Grundarfjördur, Iceland

Hello from Grundarfjördur!

View from the ship

Another view from the ship

Last night as we crossed the Arctic circle we sailed through the same waters where we unexpectedly had to navigate through an Arctic Ice flow last month. You can see those photos here. I figured in July we wouldn't have the same issue but it didn't stop me from looking outside each time I got up to use the bathroom. Nope, no ice. But I did see minke whales swimming along like I did when we were headed to Honningsvag, Norway. As they are super quick I didn't get any pictures. I also didn't get any pictures of the pod of orcas I saw jumping and splashing off my balcony as I waited for my 6:15 alarm to go off. They reminded me of the day we saw humpback whales breaching as we left Glacier Bay, Alaska 10 years ago. You can see those photos here.

A planter box in Grundarfjördur today shows a bit of what I saw this morning

We had face to face immigration with Icelandic officials and, well, it was interesting. They were stamping all passports so it was taking much longer than the quick UK look at the passport/look at you/look at the passport and send you on your way routine we've had the last couple times. Usually the line has shortened by the time I'm finished with my breakfast but not this time. Not by a long shot. They started at 7 AM and by 9:30 it still stretched almost the entire length of the ship.

It took me a full hour to finally get to an official. I renewed my passport before I left for this trip so I don't have any stamps yet but she flipped through my pages again and again. She was looking for a stamp showing I had entered a Schengen country so she could stamp me as exiting a Schengen country. Since I had not flown internationally I didn't have one of those stamps. When she finally asked me where I had embarked and how I got here (Los Angeles, May 11, by this cruise ship only) she handed me the passport and sent me on my way. With no stamp. Huh. So no one has record I was even in a Schengen country, I guess?

With my passport tucked back into the safe, I headed to get my tender ticket and get myself to shore. And today, like I do a lot, I just wandered. I followed crowds; I didn't follow crowds. It's a small town so I covered a lot of ground in a short time. I strolled the waterfront and snapped a clear picture of green-as-can-be Mt. Kirkjufell.

I rolled through the town, checking out homes and cars and flowers and yards with tall mountains in the background.

I contemplated making my way to the church on the hill. I decided to go for it, dragging scooter up it with me.

I decided to stop in the grocery store which was packed with cruise ship passengers. Yesterday I saw paprika potato chips and wished I had bought a bag to see if I could taste them. Paprika is a strong flavor, right? Nope, not for me.

Couldn't even smell them

I encountered all kinds of driving surfaces during my adventure, some better than others.

When I made my way back to the tender dock I saw lots of people pointing to the water and taking pictures. It didn't take me too long to see what had them so excited. 

Puffins! 

I tried to get as close as I could but all my photos taken with my phone looked like this:

Where's a decent zoom when I need it?

But I had an ace in the hole. The benefit of being on the ship so long is you make friends with people who work here. For the last two months the wheelchair assist guys have helped me and Scooter make our way up and down the gangways in every single port and every single tender port. As I was up above taking photos of puffins one of my buddies was down at the tenders (at water level!) taking photos and was kind enough to share with me. And I'm sharing with you.

Bye, gotta go!

As these were my first real live sightings of puffins in my life I made sure to stop at the little kiosk at the dock and pick up something to commemorate our visit. I was able to separate the pen from the puffin so I now have a pen and Scooter has a puffin.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun soaking up the rays.

Afternoon view from my balcony

Tomorrow we're in Reykjavik for the second visit of the summer. See you then!

Akureyri, Iceland

Hello from Akureyri, Iceland!

View from the ship

Before I get started on today, I need to go back to very early this morning. Actually, I need to go back to 2014 when I took this sunset picture as we were flying over Greenland. It's an image I have kept in my mind ever since as being the most unique and spectacular sunset I've seen in my lifetime.

Sunset over Greenland, November 2014

Now fast forward to this morning at a little after 2 AM when I got up to use the bathroom and saw this out my balcony door. We've got ourselves a picture (three pictures with no edits or adjustments!) of the most unique and spectacular sunrise I've seen in my lifetime. Based on the ship's position at the time I think it occurred over Greenland but if not it was most definitely over the Greenland Sea. The pictures don't do the color of the deep reds any justice. What I saw is something I will not forget. 

The beauty of the vibrant colors can't be described

So back to today. While half the world is experiencing extreme heat it was a cool and crisp morning here with the day starting out in the 40s.

Cool enough for steam to be coming off the warm waterfalls

When I was in Akureyri last month I took the Hop On Hop Off bus. (You can read about that visit here.) But today - even as late as breakfast time - I still hadn't put a plan together for this visit. 

