Tuesday, 8/9 – 1st Ireland Shore Excursion

Belfast – Taste Tour

We could have slept in today, too, since our shore excursion wasn’t until 1:15 PM, but we didn’t. We went to the buffet for breakfast, where Hubby could get a made-to-order omelet, and I could get some cream of wheat. I don’t remember what we did the rest of the morning, but it was soon time to decide if we were going to have lunch or not. Our shore excursion was a 4-hour walking tour of Belfast, where we would stop now and again to taste local specialties. So, should we eat lunch or leave room for the tastings?

We compromised by going to O’Sheehan’s and having an appetizer each. After all, how could we know how substantial those tastes might be? Hubby got a couple sausage sliders, and I got some loaded nachos. Then we left the ship to find our bus on the pier.

The bus dropped us and the tour guide, Roisin, off in downtown Belfast. Roisin took us across 2 streets to a pub called The Crown, where we got to sit in a pair of ‘privacy rooms’ that had been reserved for us. The specialty here was a local gin, which was served with tonic water. I was so glad I’d told her I didn’t think I’d be drinking any alcohol, as I got to have a coke. I like my mixed drinks like my wine – as sweet as I can get it.

After the Crown, Roisin realized she had a member of the ship’s crew in her group, and she asked him to bring up and rear and try to keep any of us from getting lost. I was glad she did that, as about 3 blocks later, I didn’t see the group turn, and I just kept going forward until Hubby yelled at me. I came back and eventually got reunited with the group.

Our next stop was a world-class chocolate shop called Daisy’s. They served us all a half cup of hot chocolate, a tiny cannola, and a chocolate liquor ball. I thought the balls were various candies like malted milk balls, but after I sucked on the one she gave me for a moment, I got a mouthful of liquor. I decided I didn’t want any of those. But Hubby bought a pound of coffee beans, which we took turns keeping track of for the rest of the walk.

More walking, and then we arrived at a grocery shop. While the rest of the group went inside for a look around, Roisin brought out some food stuffs for us to sample. There was a bowl full of pieces of bread, a number of toast corners with dried salmon, 2 small bowls of dipping oil (one garlic-flavored, and the other spicy), a bowl of crescent-shaped pieces of butter that was so yellow people kept thinking it was some type of fruit, and a bowl of pieces of a mild blue cheese.

Our next stop was a store called Born and Bred, where we were given about 30 minutes to look around. By this time, I was flagging, and opted to sit on the bench outside, where I could keep an eye on the store’s door. The store next door, I noticed, was call Forbidden Planet Unlimited, so I wandered inside Born and Bred to let Hubby know. He took a minute to pop over and look at the stuff in the window. But even here, there was tasting to do, in that Born and Bred offered crackers with 3 different toppings to try. One was black butter, which is an apple butter made from apples only grown in Ireland. I expected to like that one, but didn’t. Neither did the other 2 toppings appeal to me.

So we continued on, turning off the street into an alley, which the Irish call an entry. Then we crossed 2 streets and went in another alley until we came to White’s, which I seem to remember her saying was the oldest tavern in Belfast. At White’s we were given our choice of a seafood gumbo or a bowl of Irish stew; a glass of Guiness or some white wine. Hubby took the gumbo and a Guiness; I opted for the Irish stew and wine. I liked the stew a lot. Hubby liked his gumbo, too, but spent more time removing the meat from the various shellfish his bowl contained than he spent eating the gumbo at last. His bowl had so many shellfish, that when he finished eating and put the shells back in his empty bowl, they filled up his bowl!

White’s was the end of the tour. A lot of our companions left the group to go exploring on their own. The rest of us walked about a block to catch our bus and were taken back to the ship.

Hubby and I went to our cabin and took it easy for a while. I took the library book back to the library and turned it in. Then I sat on the pool deck, where there was a little bit of breeze, and did some writing. Eventually, it was time for the library to open so I could check out another book (It’s only open for 1 hr in the morning and another hour in the evening), so I went and selected another book, a sf Young Adult novel called Alien Superstar by Henry Winkler and Somebody Else (I didn't note the name. I was probably so beguiled by the idea of the Fonz writing YA novels (Yes, it was he.) that the other name had no chance of making an impression on my mind. And that's a pity.

