Day 8 Thursday, May 18th 2023 Grimsey Island and Husavik

 Today began with a disappointment but ended up not too badly!  We were due to land on the small island of Grimsey which is crossed by the Arctic Circle but when we woke there was quite a swell and a lot of mist making it unsuitable for tendering.  Such is life on a cruise boat and similar situations occur quite frequently in Scilly.  We circumnavigated the island and hence crossed into the Arctic Circle and it was good the captain had a Plan B.  He proceeded to take us to the small fishing port of Husavik on a fjiord on the mainland.  This proved a masterstroke as we were able to dock and walk straight onto the quay.

We were able to have lunch on board and then went to explore Husavik.  We walked along the harbour front where there was a lot of boating activity.  Whale watching activities seemed as popular as traditional fishing boats.  It was good to 

part of the harbour

Husavik harbour

the harbour

see so much commercial action.  Further along we found the pretty church set back from the front.  We went up 

Husavik church

io it hoping to view the interior but again it was locked.  We walked around the rest of the town and found a whale museum which we decided to visit. There was lots of information including the huge skeletons of several types of whale.  In a lecture hall a film was showing narrating the intellectual capabilities of whales.  It was narrated by David Attenborough and proved a very interesting watch for about 40 minutes.  It was now time to make our way back to the Fridtjof Nansen after a successful alternative to the original plan.  We now spent the rest of the afternoon reading and blogging.

We had dinner and later enjoyed another highlight.  One of the boat's crew had previously been a lead flutist in a Los Angeles orchestra and she gave a brilliant performance which was much appreciated.  So ended another good day.
 

Day 7, Wednesday, May 17th Norway Day and Akureyri

Norway Day

 Today is Norway's National Day and being a Norwegian boat we were decked with Norway flags and enjoyed champagne being served at breakfast!

interesting building

We arrived at the quay in 

the modern church

Akureyri fairly early and after breakfast went for a walk in this 20000 population town which is called the capital of North Iceland. The walk from the dock was not very inspiring but  we eventually found the shopping centre and some better looking buildings.  We saw the modern church but assumed 

cultural centre

that as we had booked a city tour in the afternoon we would get more details of it then.  We also found the modern cultural centre which we again assumed we would visit later.  We made our way back to the boat and had lunch.  We were excited to see a minke whale appear near our boat in the fjiord while we were eating.

We joined our organised walk at 1400 and our guide started with about 20 walkers but soon the number dropped as people struggled 

1st female voter & Chris

with the pace set and style of

arctic terns

presentation.  We were told a lot of the history of individual buildings and not much about the modern relevance of the town.  We visited the cultural centre and there was a carving  of the first lady of Iceland to have the vote.  We carried on along the fjiord hearing about history and buildings and eventually we were down to 7 walkers who were largely bored. We made our way back to the town centre and were told the church may not be open. Christine and I decided to leave the walk here and try to visit the church.  We climbed the steps but the door was locked!  We then went direct back to the boat for a rest and cup of tea.  

Farm along fjiord

We blogged and read and then it was time for dinner.  After dinner we went to the splendid observation lounge to watch the coast as

Fishing boat in fjiord

 the boat made its way out to sea.  At low level there were farms but the major industry after tourism is fishing.  We enjoyed quite a good sunset to conclude a good Norway Day.   

The good sunset

Day 6 Tuesday, May 16th 2023 Exploration Day and Hofsos

 Firstly an apology, the bird I photographed yesterday was a golden plover and not a grey plover!

Today we arrived at the sparsely populated northwest fjiord region and it was planned we would do some small boat exploring including a remote beach clean.

dramatic scenery

 

cruising the fjiords

The wind was quite fresh when we arrived on site and it was decided to look for somewhere more sheltered.  This took some time and the outcome was the beach clean part of the day was abandoned.  We were able to go  out in small inflatable boats to look for the local birdlife.  We did see at distance some puffins, guillemots, razorbills, gulls and kittiwakes on the cliffs (the only birds I was quick enough to photograph).  We commented that we would have had better opportunities on boat trips in Scilly. 

kittiwakes on cliff

our small boats

small & large boat

Hofsos village

We then left that area and headed for the small port of Hofsos which played a large part in earlier emigrations from Iceland.  We were tendered ashore where 

there were old buildings with lovely photographs and descriptions of the arduous stories that families went through in previous times.  A thoroughly good experience where we could have spent a lot  more time.  We returned to the warmth of the boat for the rest of the evening.     

 

  

Day 5 Monday, May 15th 2023 Stykkisholmur to Patreksfjiordur

Patreksfjiordur in snow

 We left Stykkisholmur in daylight and proceeded on the quite long voyage round the East of the island.

snow on the balcony

There was a bit of swell but not too bad.  We had a coffee and settled down for a good night's sleep. When we woke up there was snow on our balcony but the surrounding scenery was very Christmassy with Patreksfjiordur a village along the shoreline. We breakfasted. spentthe morning on ship and tendered about 1330 into the fishing harbour and were kindly provided with a local map by a village rep.

the church

We wandered through the village (about 700 inhabitants) and found a hospital, fire station, police station, a pretty church and two schools. Very well provided for in such a small place! The church was closed but we had a look round the churchyard.

grey plover

We spied a grey plover which posed for us as we were walking along.  Some of the buildings looked as if they were in need of renovation and  one or two which were being attended to were using dubious scaffolding.

ripe for conversion?

good scaffolding?

