SLSD

The flowers were an explosion of color. And yes, I think the short season heightens their beauty.

I've fallen several days behind in reporting on our 28 day cruise aboard Sojourn. I plan to catch up and will start with today and the go back to the last few days. Today, we are in Akureyri, Iceland which is one of the larger Icelandic cities, located at the end of a fjord on the north side of the island of Iceland. We took an excursion today which began at a botanical garden called Lystigarour Akureyrar. It is a garden which began almost a century ago, designed by a Danish landscape designer and then made free to the public. The growing season here is June 1st to September 1st, but the garden is open in the winter even when covered with snow. There is a charming coffee shop and the garden is used for community events. It is beautiful! I don't think my photos come close to conveying the feeling and loveliness of this garden.

All I can say is that we all have different tastes. I am well aware that Mr SLSD and I may be total outliers when it comes to Seabourn cruisers. We do like the lunch offerings in The Restaurant. To us, the offerings are great. I had veal scallopini yesterday and it was really good. I had moussaka one day and loved it. The chef planning the lunches in The Restaurant seems to have my number. We are not all alike. For us, The Restaurant lunches DO feature the good stuff. So there you have it. No judgment at all--just the realization that we don't all like the same things. I recognize that the myriad of choices at lunch in the Colonnade really appeals to many. We just are not on that wavelength.

The weather was perfect---and sunny. I'll go through my photos in a bit and report. We enjoyed the excursion, but it was LONG! We've opted to stay in our suite tonight and have room service. We ordered a snack when we returned and Room Service told me that they were backed up with a lot of orders. When our order arrived, the waiter told us that the guests who embarked today were ordering a lot of room service. We have seldom ordered room service, but it seems like a perfect choice for tonight. Perusing the menu for dinner right now.

We are excited about our upcoming day as we will be seeing a lot of the countryside. Our excursion today is The Best of the Golden Circle. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like a second class citizen on the app. As of this morning, a few more days are revealed on The Source. Of course we have our entire itinerary printed out--but why should we have to keep referring back to our files. And our itinerary does not have all the details The Source could provide.

250 guests will be leaving Sojourn today and 185 new guests will be arriving. Originally, months ago, when we booked this cruise, the first 14 days were not divided into two segments. I assume this was done in order to better sell as many suites as possible. What I have found annoying is that The Source (Seabourn's app) is set up as if we are ALL cruising for only 7 days. In other words, through yesterday--we have not been able to look ahead on The Source past the disembarkation day for the seven day cruisers. I hope that is not a confusing statement. Add to that, many crew have assumed that we are all disembarking today. When we returned to our suite last night, there was no hang tag for room service breakfast. I had to call guest services to get one at almost midnight. We have a very early morning eight hour excursion today and we will definitely be eating breakfast in our suite. We are on the ship for a total of 28 days and don't think we should be treated as we are only sailing for 7 days with limited access to information on The Source and otherwise. It's a small point, but we have been impacted in various ways. We didn't make all of our reservations for Solis before getting on the ship and are not "allowed" to make them for all of our journey yet.

Fortunately we did get to view the landscape at Heimaey as our captain took us for some scenic crusing in the area. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but the chaos in the Colonnade at lunch on a bad weather day is really bad. I would never subject myself to dining that way off of a ship--so don't plan to do it on a ship either. The choices at lunch in The Restaurant at lunch when it is open have always been satifactory. I don't need a lot of choices, IF the choices are good ones and I have particularly liked the choices at lunch there. The menu offerings to order in the Colonnade at lunch are much much slimmer. While some moan about the ship being out of this or that or the complimentary wines not being good enough---I moan about a chaotic lunch in the Colonnade. I guess we all have our issues.

The lunches in The Restaurant are among my very favorite meals. Today I had veal scallopini--and it was excellent!!