We had supper at Ginza, a restaurant that is either complimentary or pay, depending on what you order. Hubby wasn’t feeling very well when we went but started to feel better as he got some food in him. He had pot stickers, Kung Po Chicken and 5 Spice chocolate cake. I had spring rolls, vegetable fried rice and coconut tapioca pudding. After eating, we called it a night and turned in.

Monday, 8/8 – Day at Sea

At last we had an opportunity to sleep in, and we did. Hubby slept at least an hour later than he normally does, aided by the fact that fog had the ship packed in and the day was quite dim. When I finally got up and got moving, we had to report to a particular restaurant for a face-to-face meeting the UK Immigration Service. All the ship’s guests needed to do this. After the UK official’s met with us, and determined that our passports were indeed ours, those passports were ‘confiscated’ so they could be stamped and given back to us. In 4 days. This did not make us happy, but what were we going to do?

With the thick fog, the day was chilly, and we decided it was too chilly to use the hot tub. We went to the main dining room for lunch. I had hush puppies, a tuna melt with French fries, and a crème brulee. I don’t remember what Hubby had; probably sea food, as he does as often as he can.

I went back to our cabin and tried to finish the book I had checked out of the library. I think it was The White Spirit by Mercedes Lackey. I don’t think I’ve read much by Ms Lackey, but this one pulled me in and kept me entertained, despite several names being too much the same for my liking. I’ve had another author compare my writing style to hers, so maybe I should read more of hers and see if I can discover what she does that has so many fans enthralled with her work. Anyway, when we went to see the evening music review, I had about 29 pages left to read.

This was the second music review that was offered on this cruise. There comes a point where you aren’t sure if a dancer is slow leaving the stage because their character is uncertain if he should leave, or because that dancer momentarily forgot their next movement. The singers and dancers are good enough – certainly far better than I could ever hope to be – but Hubby suffers from TB (tired butt) after sitting for 5 minutes, so I’m not sure we’ll be going to see the 3^rd music review. We’re more interested in seeing something that has a plot involved.

After the show, we had reservations at Cagney’s Steak House. This was a special being offered by our cruise line, where we could eat at a specialty dining location without paying for it. Hubby ordered shrimp for his appetizer, and they were huge. My appetizer was a beefsteak tomato, cut into 3 slices, then stacked back together with sliced onions in between, and some kind of balsamic sauce on top. I can never get enough tomatoes.

Hubby ordered a filet mignon, and I ordered a petite filet mignon, with steamed broccoli and a baked potato. I liked the meat, didn’t have any problems chewing it up. The broccoli was very lightly steamed, meaning it was still crunchy, but I ate it. The baked potato was over-done, meaning the insides were mushy, while the skin was crunchy and difficult to cut. But I ate it all and didn’t have any room left for dessert. When they brought the check for us to sign, Hubby was very glad we didn’t have to pay the $140 bill!

So we went back to our cabin and Hubby turned in, while I finished my book. Although the ending was not really a happy ending, I was satisfied with it. It was, after all, better than it could have been!

August 7, Sunday – 3rd Icelandic Shore Excursion

Seydisfjordur Town Walk

Saturday night, I had been reading the ‘newsletter’ for Sunday, and it said to set our watches ahead an hour. So I made that note in my head before I went to sleep. When I got up on Sunday, it thought it was 6:00 AM. I got up and got dressed and wondered if I should wake Hubby. We didn’t need to meet for our excursion until 9:45, but we were supposed to allow 30 minutes for the tender ride. Yes, we were riding tenders again today.