We followed along the coast road and found the monument  to British fishermen lost in the local waters.  We carried on to the harbour and returned to the Fridtjof Nansen.  On returning we had a nice hot cup of tea, relaxed, wrote the blog and then prepared for a good dinner.  It had been an interesting day but the coldest temperature wise but not the strongest wind speed; we remained warm in all our gear.     

British memorial

harbour with fishing boats

Day 4 Sunday, May 14th 2023 Reykjavik to Stykkisholmur

Aboard the tender

 We slept well overnight in our terrific cabin and were ready for the  plans in place today.  We arrived at Stykkisholmur (Google it!) by about 1130.  Before this time we had breakfasted, had another safety instruction session and were given tips about what to do ashore here.  We explored the ship a bit more (I went cycling in the gym) and we had a coffee. It had stopped raining but the skies were ominous.  We read, relaxed and had a light lunch before leaving the ship at about 1400.  The 

The shoreline

temperature outside was about 5 and so we put on some layers topped with the waterproof jackets given to us as we joined the cruise.  The ship was anchored and we joined tenders to take us the short journey to the village quay.  On getting ashore we started exploring the various interesting features we had heard about.  It was snowing a bit  and we made straight to a hill on the outskirts of the town to the modern church which came highly recommended.  We used a steep, direct path which took us there and we went inside.

the church front

It was built in the 1990s and the immediate impact was made by the mural of mother and child at the front.  We spent some time admiring the well designed interior and the organ which originated in Hamburg.  

We then went back into the town and visited the "Norway House" which was imported from Norway and was the first two storey house in the settlement.  It is now used as a museum and had some interesting artifacts and photos.

It was time now to climb the slope up to the lighthouse on the island.  It was 

the lighthouse 

quite steep steps but up we 

our boat with tender

went and were able to wander up to the light which was originally lit by oil (I'm glad I  didn't have to get the oil up there) but now electricity has been laid.  We wandered on the tracks round the island, took photos looking back across the town and made our way down again.  

view from lighthouse island

We had a further walk through Stykkisholmur and went up another hill to get a panoramic view from where I took a video.

Although we were well clothed it was beginning to cool down and so we decided to return to the ship. We caught the tender and were soon having a warm drink. The rest of the day was spent having a good dinner, attending a lecture on the next day's activities and retiring fairly early - Christine having broken her record on her step counter.

Day 3 Saturday, May 13th Heathrow to Reykjavik

 A day when we hope our plans turn into a better reality than the previous two days.  We were up in good time, breakfasted at the Premier Inn and caught the Hoppa bus back to the airport.  We had previously checked in online and so it was straightforward depositing our luggage and then going through passport control.  

Heathrow airport

Unusually for us we sailed through the personal item inspections. We then had time to spare before our gate was due to be called and the airport was obviously quite busy.  We had a coffee, did some necessary shopping and soon it was our turn to progress to the gate. All went well and we were soon ensconced on the Icelandair flight.  It was overcast when we took off but we were soon through the clouds and had a smooth flight including being able to see the Lake District from on high.  When we landed in Reykjavik it was raining and so we hurried to get from the plane to the terminal and so through customs to be met by someone from Hurtigruten to take us by bus to the cruise ship.  It was 45 minutes from the airport to the dock but we went through ship check-in quickly, and by the time we got to our cabin the luggage was already there. 

We settled in, had a meal, a safety talk and it was time for the boat to leave. It was still raining fairly hard but we managed to get some photos on our phones and hopefully I will post some when the wifi is better - it does seem  to vary on the boat. We are very impressed with the Fridtjof Nansen and its accommodation at this stage but more about that as the holiday progresses.    

Day 2 Friday, May 12th 2023, Plymouth to Heathrow

First, the pictures of beautiful Lower Town which I promised yesterday.   

Rowley Rock - just about

Round Island and blue sky/sea

And so on Thursday, I posted as we were on our way to Plymouth by train.  We arrived OK in Plymouth  and after waiting for a taxi we made our way to the Premier Inn and retired almost immediately.  Yesterday, Friday we had made our plans to travel from Plymouth to Heathrow by train (the bookings were made on Wednesday evening).  We taxied to Plymouth station and found our booked train had been cancelled at midnight. We were in a quandary as there were no other London direction trains available for the day.  We thought about coach travel but did not fancy it, we spoke to other travellers and GWR personnel and found that if we could get to Exeter there was a train going to London Waterloo via Basingstoke (we do see the world!).  Four of us decided to hire a taxi (£100) to get to Exeter and off we set.  One of the other two was an American who was also going to Heathrow.   I will complete this once we are in Iceland but you can see that on the 13th we managed to get to Heathrow. 

Exeter St Davids station

 From Exeter we took our train to  Waterloo via Basingstoke which went reasonably well apart from the train breaking down and we all had to transfer to an already busy one.  Once we arrived at Waterloo us and our new found American friend decided to get to Heathrow via the underground and the Elizabeth line. It took longer than we had planned on the Heathrow Express but at least it was running. Once we got to Heathrow we said goodbye to our genial American friend and got the Hoppa bus to our Premier Inn.  We were both  shattered by this time (the last three days were catching upon us) and so we ate our prebooked meal and retired early.  I am posting this from on-board in Iceland and so the next day's travelling was more successful.  I hope to catch up with two days blogging tomorrow.