You can bet any plan would not include a line like this one

Being the bar of cucumber melon bath soap I brought from home (that I haven't been able to smell once yet) was down to a sliver I knew I was going to have to buy some new soap somewhere. I did a little quick Google search and found a grocery store away from the tourist areas but close enough I could scooter on over to it. If I can hang in a mall in Poland I can go shopping in a grocery store in Iceland, right?

It couldn't have been any easier to get to the Hagkaup store. Leave the ship and go straight on Gránufélagsgata. I could turn on Laufásgata but it would take me more into the industrial area but as a single solo woman I wanted to stay on the main strip. I felt safe the entire time, but you can never be too careful. 

Instead, scooter down to Hjalteyrargata and take a right.

Truth be told, I just made sure I stayed on the
"G" street name until I got to the "H" street name

Follow Hjalteyrargata until you see the gas station on the left and the store is right behind it.

There it is!

And the ship is behind me, hiding in the trees. 

I feel much safer when I'm in an unknown area if I can still see the ship

Everyone in the store was a local and other than me not a tourist in sight. I took a few pictures inside the store but didn't want to attract attention so I keep the picture taking to a minimum.

I contemplated picking something up but everything was in Icelandic

Other than the soap, I had my eye out for something else. When Ed and I were here years ago we found a couple food items we really liked. I kept pictures of them in case we'd ever get back to Iceland again someday and lo and behold they had them in the store. Skyr is a thick Iceland yogurt high in protein (yum, yum) and Hrískökur are rice cakes with a chocolate layer (double yum). So of course I loaded up.

Snacks to last for at least a couple weeks

I also spied something I've been wanting to try. I've seen these throughout Norway and Iceland and since I've been skipping carbs (other than my birthday day) I've been skipping buying one. But I bought one today and ate the whole thing when I got back to the ship.

Bakariliō focaccia meō pepperoni = pepperoni foccaccia

I was proud of myself for being brave and acting like a local and getting myself to the store on my own. But when I got back to the ship and looked to see if I could tell where I had been I kind of got an ego check. I guess I didn't wander as far and wasn't as adventurous as I had thought.

Pink circle marks the spot

But I figure when I'm at home I don't do tourist things every day so when I'm on the road (or the sea) it shouldn't be any different, right? So I'm okay with today, and since we're here one more time next month I'm really okay I stayed local. 

Tomorrow we're in Grundarfjördur, Iceland. It's a new port for me, it's a tender port, and it's another port where we have to do a face to face immigration. This time it's with the Icelandic officials so we'll see how that works. See you then!

Not Seydisfjordur, Iceland

Hello from not Seydisfjordur, Iceland. 

Near the entrance to the fjord

We've had pretty rough seas these last few days and I'm sure more than a few passengers onboard (and some crew who were seasick) would have loved to be able to step foot on solid ground today. As I was hanging in bed this morning looking out at land I thought we might make it. As I saw mountain after mountain I soon realized I was starting to see the mountains repeat themselves.

It didn't take me long to realize we were going in circles and the marinetraffic.com tracking proved it.

Thanks to the strong winds outside and inside the fjord our port day became a sea day. I think we all would have been fine just circling all day instead of heading away from land and encountering rough seas all over again.

All day long

The waves even tore my bathroom door off its whatchamacallit. 

Since I was in Seydisfjordur last month and did everything I could think of doing I didn't cry over spilt milk or missed ports and took today to give myself a birthday present. Basic manicure and pedicure (no polish, please), men's style haircut (love my spiky hair), and a quick massage. 

And that pretty much was the day. So surprise, no other stories to tell! 

Just kidding.

Let's go back to yesterday...

I made sure to get myself a special breakfast combo. 

Notice how I was still able to keep the glasses even?

First time I've had pancakes in years. Oh. My. Goodness.

I saved this for my dinner dessert

Lunch was the Most Traveled Guest Luncheon. The cutoff was a little lower this cruise with 400 and some days required to make the lunch. The menu was a nice one as usual.

I tried hard to get something to eat with some kind of flavor, but nope

Crunchy shrimp and tender fish were the perfect texture combination

Desserts are always so pretty

Unfortunately for me, the gal who would rather fly under the radar, the entire room sang Happy Birthday to me. I think my face turned as red as the raspberry in the dessert. I was presented with the typical Princess birthday/anniversary/retirement chocolate cake and thankfully they divided it up for the table to share.

Okay, now I have no stories left to tell!

Tomorrow we're in Akureyi, Iceland where I have no plans but better figure something out soon.