Hubby finally woke up after 7 AM and got dressed. We went to the Main Dining room for breakfast, only to be told it was 7:45, and they didn’t open until 8, and we don’t set the clocks ahead until tonight. So we went to the buffet for breakfast. Hubby got a made-to-order omelet with just about everything in it. I started with a couple pastries and a bowl of cream of wheat, then went back for scrambled, eggs, bacon, ham and potatoes o’brien. I also had a glass of orange juice and then one of pineapple juice.

Now that I knew I had actually gotten up at 5, I was tired, so I laid back down for about an hour. Or maybe not quite an hour.

The tender ride, as usual, was uneventful. Once on shore, a man was looking at our excursion tickets and sending each excursion to a different location to wait.

Our excursion time was 9:45, but it was a bit after that before all of us showed up and the guide could get started. This was a walk through town, so there was no getting away from walking today. I hoped it wouldn’t be a forced march.

I wasn’t encouraged by the first leg of the walk, for it took us past 4-5 idling buses, and she hurried us along to get us past the noise and fumes. But that was only about a block. After that, she slowed down a bit, and stopped frequently, so we were mostly able to keep up, although our knees and feet did get tired.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the history and rules of the town. There is a lagoon on the edge of the fjord that was traversed by a sidewalk and street. She even explained that it was illegal to fish from that bridge. The river running through the middle of town emptied into that lagoon, and a lot of fish traveled up the fjord, into the lagoon and then up the river, and it was considered ‘unsporting’ to fish from the bridge, before they had a chance to get up the river.

She also talked about the avalanches and mudslides that their village has been subjected to. They are in the midst of constructing barriers that are intended to send avalanches in a different direction, away from the houses directly below. She also told us how a party of archeologists were busy digging through the sites where these barriers were scheduled to be built, trying to find as much of history as they could before the area was no longer available to them. I’m always interested in hearing about archeology, but that was about all she had to say on the subject.

She took us down Rainbow Street, the main commercial street in the village. It’s named for the repeating rainbow pattern painted on its center. At one point, sidewalk-type blocks had been placed down the middle of the street, but after a time, they broke into large sections. A business owner on the street got the idea of painting them in the colors of the rainbow, to make them more visible, and the colors have been there ever since. Each May, the entire village gets involved in painting the broken blocks.

She told us of the ‘adventures’ of the US troops that were stationed there during the 2^nd world war. They strung submarine nets in the fjord, but never caught a submarine, although 2 whales did lose their lives due to the nets. The town also was subjected to spy planes flying low overhead to take pictures, and the Americans would try to shoot them down, but didn’t manage it. But a theater was built in town so the solders would have something to do, and that theater was still in use today. A community center has been built attached to it.

Eventually, we got back to our starting point, where there were several posters of interviews of people who suffered from the most recent mudslide, only 3 or 4 years ago. Across the street was the town’s information center, and Hubby and I sat down and relaxed for a few minutes. Then he walked back to those posters about the mudslide and took pictures. The tour guide had been talking to other members of our group, and then Hubby conversed with her for a few minutes.

There was a water fall just on the edge of town, where the melting snow fell down from near the top of the mountain to the bottom. We could see the waterfall pretty well from the information center, and could see lots of people walking up the path next to it. The path only went about halfway up the mountain, but even that didn’t look like an easy climb.

The tour guide stated the town had 640 citizens during the winter, and 680 during the summer. I didn’t realize she and her family were among those who left for the winter until Hubby mentioned it after he had talked to her.

Having rested a bit, we walked back to the pier, where our cruise line was handing out cups of hot chocolate. Although I had sweated during the walking, my hands and face were quite chilled, and a cup of hot cocoa really hit the spot. Then we reported back to the ship and had some lunch, though I don’t remember where we went or what we had.

Later, we had supper at Aqua, another complimentary dining room. I ordered a beef dish that turned out to be beef kabobs by another name. I wasn’t completely happy that when I removed the beef pieces from the skewers, they were still pink, but I was determined to put up with it. Unfortunately, the first piece of meat I put in my mouth refused to break down into pieces small enough to swallow. I knew something was wrong when Hubby looked up as he was half-way through his meal and asked if I was still chewing my first bite. After that, I started cutting the chunks of beef in two, and had to ask for a steak knife so that I could do that! Eventually, I felt I had done my duty to the meal and dismissed that dish to order dessert.

