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.

Arrival - August 4

On our flight to Iceland, I watched "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once," but it was hard to hear over the engine noise, therefore difficult to make sense of it. When dinner was served, I got a vegetarian stir fry dish, a salad, roll & butter, and a grain bar. They were stingy with drink, handing out small glasses of pop instead of the whole can, but I still had some Dr Pepper that I had bought in Orlando, so I got through.

I started to watch the latest Wizarding World movie, couldn't hear the dialog, so I turned it off and tried to sleep. I managed to doze some, but didn't get any deep sleep. Hubby says he got about an hour of sleep. He elbowed me awake when it was time for breakfast, which was Greek yogurt and biscotti and a small glass of tomato juice. Nothing to write home about, but here I am, writing about it.

We got to Iceland about an hour late. There was a long line to get through customs, which consisted of looking at and stamping our passports, and asking how long we'd be staying. That was followed by a long walk to find our luggage. When we got to the lobby and found the cruise line people, we joined another long line while they made sure we were in the right line, and took our major luggage to send it to the ship. Eventually, they put us on a bus. When the bus was full, we were sent off on a 45-minute ride to the ship.

So, despite the delays, we got to Iceland more or less on time. Could have lived without the excitement of nearly missing our connection, though.

We were told a new volcano had started erupting on 8/3 in a valley beyond a ridge that ran parallel to the road for a time. We couldn't see the eruption, but we could see smoke and gases arising from beyond the ridge. I tried to memorize the sight; the smoke looked like a rising cloud, and the gasses outlined the 'cloud' in a misty pale blue. I'd love to try to paint that some day. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of it, as the camera was buried in one of our carry-on luggage, now located in the bowels of the bus.

Once we got to the pier, we were sent to an interim check-in building. Several times we joined long lines before we got out the other end. The first line took us to a security check point, where we had to get our carry-on luggage x-rayed. The next line was for somebody to look at our passports. Then a line where we had to sign some papers and collect our on-board room key. And the final line was for Icelandic official to look at and stamp our passports.

So we finally got onto the ship, but our cabin wasn't ready for us yet. We took our carry-on luggage up to deck 12 to have some lunch at the buffet. One thing we learned very quickly is that food at the buffet was not the greatest. But it was something to do while we waited. So we ate, and then Hubby walked around the decks and snapped some pictures of the scenery as seen from the ship. I sat in the buffet with our luggage and pulled out a notebook to start writing. Eventually, the ship announced that cabins were ready. Hubby returned, and we went to drop off our luggage.

We had a balcony! Hubby had bid on an upgrade to a balcony room, and it had gone through. Hooray! We didn't just have a window, we had a balcony where we could sit and watch the water go by.

Our 2 big suitcases hadn't quite arrived yet, but we could relax in our room. And now I have to close this, because I don't remember where we had supper that night, nor what we did, except unpack when our suitcases arrived. And being sleep deprived, we went to bed early.