Iceland and Greenland

After a pretty rough two days at sea to Iceland we awoke to a cloudy day that in the afternoon turned glorious. We were eager to hop ashore and explore the capital Reykjavik.

We started off at a museum which reflected early settlement. Houses initially comprised stones which were bedded on sods. This made for a very snug and draft free structure. Sods and grass made up the roof – all very environmentally friendly.

With trade came timber and metal sheets. This enabled higher buildings with roof space for bedrooms. 

It was a pretty cold 5°C which with a wind chill factor encouraged inside tours. The sheep had pens but were clearly comfortable in their thick wool. Less comfortable seemed to be the four horns. The lower ones look like they could be in growing neck horns (our ingrowing toe nail equivalent?)

The short arranged tour included a stop at Hallgrímskirkja Church. This is a most unusual but attractive design.

Our free time afternoon walk under blue skies gave a different perspective. Unfortunately the reinforcement cover on much of the façade was inadequate and substantial labour intensive remedial work was being undertaken.

Inside was a magnificent organ (which less attractively was being tuned!). It has some 5275 pipes and unusually some are horizontal, as well as two playing positions, one somewhat conventionally in amongst the pipes and the other remote and on the church floor which I am guessing must be digitally connected.

At the end of the morning tour we found ourselves outside the Harpa Concert Hall. This is a huge building (especially given the Icelandic population is only just over 330,000). The construction work came to a grinding halt due to the financial crisise but in 2008 the Icelandic government decided to fund its completion (presumably the first part was effectively free!) The façade with some windows being coloured catches the eye.

The internal space is just as effective however the main hall can only be accessed as a separate tour (or when viewing a show).

Iceland is a challenge for shipping. Towards the harbour was a series of maps of Iceland. Each reflected a period of time and shows which ships foundered during the period. This map (as an example) shows the period from 1970 – 79. 100 ships foundered; a staggering loss of people, ships and goods.

The old town was a joy to walk around – I suspect biking would also work…

Our departure was a glorious warm evening – this was one of the first ever buildings on the island.

The setting sun also encouraged reflection.

After a further (quite rough) day at sea we approached Greenland and glaciers. It is vast and easily surpasses the size of Australia.

Once we entered Prince Christian Sound we were treated to close ups of three sea glaciers.

Some of the icebergs that were spawned (well calved) are huge – this was as high as our ship.

We were also fortunate to see two of the glaciers calving.

This one, given its cave roof, gave an enormous reflected roar.

About one third through the sound (which is about 100 kms long) we came across a small village (Augpilagton) and convenient natural harbour.

It was not surprising to see what was on the menu……

After a short overnight trip up the first part of the West coast we turned inland to Narsarsuaq. We actually had to shorten the journey and anchor at Narsaq as the ice flows were too numerous to navigate further. After anchoring we took a small boat ride to take in some of the numerous icebergs. The colours, reflections and melding with the skies of the early morning gave rise to several hundred photos. Here is an uninterrupted selection.

Just awesome.

In the afternoon we went on a bit of a hike and gained some wonderful views on what became a pretty hot day. The contrasting blues of the sea and sky with white icebergs and golden colours of the plant life was stunning.

This is the smallest house in the village.

While on the top of the hill the church stood out. Surprisingly inside the décor was Greece blue and white.

Mind you the local Inuit girls are just as giggly as anywhere else when it comes to having their photo taken.

With that it was back to Silver Whisper looking gracious in the afternoon light waiting to head off to Canada.

There is little doubt that our two days in Greenland were the scenic high point of this trip and we were spoilt with perfect weather. In future we also anticipate a week in Iceland is warranted so we can see the fire and ice of the volcanoes and hot springs. We will probably travel by air though!

Cruising Southampton to Belfast

Cruising across the Atlantic has not really appealed to me as I undertook the voyage as a 5 then 8 year old on Ivernia and returning on Queen Mary. However, travelling via Iceland and Greenland had substantial appeal when it appeared as a Silverseas cruise (especially given a sizeable credit arising from issues on the Galapagos voyage).