I had ordered wine with my meal. I specified I wanted the sweetest wine they had. They brought me a Riesling, and it was decently sweet, so I was happy with that aspect of the meal. I decided I probably shouldn’t judge a restaurant by one dish, so we decided to give Aqua another try a little later in the trip.

August 6, Saturday – 2nd Icelandic Shore Excursion

Godafoss & Leisurely Akureyri

We didn’t need to meet in the Stardust Theater until 9:15 AM, but we were up about 6 again. I was feeling better today. We had breakfast, but I don’t remember where. Not at the buffet, and not at the Main Dining Room, so it was probably O’Sheehan’s.

The theater was crowded when we got there, and we wound up sitting practically at the very top to wait for them to call our excursion. Akureyri was the name of the town, but we couldn’t remember what ‘Godafoss’ referred to. I hoped it didn’t require a lot of walking, because the longer I waited, the more my stomach started to feel ‘iffy’. But I didn’t have any problems with my sinuses or head. I was startled to hear that our excursion had 6 buses devoted to it.

There were no tenders to negotiate this day; we took a gangplank straight to the pier, found our bus, and got on. We grumbled a bit about having to put on seat belts in Iceland (It’s the law!), because the straps were never easy to find, and the buckles either didn’t want to click shut or didn’t want to come open. Or both.

The bus took off, and we were headed for Godafoss, whatever that was. The only hint we got was that it was 45 minutes away. Okay, then there couldn’t be a lot of walking involved, right?

The tour guide was full of information on the scenery, Icelandic history and lore. She kept us entertained during the drive. And then we pulled off the road and drove a couple hundred yards to a parking lot. We had caught glimpses of a beautiful waterfall of to the side of the road, and the bus dropped us off at the head of a trail that would take us to it. So there was walking involved, but I didn’t mind, because I love waterfalls and rivers. So we walked up to the waterfall and down again, as far as the ‘official’ path would take us. The waterfall itself was shaped rather like a horseshoe, like I guess Niagara Falls is. But there was this one tiny section, which I kept referring to a ‘spit’ of a waterfall. The main waterfall sections were roaring and majestic. The spit of a waterfall was cute, like a baby.

Anyway, we got back to the bus just barely after the 45 minutes we were allotted to stay there. Then the drive back to Akureyri, with the tour guide being entertaining.

We had one more stop to make, at the Akureyri Botanical Gardens, where we were allotted 30 minutes to explore. I should have been recovered by our hike at the falls, but I was still feeling tired, with my knees aching, so I opted to stay on the bus. Hubby got off and managed to get back before his 30 minutes were over.

Then it was back to the pier, where we did a little shopping at the gift shop. Hubby selected a decorative magnet for our refrigerator, and I selected a little statuette of a troll for my office. The prices were in Icelandic currency, but hubby paid by credit card, so we’ll have to see how much our credit card is dinged.

Back to the ship to find lunch. We went to the buffet, but didn’t bother with any desserts, because their desserts are almost tasteless. Then we went back to our cabin, where I took a nap, and dealt with multiple spasms in my calves. At one point, hubby even laid down and tried to nap.

We had a reservation for a specialty restaurant that evening, which meant we had to go find it. It was, pretty literally, a hole-in-the-wall place that we couldn’t find until we stood in the middle of the bar that the restaurant was supposed to be before, and looked back the way we came. The door for the restaurant was tucked away around the corner, and the only sign for it was facing the bar.

This was an Italian restaurant, and it was noisy inside. Lots of hard surfaces, with no space between tables. Hubby ordered pasta, red snapper and a white wine. I ordered tomatoes with mozzarella cheese and fettuccini alfredo. I don’t know wine, so I simply asked for a ‘sweet’ wine, the sweeter the better. We expected bread sticks, but got an entire loaf of bread, which we very nearly ate completely. The food was good, I liked my (white) wine selection, but don’t remember what it was called. Riesling Blue? Does that sound right? We left without dessert, because we didn’t have any room for it. Too much bread, I suppose.

