Review of Silver Cloud, Tower Bridge to Reykjavik, August 4-13

[duct tape]

Thanx. That is one of the best sail-aways ever!

[jpalbny]

WesW - thanks! Would love to visit the Dolomites and go hiking in that area. Sounds like a great time. Are you posting pictures anywhere? Would love to see what it looks like...

 

TLCOhio - I'll vote for lucky over smart for this one, I think. London is full of wonderful outdoor parks and gardens that we missed on our other visits because we were too busy running around seeing all the other big sights. Great place!

 

PathfinderEss - thanks!

 

Nigella - very glad to hear that it's put to good use. Now that you mention it, the name O2 rings a bell. Thanks for the tip about the Four Seasons Canary Wharf - sounds like a place we need to investigate too!

 

ducttape - agree, now that we have done it during normal waking hours! The last sailaway at 4AM was just not fair.

[brimary]

Thanx. That is one of the best sail-aways ever!

 

Agreed and we were present again!!!Best wishes B & M.

[jpalbny]

Agreed and we were present again!!!Best wishes B & M.

 

brimary, sorry we didn't get to meet you this trip. We were looking for you at the meet & mingle...

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Forums mobile app

[brimary]

JP & Chris.....Re meet & mingle.Sorry we missed it .Received invite turned up at the venue,the bar, another group meeting in progress member of crew we asked about M&M meeting did not know anything about it .Hope we meet up on a future cruise.

[jpalbny]

So, one last memento of our time our time in London... Yup, it does say all aboard at 4:30 - oops!

 

 

And, a little preview of where we're going - From Tower Bridge, we have an overnight in Leith (for Edinburgh), then Kirkwall in the Orkneys, Torshavn in the Faroes, and then across to Iceland for Eskifjordur, Akureyri, and Grimsey before disembarking in Reykjavik.

 

This is our third time on the North Atlantic route and we really love it! Kirkwall, Eskifjordur, and Grimsey will be new ports for us. We've visited the others on prior voyages but there is still plenty to do.

 

 

Tuesday 8/5 - a relaxing sea day

 

 

We began our usual pattern of eating a light breakfast in the Panorama Lounge, where they have a small selection of pastries, fruit plates, and cheerful bar staff who make great cappuccinos. That's enough for us, considering the big lunch buffets and the nice dinners awaiting us!

 

A relaxing morning - Our Meet and Mingle was originally scheduled for 10:00 in the Main Bar, which was a very silly time to hold it, we thought. Apparently others did too, because we got a call that it would be rescheduled for 3:00 - much better!

 

We had the first in our series of destination lectures from Dr. Peter Crimes; this morning's lecture covered Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Scone Palace. Things got a little more animated during the Champagne tasting at 11:15... Our Head Sommelier Biljana was quite entertaining, and we got into 3 different glasses of bubbly before lunch which is always a good time.

 

After champagne and lunch, we were a little worn out but managed to drag ourselves to the next lecture on the Orkneys and the Faroes. We were keen to hear about the Orkneys as we wanted to see if there were any last-minute tips to be had for our day of independent touring. We've been to the Faroes twice already so no big plans there.

 

The Meet and Mingle was fun if not sparsely attended; I think that not everyone got the last-minute time and venue change. We actually went to the Bar and waited a few minutes (alone) before we figured out that the venue must have been changed. After a quick check at reception we were directed to the Panorama Lounge, and had a nice visit with AJFMDPC (Allen and Diane), indigosea (Graham and Louise), and another couple who (Hathaway and Marcia) who were in charge of a small tour group, so we decided that they should be honorary guests. The hors d'oeuvres that they served were quite nice. We missed brimary and another couple; guess the time and venue change was poorly communicated.

 

Tonight was Formal Night – the only one this trip, which was a bit of a change. The Captain had his usual welcome party, and there was a little dancing. We had a table for 4 with Allen and Diane. Tonight at dinner the quartet played and they cleared some space for dancing, which we all took advantage of – fun! Dinner didn't go quite as long but we did have to finish up dessert quickly to make it to the show.