So we set off from Southampton to Montreal on the route shown here.

Our first port Fowey (pronounced Foy) was not exactly a long haul from Southampton. We arrived to a beautiful sunrise. 

And had to reverse into the harbour with tugs fore and aft guiding us past numerous small boats. Silver Whisper is much smaller than the Queens so can enter many more ports.

It is a lively port town with many little sail boats happy to get a closer look at us.

We walked into town and by coincidence Les and Carol were holidaying in the area so we decided to meet up at the church.

A lovely little township with great weather making meandering the order of the day so as to take in the sites. As we developed an appetite a Cornish pasty for lunch became a bit of a focus. However the bakers did not have tables. Fortunately one coffee shop saw the attraction of allowing us to eat outside pasties in their shop and benefitted from us purchasing coffee and deserts. Seeing Les and Carole twice in one trip was unexpected and a good way to finish our final day in England.

After a bit of a lumpy crossing of the South Irish Sea we arrived in Cobh (pronounced Cove) in Ireland. It is the second largest natural port in the world (Sydney of course being number one).

On this voyage we were once again treated to the fun of travelling with cousin Pam and Robin. Pam decided that with a number of sea days ahead some knitting wool and needles were appropriate so we headed off in a taxi to Cork. You could really eat well here with a wonderful array of foods in the English Market although some of our team were not that impressed with the offer of Tripe or Trotters.

The city is an attractive mixture of old and new. We wondered through to the cathedral and then the reason for Ireland’s green land became quite apparent as the heavens opened so we took a taxi and headed back to the ship.

No prizes for guessing our next port.

Guinness was to be the focus of the first half of the day as we walked through to the city centre via some well tended buildings.

Our second visit to the Guinness storehouse was just as enjoyable as our first (see 2010 blog) and there were a number of new exhibits. We were all taken by the film of Coopers making barrels.

And of course the reward of a pint when at the top bar with its wonderful views.

We retraced our steps through the town and passed Molie Malone whom Robin thought was selling melons rather than cockles and mussels.

The lamp standards caught Helen’s attention and looked good against the grey sky. (This is a colour photo!)

Helen and I visited Dublin castle which is quite a small building and courtyard with what appears to be more like administration buildings.

Inside, although the number of rooms was small they were quite beautiful. The State corridor with its up lights was stunning and included three statues from the late 17^thC referred to as the Cloncurry marbles.

St Patrick’s hall would have been the place to be in 1897 when it was used for a dinner to celebrate Queen Victoria’s 60^th year of reign.

As we cruised North our final European port was Belfast. A beautiful sunny day awaited.

Helen and I decided on a walk around the docks to the Titanic exhibition. Much of the docks area has been upgraded with new offices and streetscapes around the old Clarendon dry docks.

At the end of the docks is Belfast’s Millennium bridge – a somewhat more conventional structure to it’s London equivalent but still attractive.

As we approached what looked like a Guggenheim inspired building housing the Titanic exhibition we passed the Halitone docks where Nomadic (one of two tenders built for Titanic) could be visited. The two passenger bridges were to accommodate First and Second class travellers.

Nomadic was built in 4 months and commissioned in 1911. She survived two world wars and had almost 100 years of active service. We spent over an hour wandering about her decks and looking at the various displays.

One of which was her use as a tender in Cherbourg serving amongst others Queen Mary in the ‘50s. I suspect without knowing it at the time that I would have seen her alongside when we sailed back to England in 1958. Here is a picture of a picture of Nomadic alongside Queen Mary.

Titanic and thousands of other ships were built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard. Although shipbuilding is no longer a major industry the yard is still operating and is currently focussed on the construction of wind turbines which were dockside awaiting shipping.

At the end of the day we strolled into the city centre to purchase blueberries and caught the shuttle bus back to the ship outside the City Hall. So farewell to Europe and off to Iceland.