We went back to our cabin and sat on the balcony, hoping to see some whales as the ship moved out of the fjord, but no such luck. We did see what we thought were 3 dolphins, sticking their noses up out of the water to watch the ship move past. We reached the end of the fjord about 9:30, and we were getting cold, so we went inside and went to bed. It was still light out about 10 when I turned the last light off.

August 5, Friday – First Icelandic Shore Excursion

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Secluded Valley & Tasting

Our 2^nd day aboard ship, our first shore excursion, and I did not wake up refreshed, even after sleeping for 10 hours. Maybe it was the booze I’d had the night before (I am a really light drinker). Or maybe it was I hadn’t taken the time to put any water in my cpap. Whatever my problem was, I was real slow moving, my sinuses ached, which reverberated throughout my head, I felt cold, and my stomach felt pretty iffy.

Hubby got up about 6, and by 6:15, I was trying to get up, too. When I finally got dressed, we went to the main dining room for breakfast. We were the 3^rd set of guests to get there. I opted for a ham and cheese omelet, bacon, a sliced banana and some orange juice. It all stayed down, even the 2^nd glass of orange juice, but it didn’t necessarily ease my stomach any.

We didn’t need to be at the shore excursion staging area until 9:30, so we went back our cabin, and I laid down, but didn’t necessarily sleep. I was still pretty blah when I got up and we walked to the Stardust Theater, which is where we were to get our instructions for finding our tour bus. Hubby peeled away as we walked, in search of a diet pop. He didn’t find one, but did bring me a regular pop, and I thought the sugar and caffeine mixture might pick me up, but the effects in that direction were pretty quick to fade away.

The bay we were stopped in was not deep enough to accommodate our ship at the pier, so we had to take a tender (small boat) to the pier. Most of the ports we’ve visited while cruising could accommodate our ship at the piers, but there was at least one other time we’d had to take a tender, so it wasn’t a completely novel experience. Once we were at the dock, we had to walk a little way to get to the bus and get on it. The day was calm and clear, without any of the wind we’d had the day before. Still, we had elected to wear our jackets, and they felt food.

Soon we were off to see the sights. First, we drove around the end of the fjord. The fjord was surrounded by tall, very steep ‘mountains’ that still had snow on the tops. Yes, even in August. Soon, the bus pulled off the road and stopped, and the tour guide said that we could out and look at the fish drying houses some distance away, while they handed out samples of an Iclandic delicacy, dried fish. I don’t eat fish, and I still wasn’t feeling well, so I opted to stay on the bus. Most everybody else got off, but nobody opted to walk over to one of the drying houses. Everybody had their piece of fish and got back on the vehicle.

Then the driver headed back the way we had come, almost back into town, before he pulled off on a dirt road for maybe a mile. The tour guide emphasized this was the only sstop where a toilet would be available during our tour, so we should be sure to use it. She stated we were there to see the pretty waterfall, and could get a taste of beer brewed locally from seaweed. I still wasn’t feeling good, plus I don’t do beer or seaweed, and had already forgotten she had mentioned a waterfall, so I opted not to get off.

This was a longer stop than before, perhaps so everybody had a chance to use the toilet. I spent the time sitting with my eyes closed, trying to feel better so I wouldn’t waste the entire tour, but alas, it didn’t seem to help. Eventually, people got aboard again, and got ready to continue. I tried to show some interest in the tour by asking Hubby what he thought of the beer, but he just said it was beer.

Back to the highway, and then turn on another highway. This highway took us through a long tunnel. At one point, we turned into another, narrower tunnel, where we did not have right of way. If we had met another vehicle coming the other way, we would have had to pull over at one of several wide spots and let that oncoming vehicle go past us. However, we were lucky, and didn’t meet any oncoming traffic.

