Akureyri

Friday 26^th August 2016

Having entered the Arctic Circle last night at around 8.30pm, we passed the Northernmost tip of Iceland  before heading Southwest to enter Eyjafjorour, the longest fjord in Iceland. Our destination , Akureyri, is located at the end of this fjord and is 60 km South of the Arctic Circle.

It is overcast with slight drizzling rain as we progress into the fjord, with the mountain tops engulfed in cloud. As we approach Akureyri, we can see steam rising from a building complex on our port side and there appears to be hot water runoff into the fjord.

We later discovered that this was coming from a road tunneling project, where the tunneling had hit a source of hot water coming up through a fissure in the new tunnel, and this was being diverted into the fjord so the tunnel could continue.

The berth at Akureyri is very small and I could not envisage more than one cruise ship being here at any one time.

The population of Akureyri is only 18,000, so an influx of around 2000 people from the cruise ship has a significant impact. Nevertheless, when we went ashore at around 9 am, not much was open, other than the tourist information office, housed in an impressive building called Hof. The rain is holding off, but it is around 9 C, but doesn’t feel as cold as that.

At the tourist information centre we found a small mini bus tour that was leaving to see the countryside and the Godafoss Falls, at 10.45am, so signed up, and then went sightseeing in Akureyri.

It is a small place ! Initially we walked along the waterfront for a short stroll before entering town, and heading towards one of the major landmarks, a large modern church built on a high spot that promised a view.

The climb up the stairs to the church got the circulation going, and we quickly found out that the church was closed for a funeral and would not be open until 2.45pm this afternoon.  The view however was worth it .

Our next attraction was the botantical gardens, which were up on the hill, but another 500m past the church. We still had plenty of time before our tour left, so headed off in that direction.

An impressive School

The gardens were compact and nicely laid out, containing most of the plants that exist in Iceland. The staff were very friendly and enthusiastic.

They even had grapes growing in a glasshouse

Still with plenty of time up our sleeve, we headed back towards town, past a few old wooden buildings, including a wooden church.

and a “famous” authors house.

Back in town, the main street is a mix of new and old buildings, with a number of restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops, demonstrating how import tourism is. Fishing is their other major income producer. Unemployment is very low, less than 2% throughout Iceland, with services employing most of their people.

Like most of this part of the World, trolls have a major role in their folklore and we were lucky enough to meet a couple in the main street.

We also think there may be a few Aussies hidden away here by the name of this restaurant.

It was now approaching 10.30am, so we headed back to the pickup point for the bus to Godafoss, having now seen most of the attractions of Akureyri.

When you have a lot of spare time, this is what you can do with river stones

Once on the bus, it was only a matter of minutes before were out in the countryside and heading inland, past rural land and mountains still with some residual snow. Cows and sheep are the most popular grazing animals, interspersed with Iceland Horses, a very small but strong breed dating back to the Viking days.

Within an hour, we are at the falls, hailed to be one of Iceland’s most spectacular falls. Legend has it that  in the year 1000, the then leader of Iceland had to make a decision as to whether Iceland would continue to be a Pagan nation, or turn to Christianity. He eventually decided that the Pagan days were over and that Iceland would become a Christian nation. To symbolize the change, he hurled statues of the Pagan Gods into these falls, hence the name Godafoss, Waterfalls of the Gods.

Our bus trip took us back the way we came through more rural scenes

before stopping at a lookout back near to town to give us a vista of Akureyri.

The tour continued to take us through the old town, a collection of old wooden houses, that in most cases have been lovingly restored.

Our guide, and bus driver, was very good and quite an entrepreneur. He intends driving 400 km to Reykjavik to meet up with our cruise again there with the hope of filling the bus again there for a tour of the local attractions. The cost of our tour was 50% of the equivalent Holland Americas organized tour.

