Falmouth, England

Welcome to Falmouth, England. Sort of.

Every passenger whether staying onboard or going ashore had to go through a face to face immigration inspection today by the UKBF. (I had to look it up...United Kingdom Border Force). We were all assigned times and even though we were to arrive at 7:00 AM today, my scheduled time wasn't until 9:45.

The officials boarded late but the process went faster than expected and I got in ahead of time. Officials took a quick look at the passport, ship personnel had us scan our Medallion, handed us a card saying we had been cleared, and we were on our way to go get a tender ticket.

But no one was going anywhere yet. The fog horn blaring all night was a signal things were going to go a bit awry today.

Can you see the one lone tender out there?

All those folks on all those shore excursions which should have left at 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 were waiting. And waiting. And waiting. It wasn't until 10:00 when the fog cleared enough to launch and load the tenders. 

Yes, there was land out there!

When the Captain announced the journey each way was going to be 45 minutes I decided to pass.

90 minutes on a tender 

+ at least another 30 minutes in loading and unloading 

+ probably 30 or more minutes waiting in line 

+ a short day anyway

= not enough time to leisurely explore Falmouth on a scooter

I’ll be back here again later this summer so I was okay with it and decided to stay onboard and take a little rest with the balcony door open. Listening to the lapping waves while breathing the cool damp sea air (as opposed to the frigid Arctic air) put me right to sleep. It was the rest my body needed. 

Let's be honest, it's the rest my body is needing every single day. They say I should be getting better any day now and I'm definitely better than I was at my sickest, but I'm still so very tired. And the darn missing taste and smell is getting frustrating. I'm taking advice from all over the ship as some of the crew who have been with me this past month are trying to help me heal as well. The buffet is keeping me stocked with big bowls of lemons. Straight fresh lemon juice is the key to getting the taste buds activated, one says. Lukewarm water with fresh lemon says another. Lots of vegetables says another. Another tells me every time I take a bite I need to train my brain to remember what it tastes like - and toilet water thoughts are not an option! I've been following it all. My cabin steward keeps me supplied with pool towels and blankets so I can sit on the damp balcony, bundle up with blankets, and get fresh air. He's also given me a warm fuzzy blanket I use to take my frequent naps on the bed. And he hand delivers the Princess Patter every night even though I haven't made it to one activity. 

Someone is out there living life today

Despite my Super Sensational Solo Summer Adventure not exactly going as planned I'm still happy to be here and can't think of a better place to heal than on a ship at sea.

We received certificates for our Arctic Circle Crossing

Tomorrow we're in Southampton where this cruise will end and another will begin. Some passengers will be leaving, others joining, and many will be staying on for the next journey like I am. There were several excursions available to London tomorrow, but since I've spent several days there before I went ahead and cancelled mine. It's a long drive and I need to save my energy for higher priority ports on the next cruise. To Norway!

Time zone changes so far: I think I missed one when I was sick so I'm giving up trying to keep track.

Seydisfjordur, Iceland

Welcome to Seydisfjordur!

I wasn't sure how welcoming I was going to be after the middle of the night coughing fit I couldn't stop. The positive side of it? Catching the sunrise. 

Time stamp 2:16 AM

It was late (guess early since the sun was already up?) before I finally got settled back in and calmed down so I turned off my alarm and decided to sleep in. Even when I did wake up, I stayed in bed not sure of what I was going to do. Take the easy way out and stay onboard and do laundry or drag myself out of bed and take the big, bad world head on? After multiple conversations talking myself in and out of both choices, I opted to put on my big girl pants and plow forward.

I'm sure glad I did. 

Challenge number one was tendering. While I've taken tenders in ports here, there, and everywhere, not all ships are the same. Couldn't have been easier here on the Island Princess. Grab a tender ticket in the Wheelhouse Bar and take the elevator down to deck 4 midship. There is where they have a second little plexiglass-enclosed lift for wheelchairs. Hold the floor button to go down and press the deck 4 button to go back up when you get back. Gotta hold it continuously or you'll stop midway. Oops.

On my way back up after a great day ashore

Getting off the tender shoreside, it's several steps to get down to the pier level. Then it's another step up and a bit of a steep walk to the top but handrails on both sides help. Shore personnel already had my scooter up at the top waiting for me.

Here's where I found what Scooter dislikes as much as rain and hills. Gravel.

I found driving on the grass worked better, but there was a big chunk where there was no grass and the only way Scooter would go was if I pulled him. Talk about a workout. Once a little ways outside the port the walkways and roads were paved. Sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy, but nothing we couldn't handle.

Taking a right outside the port area gets you to the blue ferry building. 

There is a nice little seating area, ferry check-in, car rental, and a little gift shop/information booth. The car rentals were closed up when I was in the building so it may have been mostly for the ferry passengers.