I had closed my eyes again during our travels through the tunnel, and finally started to feel better by the time we came out into daylight again. I was determined to get off at our next stop.

We drove past one of the few dairy farms in Iceland. There is seldom enough flat land to let cows graze or to grow hay to feed them during the long winter months. But in this area, it could be done, so there was a dairy farm. Then through a village of about 270 people, and on to a dirt road with about a 12-foot wall of rock on one side, and eventually, the sea on the other side. We were headed for a farm where they grew sheep, where we would get to taste some marriage cake. That’s what it sounded like to us, but I don’t know how it’s spelled in Icelandic, and it doesn’t mean wedding cake.

Once we got to the farmyard, they introduced us to a young redhead who lived on the farm. She led us out into a field that was very uneven walking, to a roughly flat stone that lay in the soil. This was the site of an old Viking village of about 500 people. The stone had the year 1831 carved into it, carved by a man on his 50^th birthday. Then we were shown a large field that used to be covered in flowers. (The flowers were not in sight at the time we were there.)

At that time, we returned to the farmhouse, where the family served us coffee and cake, which was like a sweet biscuit crust with rhubarb paste spread over it. I loved it. They called it what sounded like ‘marriage’ cake, but however it was spelled, it apparently had nothing to do with marriage or wedding. After we had refreshments, they brought a lamb and fed it from a bottle. The bottle’s contents didn’t satisfy it, and it started following anybody who moved, looking for somebody with another bottle. It was terribly cute, but of course, they grow up fairly quickly.

We got back on the bus, and they took us down the road, back to the coast, where we got out to examine an old fishing hut. In the old days, when fishermen came back to the shore after a day of fishing, they often didn’t want to travel all the way home, just to come back again the next day, so they would build these small huts out of stone, sod and some timber, where they could spend the night in relative comfort, and then they would stay for a few days, until they had a full load of fish to take home. It reminded me somewhat of the sod houses that were built on the prairies of America back in the olden days, but the fishing hut had more rock and timber and a lot less sod in its construction.

Then we went back, all the way back, through the tunnel, through the town of Isafjordur, and back to the dock area. Hubby and I took a quick look around the gift shop, but they did not have a lot of merchandise to choose from, and we didn’t buy anything. We walked back to the pier, boarded the tender, and tried to decide where to have lunch.

Our choices were pretty limited, as the only eating places open were the buffet, a pool-side bar and grill, and O’Sheehan’s bar and grill. We went to O’Sheehan’s because we knew their food was good, even if their menu was limited. Hubby wanted their Blue Plate Special, which was Chicken Parmigiano that day. But it turns out their Blue Plate Special is only available after 5:30, so he got some Korean Chicken wings and a hamburger with fries. I had a Pub hot dog with fries, but I had trouble getting it. They brought his food in short order, but we had to ask where mine was about 4 times. Then we both had raspberry swirl cheesecake for dessert. On our first cruise on a Norwegian ship, we had discovered that O’Sheehan’s had the best cheesecake on the ship, and were not disappointed on this ship.

After lunch, I went to the library and began writing my blogs about this trip. I also checked out a book by an author I couldn’t remember reading before. Before long, it was time to meet Hubby at the nextCruise desk, so we could claim our present. Our gift turned out to be pins proclaiming us to be Bronze members of the Norwegian Loyalty plan. Woop-dee-doo. (Sarcasm.) Then we went to the Theater for the show, which was titled Band on the Run. It was okay; I only noticed a couple of times where the dancers nearly tripped each other, but they avoided it.

Then it was time for a late supper, and we found ourselves back at O’Sheehan’s. Hubby finally got his Chicken Parmegiano, while I opted for Loaded Nachos, Cottage Pie Potato Skins and we both had cheesecake for dessert again. I daringly tried a Moscow Mule to drink.

Finally, we went back to our cabin, pulled the curtains on our balcony as tightly closed as we could (it was still light outside), and went to bed. Thankfully, Hubby reminded me to put water in my cpap, and I went to bed hoping to feel better in the morning than I had on this morning.