It was now time for lunch (around 1.30pm), and to find somewhere with free internet, so we can catch up. We found a nice little café in the main street, ad had a llght lunch (at considerable expense).

By now the rain had returned, and as we had covered the extensive highlights of Akureyri this morning, we were back on board the ship by 3.30pm, with sailing planned for 5pm.

There was a get together on the pool deck with a bit of commentary for the sailaway, so we ventured up and had a beer.

Few people ventured outdoors

There was enough visibility to see the scenery on the way out, and we even spotted a few whales.

At Sea on the way to Iceland

Wednesday 24^th and Thursday 25^th August 2016

We have 2 days at sea between Bergen and our first stop in Iceland, but fortunately, there are lots of activities to keep us busy.

On Wednesday there are two guest lecturer presentations, one of which on the land and People of Iceland was excellent, the other one on Life in the Northern Forests was OK, but not riveting.

The weather has been drizzling most of the day, with a bit of rock and roll on the boat in the morning as we were side on to the swell, but it seemed to settle down in the afternoon. The seas are relatively flat. The temperature is starting to drop as we head further North and for most of today the outside temperature was around 13 C.

On Thursday we woke early as there was a bright sunrise at 4.50am.  We closed the curtains to block it out but never really got back to sleep.

Today is a busier day with a lecture from the location guide at 10 am, providing information on the ports we will be visiting in Iceland and Greenland. With the exception of Reykjavik , there are all quite small towns with 3 of them requiring tenders to go ashore. We are still deciding what to do with tours in Iceland, as we see no value in the Holland America organized tours and are having trouble getting independent tour operators in Iceland to respond to emails. We may just end up organizing something at the port.

At 11am, the “brunch” for people who have chalked up enough points in the Mariners Club to get an invite. The brunch, is a 3 course lunch, which was very nice if not a bit early, and sparkling wine was provided.

After lunch, at 1.30pm, a ceremony was held on the pool deck to celebrate the crossing of the Arctic Circle (which we not actually do until 8.30pm tonight), but nevertheless it seemed to be a good excuse for a party. Volunteers were sought to take the Polar Bear plunge into the pool to celebrate the occasion, for which they would receive a certificate. I was amazed at the number of people who volunteered.

It all started with an ice carving demonstration

The Polar Bears at the pool were dressed for the occasion

After the usual incantation to the Norse gods of the sea, they all jumped into the pool, to which some ice was added just in case it wasn’t cool enough.

The Ice Cream stall seemed to be more popular than the ceremony

At 2.30pm, there was another guest lecture that was supposed to be on Volcanoes, but covered the ports we are visiting in Iceland with some overlap on what we had already seen this morning. The presenter lives in Iceland, so there was a bit more of a local perspective in the presentation.

It is another misty day, with not a lot of sunshine and the temperature is now down to 10 C. The fog horn is working pretty hard this afternoon as we sailed into a thick sea fog for several hours.

We are hoping for better weather tomorrow in Akureyri.

Internet access at sea is non existent, as we appear to be too far North for whatever system the ship is using. We are hoping for some onshore access tomorrow.

Bergen

Monday 22^nd and Tuesday 23^rd August 2016

Monday was an at sea day, which allowed a bit of time to put our feet up, however, there was a lot on the entertainment program.

At 10 am, we went to hear the sales pitch from the shore excursions team, going through each of the ports we will visit and presenting their case for us to book with them. It was an interesting overview and we will work on our own options.

Following this presentation at 11am we had the first presentation of one of the guest speakers that are on this cruise. Dr Adrian Cooper is an Englishman who specializes in Geography,  does some lecturing at universities and seems to travel the world pursuing his passion. Today he spoke on “The Natural Wonders of Norway”, with a strong emphasis of the geographical features. He presented very well and, I think, inspired most people who attended to want to see more of Norway than is possible on this cruise.

We had a break for lunch and a bit of time to stretch the legs, and it was on again, this time with a guest lecturer from Iceland giving his first presentation for the trip on “Norway / Viking Discovery of the North Atlantic “, another very interesting presentation.