We boarded in Dover at the suggested 12:30 time and there was not a huge crowd. It was all well organized and orderly. If you want to board later, that is fine too. Just pay attention to the latest time you can board which is more than an hour before the ship leaves port. Check for the exact time. IF you board early, you are welcome to have lunch aboard your ship--either in the Colonnade and its veranda or around the pool. Many people do this and many do not. It's personal preference. When we boarded on the 27th, our suite was ready for us and our luggage was quickly delivered. We went to our suite first to get rid of hand luggage and then for lunch, It is an easy process.

Here are just a few photos from our morning of scenic cruising which is the substitute for a port day at Heimaey.

On all of our sailings on Seabourn we have found the square to not be very social as it is so quiet. I would never want to disturb anyone. I generally avoid it--except for guest services and such. Sitting in the Obs Bar right now--as we have an unexpected sea day due to rough conditions in Heimaey. Actually, as our excursion was to be a circumnavigation of the island, I am pleased with the scenic cruising the captain has arranged. Some are not pleased of course. The BIG news is that the dining room WILL be open for lunch. We'll be there! Mr. SLSD loves sea days as he can work on his writing projects. We are loving the topography of this part of Iceland. I've taken quite a few photos and will post the best ones here once I go through them. This has been the most exciting day of the cruise so far --for me--as I love the sharpness of the jutting landscape, the grottos, the volanoes in the distance, the small towns perched between the cliffs. We just moved to a better spot in the OBs Bar and Mr. SLSD said, "This is extremely pleasant". I have to agree.

I have a question for all of you Seabourn experts. Is Seabourn Square supposed to be as quiet as a library. We don't go there very often just to sit. Yesterday we did go there as our suite was being serviced. We ran into a friend and were talking quietly about our excursion from that morning. We were almost whispering--and still a man sitting not to far away kept glancing our way in a manner that let us know he was not pleased. If I need total quiet, I can read in our suite--whiich I often do. I thought Seabourn Square was. a place you might meet and chat with fellow cruisers. Please correct me if I am mistaken about that. What is the proper etiquette for the square? We are NEVER noisy or boisterous. That is not our nature. But it would be nice to be able to chat quietly with people in the square. Is that not allowed?

Just a few nuts and bolts comments about our cruise on Sojourn. The service has been impeccable. The food has been quite good. Both Mr. SLSD and I think that the food is better than last summer aboard Ovation. I'm still disappointed that the dining room is not open most every day for at least lunch and sometimes breakfast. Yesterday was a bad weather day--rainy and cold. It would have been a good day to open the dining room for lunch. Basically, there was one place to have lunch--the Colonnade. Since we don't do buffets--ever--we dined out on the veranda of the Colonnade from the printed menu as we often do. This time, we were bundled in all of our layers of clothing and I had a blanket offered by the wait staff as well. There were three or four other couples on the veranda as well.The weather was very bad. Our friends told us that there was literally no place to sit in the overcrowded Colonnade. People had to share tables. We saw this as we walked through after finishing our lunch. To me, this is NOT luxury cruising--and never will be. Our only other option would have been to order room service. We may well do that on some days, but I don't think we should be reduced to that either. On about day three of our cruise, I was at guest services at 7am to request some help for Mr. SLSD. While he usually does not suffer from back issues, his back was doing poorly and I finally figured out that the mattress on our bed might be partially the culprit. I had noted that it was not nearly as comfortable as in prior cruises. The staff had a fix, They came in with a huge piece of plywood cut to fit the mattress and placed it underneath. It has made a HUGE difference and we are both sleeping better now. From now on, we will make this request from the beginning. We haven't gone to every entertainment after dinner, but probably about half. Last night was Phillipa Healey again. Her voice is lovely and we enjoyed a second show by her. Today, we'll be be at Heimaey in the Westman Islands of Iceland. The weather is predicted to be inclimate so we will see if our excursion which is a circumnavigation of the island is a go. It's not until this afternoon, so we will have a very leisurely day up until them. Our guide told us yesterday that starting today, there is going to be a huge festival on Heimaey withc about 1/3 o Icleand's population in attendance. No word about that from the staff on Sojourn. Perhaps they do not know abou ti?

