We have said good-bye to Uncle Gary and Aunt Gail and have taken a train from Amsterdam, into France, through the
Chunnel to London were we caught a connecting train to the port of Southampton, England.
We are now on the Grand Princess cruise ship and after settling our selves comfortably, our first priority is laundry. Our clothes, following a couple weeks of daily long bicycle rides and (when needed) a quick overnight hand wash/line dry routine, are begging to be laundered! Lucky for our fellow cruise passengers and us, this ship has a laundry room on each floor, and we decided to use it before the captain came to make a personal recommendation! So our first day at sea was partialy spent in the laundry room, along with watching a movie (The Queen), doing needle point and working on a puzzle (from the ships library).
Our first port of call was
Bergen, Norway....it was a lovely sunny day, crisp and cool.
This was the home of composer Edvard Grieg, this brought back memories of piano pieces I'd played in the past.
An ear muffed local enjoys lunch
We stopped by and enjoyed this peaceful church...
and admired the foot warmers under each bench... says something about the climate.
Checking out the shops....in another shop we came across Norwegian sweaters, something each of us just had to have...
before enjoying the a park bench in the park.
Then back to the cruise ship...and all the food we can eat followed by a movie under the stars while snuggled under warm blankets.
The local church...
The climate in this area is one of the warmest on Iceland as the area is well protected by the Fjord and surrounding hills or mountains....they are very proud of their botanical gardens...
It is here that we see our first signs of fall...
Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland, with a population of 17,000.
From the ship...
later in the trip I somehow left the pattern on an airplane and emails to the company have produced nothing at this point.
Torshavnar is our port of call or havn...
In town...
a beautiful park we wondered through...these islands reminded us of the Falkland Islands off the coast of Argentina.
The ship sits in the mist.
Brightly colored sod roofed houses gave this town a unique feel.
A look around the sea port
and ships.
and then back to the warm dry comforts of the ship...and later watched a beautiful sunset.
Once on land we admire the river and waterfalls that run through town...
and come across an old church and graveyard.
Now we are off to find a hiking trail as the great outdoors is the highlight of this area...
At the bottom of one trail there was a nice selection of walking sticks that were very handy as the trails were very muddy...
Here is the best we could do in capturing the grandiose beauty in small digital format...we recommend seeing it for yourself if possible.
Time for a break...
Storseter Falls
And then we head back down to the ship...well aware that the muddy path presented a slippery descent...by the time we reached the ship we were both quite muddy...the laundry facilities are becoming our hangout spot!
While eating dinner we watch the waterfalls and mountains pass as we make our way down the fjord and back to sea.
An ear muffed local enjoys lunch
We stopped by and enjoyed this peaceful church...
and admired the foot warmers under each bench... says something about the climate.
Checking out the shops....in another shop we came across Norwegian sweaters, something each of us just had to have...
Then back to the cruise ship...and all the food we can eat followed by a movie under the stars while snuggled under warm blankets.