No time for a rest, it was then time to hear from the expert on what to do in each port, giving options other than signing up for the ridiculously expensive ship organized excursions. Today she spoke about Bergen. It soon became clear that a walk around on our own with a good map and a visit to the tourist information bureau would give us everything we want.

Carole then went off to Bingo and came home USD70 better off.

Tuesday 23^rd

It is a bit overcast this morning, and we are told that Bergen only has about 60 sunny days a year, so expectations are not high that we may not get wet, but we are hopeful.  We seem to have entered the fjord at around 6 am and slowly make our way up towards Bergen, dodging the rocks and islands as we have become used to.

We berthed on time at 8am, and there were 2 ships following closely behind us, so it looks like it could be very busy in Bergen today.

There looks like there is a bit of sunshine breaking through, but it is still quite cloudy along the mountain tops, and we hope at some stage to catch the funicular rail up to Mt Floyen to get a great view of Bergen and surrounds.

Shuttle buses are provided to take us closer to the city, as it turned out, only about 300 metres closer, but we were not allowed to walk through the port precinct. There are already a lot of people in town, so we head off in the direction of the tourist information office to get some info, use their wifi, and develop a plan. The office is also very busy.

First up, we think we will do the funicular rail trip up the hill (about 320m), but when we arrived there, the queue was incredible. We waited for a while, but when it was obvious the line wasn’t moving, and more and more bus tours were arriving bypassing the ticket purchase process, we gave up. Maybe we will give it another go this afternoon.

Walking through the town provides lots of photo opportunities in this very attractive place.

The sun is now out and most of the cloud has disappeared on the mountain tops. After a short stroll back down towards the water, we took a walk out to a large fortress on the waterfront, Bergen Castle. It is undergoing heavy renovation, but we have a good walk around the grounds. Another bonus was they had free public toilets, quite a luxury in this part of the World.

Next we went to the old part of town, Bryggen, the main feature of which is a cluster of wooden merchant houses that dominate the waterfront, and through a maze of narrow cobbled streets, you can walk back through the “town” of intertwined timber buildings, many of which are now shops and cafes.

From here we wandered off in the direction of a few church spires we could see, and were in need of a cup of coffee, so we stopped at a little café that seved the best cup of coffee we have had since we left Australia !

The first church, quite close to the coffee shop was pretty austere, Korskirken, built in the 17^th century.

Next was the Cathedral, which was having a major renovation.

Our walk took us through another lovely old part of town, built again of wooden houses that are now shops and restaurants

We are surprised at how cosmopolitan Bergen appears to be, with more foreign food restaurants (in particular Asian) than any other place we have visited so far given its small population.

We soon emerge at a lake, Lille Lungegardsvann, right in the middle of town. It looks like a nice place to relax and quite a few locals appear to be soaking up the rare sunshine.

On the far side of the lake heading back towards the waterfront, we pass through a large square, and then onto a large pedestrian mall, Torgallmenningan, at the end of which was a monument to seafarers (which the locals call the goats cheese cube).

It was time to think about lunch and we were approaching the fish market, which has an incredible display of delectable seafood, and many stalls selling fresh seafood meals.

Payment Terms were quite flexible

After walking backwards and forwards many times, we finally decided on something modest, given the amount of food we have been eating.

There were other food options nearby but we went for the seafood.

Having enjoyed our lunch we thought we might have one last try to catch the funicular to Mt Floyen, and were in luck, it was now 2pm and the line had greatly reduced, so we joined the queue. It still took 45 minutes to got onto the funicular, but the view once at the top was well worth it.

There was a small lake at the top which is a fresh water reservoir, which we too about a 10 minute walk to before returning back to the return trip back down on the funicular.

Apparently this is where the Trolls live

It was then time to head back to the ship, after a great day in Bergen.