It appears the download is not working which is disappointing. I did manage to download it onto my computer. Take my word for it--the song is beautiful and haunting.

Today, we arrived in Djupivogur, Iceland, a small town of 500 residents. We took a walking tour of the town lead by a young university student who grew up in the town. It is a stark place and on the surface, not very appealing. But, listening to our guide, we began to understand that Djupivogur is her beloved home and a place she wants to raise a family someday. I tried to see the town through her eyes--it's a close knit community of fishermen, teachers, grocers, and small business people. Our guide took us to an unusual rock and mineral museum which got its start as the hobby of a local man. All the rocks and minerals are from the local area. He is very proud of them. We saw the two oldest buildings in the town--one of them is a brewery now. We learned that every house in town has its own name--and that residents are often called by the name of their house instead of by their own names. We saw driftwood sculptures and listened to a haunting Icelandic folk song. We stopped off at the brewery before returning to Sojourn aboard the tender. We took this trip to escape the heat in our own city. Today, we got a bit more than we bargained for. It was cold AND rainy. We were glad we survived the tour! Here are some photos to give you an idea of what it was like.

Here's a short video I took in Djupivogur, Iceland this morning. This is a local music teacher singing an Icelandic folk song about surviving a cold winter. She was singing in the dark inside a old fish oil drum--and we were sitting in chairs in the dark listening.

We have loved sailing with you and Mr. nancygp. We'll miss you when you disembark.

Yesterday, Mr. SLSD and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary on Sojourn. We ordered caviar in the afternoon and were surprised with a special dessert at dinner. By the way, I have on an almost floor length dress in this photo which is not quite as casual as it looks here.

Nancygp and I have talked about you and I know she read your great travel writing. I'll give Esther your regards. I'll have to remember about the "Seabourn Splash."

Lunch in the The Restaurant on sea days has always been a favorite of mine. The ambience is great and as we are not going anywhere, the leisurely service is almost pleasurable. Today, we dined with nancygp and Mr.nancygp which is always fun. We all ordered something different--ranging from minute steak to macaroni and cheese with ham to a smoked fish chowder to (my order) a cottage pie. No one ordered dessert, but we were happy.

We are headed to Iceland, but today is a sea day. We love sea days as they give a bit of respite to catch up on whatever needs catching up upon. i did hear a couple saying that they think sea day are a bit dull. I don't see it that way. I particularly enjoy lectures and today I was able to hear two lectures--one about volcanoes on Iceland and the other about Viking (Norse) movement to Iceland and beyond. The lecturers were both experts in their fields--one an expert on volcanoes and the other an archaeologist. This is such great background information ahead of our land excursions. The takeaway is that there are MANY more volcanoes in Iceland than we thought. The presence of these volcanoes and their probably eruption will be a challenge for Iceland going forward. The vulcanoloigst told us that he would not go to the Blue Lagoon at this time.

In the interest of being a full service reporter, in spite of the fact that we never dine from the buffet, here is a smattering of the extensive offerings from this morning. I walked through to get some photos. Today is a sea day and I had some time.

Are you ready for some food photos? We dined last night in The Restaurant. At our table, we had some very nice appetizers. There was a lump crab tartar appetizer as well as a carmelized sea scallop appetizer with saffron risotto. Both Mr. SLSD and I ordered the quail. It was served with caramelized fennel, salsify ragout, and pomegranate. We enjoyed everything and appreciate the fact that the servings are relatively small. Simba was our waiter. He is a joy.

Simba was our waiter again last night--doing his usual great job with great cheer. Here's some good news. Simba's fiancee is joining Sojourn as part of the crew mid August. That is what this smile is all about.

This is the printed menu from which you can order at lunchtime in the Colonnade. The wait staff will also bring you whatever you might like from the buffet if you do not want to go through the buffet yourself. We order from the menu and then dine in The Restaurant at lunchtime on sea days.