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Secluded Valley & Tasting
Our 2nd 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 3rd 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 2nd 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 50th 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.
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