Off goes the ferry

Continuing that direction, I ran into several signs of interest. I couldn't get Scooter down there but they seemed to capture peoples attentions.

Continuing around to the right you find you can make a loop all the way around the town.

If you had gone straight out of the port area instead you would have run into a waterfall. 

Difficult to understand the scale but it was a big one

The town is very small and easily walkable. Scooter wasn't happy with some of the rougher pavement but it didn't stop him from allowing me to take all the pictures I wanted.

Of flowers.

Artwork on buildings.

The rainbow street and blue church.

Even of someone's pet.

And then there were the landscapes. Just stunning.

Even Scooter got in the action and had a lovely view on the tender ride back.

Once back onboard I tucked myself out of the wind,

Flags for you, Ed

found a spot up top, and took off my jacket and basked in the sunlight yet again.

Once it clouded up it was my signal to get the laundry done. Since my husband took over laundry duties years ago, I had forgotten how cut-throat cruise ship passengers can be when crammed in a small room waiting for the timers to go to zero. Oh, my. 

We have two sea days before we are in Falmouth/Cornwall, England. I have no plans there so far, but we'll see what I can come up with. Or not.

One more waterfall down the fjord

Time zone changes so far: 7 with another tonight

Akureyri, Iceland

Welcome to Akureyri!

This morning’s approach as seen on the Akureyri webcam

Before I talk about today, I have to talk about last night.  I was already in bed with my sleep mask on (thanks to the land of the midnight sun) when I felt the ship make some turns and list a couple of times. Not thinking too much of it, I moved more into the middle of the bed. My mask dislodged and I saw something white go by outside. And more white and more white. I can’t see a thing without my glasses but once I got them on I said three words out loud.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Remember how I mentioned yesterday we’d be going above the Arctic Circle? Well not only did we cross it but we ran into Arctic ice while we were there! 

Yes, we sailed through this

I've sailed through ice from glaciers in Alaska a couple dozen times. But this ice was something special. Bigger. More imposing. And there was a lot of it. Note: All the pictures were taken after midnight so you can see how light it was at that time.

Even after the ship quietly and gently sailed through it all, I could still see what looked to be even heavier ice off the port side for quite some time. 

Wonder if an ice breaker would be needed to head north into this?

It made for a very exciting night. Just think, if I didn't need to readjust my sleep mask I would have missed it completely. The Captain said it was unexpected and unusual for this time of year so it was a shock to us all.

Now back to Akureyri. After yesterday's wet and frigid day we arrived today to clear skies.

My plan for the day was the Hop On Hop Off bus. From what I had researched the pick up would be very close to the pier. Boy, it certainly was. Right out of the gate.

Their HOHO is white, not red

The bus couldn't get any closer to the ship if it tried

A few notes about the bus:

*It didn’t do a typical narration with headphones but had some monitors with audio and video instead.

*There were only about half a dozen of us riding. Great for me who is still trying to stay away from crowds! I went earlier in the morning so I don’t know if it got busier later.

*There was a place for Scooter with a seat for me nearby.

*It cost 5000 Icelandic Krona which is about 35 US dollars. I paid with my card but don’t know if he would take ISK cash or not.

*The full loop took 45 minutes.

I was going to ride the bus the entire loop to get my bearings and decide where I wanted to hop off on a second trip around.

There were some places I had in mind. The botanical garden at stop #7 was a possibility, but being there were several ship tour busses when we passed by I decided to avoid those crowds. The pool at #9 was an option but not one I wanted to take up today.

Sightseeing through old town, checking out museums, or taking photos of the churches were options. Some of the town is hilly and since Scooter is not a fan of hills, I didn't feel up to the extra work of dragging him around. So I stayed put and took all my photos from inside the bus.

All of their red stoplights are hearts

Hockey rink for you, Ed.

Since it was such a nice day I headed back to the ship earlier than planned and sat outside with my sweatshirt on and soaked up some rays by the pool, trying oh-so-hard to heal myself.

I waited to see how many airplanes I could get flying straight over the ship but found they used the other end of the runway for landing and take off. Guess we're not on Maho Beach in St. Maarten? (Although, later a large plane flew over and I missed it.)

The clouds moved in later in the day, forming some interesting patterns.

We'll be back here twice more this summer and since I now have my bearings I'll be able to hit the ground running next time. If I’m feeling brave I might even try out the free city bus.

Tomorrow we're in our last Icelandic port of this cruise, Seydisfjordur. It's another tender port and this time I'm really, really, really wishing for dry weather. Between here and there we again go above and below the Arctic Circle where the Captain is certainly hoping for no ice tonight. See you tomorrow!