of Ósvör – a 19th–century fishing base. The guide for the museum was dressed in traditional fishing garb od the period, a seal skin suit

The final stop was in the village of Bolungarvík for an Icelandic music recital. There was a little bit of confusion because it was meant to be in a church, but it was locked. It turned out we should have gone to the local village community centre. He sang 3 songs including a tradional Icelandic lullaby.

The last stop in Iceland was Akurei. The ship was docked by the quayside, we were booked on the 9:00 AM excursion “Jewels of the North”

The coach drove about 45 minutes to the first stop, the Godfoss waterfall, which tumbles 40 feet from a 100–foot–wide precipice into the Skjálfandafljót River below.

Next stop was the Skutustadir pseudo–craters on the edge of Lake Mvytn, here we also had coffee and cakes.

We moved on to Dimmuborgir – or ‘the Black Fortress' – a labyrinth of lava pillars, arches and grottos

The last stop was up in the highlands, the boiling hot springs of Námaskarð, bubbling purple and yellow sulphur cauldrons. There had been hevy rain as we drove there, but it had eased of by the time we arrived, and we managed to have a good look around before it started to rain again.

We got back to the ship at 3:30, ready for a late lunch.

In the evening we sat by a window and watched as we cruised up the length of Eyjafjordur, into the Arctic Ocean.

Clocks went forward an hour.

A relaxing day at sea, pub quiz in the morning.

Black tie evening so we ate in the Medina restaurant. Service seemed a bit hap hazard this evening..

Clocks went forward an hour

Another day at sea. We'd been following a great circle course since leaving Iceland

Pub quiz in the morning, themed on places beginning with S. Didn't to very well.

Watched a film in the cinema “Uncharted”, it was Ok but not very plausible.

The ship moored at the small jetty in Honningavaag, overhanging the jetty by some distance.

We had booked ourselves on a coach tour to travel up to North Cape, only 12 miles to the north of us, but the most northerly point in mainland Europe.

It was a very scenic trip with many twists and turns taking us through pretty valleys.

When we arrived at North Cape, we were advised that we should stay in pairs, due to the extreme wind! It is a very exposed location, being a headland that sticks out into the sea, a 1000 feet below, and was indeed very windy.

We also took in a short cinema film about the north cape, and other various exhibitions.

An enjoyable trip, although the wind and the dust that it blew up had given us both a cough.

We were booked on the 1:00 PM excursion “Alta Countryside and scenery”

The ship docked in Alta, it was a beautifully calm day

We were booked on the 1:00 PM excursion “Alta Countryside and scenery”

This was a trip to visit a hydroelectric project and to take in some of the Norwegian scenery.

It was quite a long drive but the scenery was lovely, we eventually stopped for a photo oppurtunity overlooking the Alta Canyon, downstream of the hydroelectric dam.

We were then driven to the dam, the entrance to which is in the side of a mountain, we all donned safety elements and entered the tunnels

The meeting point was in the canteen, which had a balcony overlooking the dam

Some more tunnels, led us to a presentation room where we watched a short presentation about the dam

And then out of to look at the dam itself.

Today we were docked in Tromso. We had no trips booked as we just wanted to walk around the town.

We got the shuttle bus into Tromso and walked down around the harbour

WE left the harbour and went inland a bit

And then headed back to the waterfront again

That evening we tested positive for covid.

We were moved from our inside cabin to a balcony cabin and confined to quarters for the rest of the voyage

Getting used to life in the cabin. Nice to have a balcony

Room service was very good.

Took a few pictures from the balcony throughout the day

A day at sea

Today the ship was scheduled to stop at Kristiansund, but the weather was too rough for the ship to approach shore, the pilot was unable to get alongside, had a good view of his attempts from our balcony.

The ship did an about turn and headed back out to sea.

The weather calmed down a bit later on.

Overnight the ship headed to Alesund

Here the ship could dock, but of course we were not allowed out. So our Alesund experience was confined to what could be seen from the balcony.

When it was dark we could see the gas rigs lit up as we sailed past

This morning the ship sailed into Haugesund

Another day at sea as we sailed past the windfarms

And then we were back in Southampton

As we were still in quarantine we were in the last group to disembark. It was about 09:30 before we got off. Pick up the luggage from the baggage hall and taxi to red funnel terminal and then back home