 

The show was quite nice – there are 6 vocalists who were all good performers, and tonight was their Fabbalicious show. They spent probably an hour going through a good compilation of ABBA's greatest hits, and did them very well. Since we were late, we had to sit in the front row, and one of the singers sat on the arm of my chair and sang to me. Fun!

 

After the show, off to bed as we have big plans tomorrow – renting a car and driving to Scone, Glamis, and Blair castles if we can make it... The ship's tour only goes to Scone, so we want to see if we can get more done on our own.

[jpalbny]

Wednesday 8/6 – Edinburgh

 

 

The day started nicely with a slightly early arrival – we were in the harbor early, and docked pierside by 9:45. We hightailed it off the ship and hit the ground running; we had a mile to go to get to Enterprise for our rental car. Made it in good time, and started off – not too bad driving through Leith, some traffic, but soon we were on the Firth Bridge and the view was beautiful! Some intermittent rain as we made our way north, and arrived at Scone Palace well before noon.

 

The palace looked nice despite the drizzle coming down:

 

 

Scone was enjoyable; you wander through on your own which takes about 45 minutes, and then you can spend more time walking the grounds. Here is the Chapel adjacent to the Palace:

 

 

and the Stone of Scone (a replica) where the Scottish kings sat to be crowned - we wondered if this will be used again in the near future. Will the union of the crowns be undone?

 

 

It was pretty gray out and misting; everything was beautifully green but walking around was a sure way to get your feet wet! This archway originally led to the village of Scone, but one of the Palace inhabitants decided that the village was too close to the castle, and ordered it moved a few miles away:

 

 

The constant rain makes for some nice moss growth - this picture looks almost unreal:

 

 

Enough dilly-dallying, we have more castles to see!

[patnlcc]

Scotland is still part of the UK as I'm sure you will all know by now. Some people are happy, others not so. There was an 85% turnout which is unheard of. Let's hope we can all work together for the future.

[jpalbny]

patnlcc - I agree - amazing turnout! The right things are being said but hopefully differences won't continue to simmer and threaten your forward progress together.

 

Back to the trip...

 

Glamis was a little bit of a drive, through a few small back roads. We started to notice a lot of trucks on the roads... It was tricky to pass all of them! But we got there a little after 2:30 and managed to park quickly enough to get into the 2:40 tour.

 

 

Unlike Scone, you have to be guided, and that slows you down a little. No photos allowed inside the palace... But the guide was entertaining and the castle was worth a visit – the current Royals have a strong presence here as the Queen Mother was from this family. The grounds were quite nice as well.

 

 

The guided tour had slowed us down somewhat so we made a break for Blair Castle – between small roads and traffic we started losing time, and unfortunately there was no after-hours car rental return available for us. So we had to return the car by 6PM, unfortunately. We realized that we wouldn't have time to see Blair, so we turned around and set course back for Edinburgh.

 

Even with leaving extra time, the traffic going into Edinburgh was horrible, and we didn't get back to the rental place until almost 6:30. Luckily, they waited for us and we were able to get the car returned without a hassle. We walked back to the ship and got ready for our dinner at Hot Rocks.

 

We had a really nice dinner tonight, with delicious rib eye steaks and prawns the size of our hands. I can't believe the size of this one prawn!

 

 

Last time we had done this, we let the steaks cook too long so we basically seared them for a few seconds and took them off the hot rock. As we cut our pieces to eat, we seared them individually to our liking. The sauces that they include are quite tasty as well. It was really a nice meal and we are very happy that they continue to offer this dining option - even though the smoke is pretty intense at times!

 

[duct tape]

Really enjoying this. Thanx

[patnlcc]

Sorry you missed Blair Castle. Did you know that the Duke of Atholl is the only person in the U.k with his own private army?

[jpalbny]

8/7 - another relaxing sea day...

 

 

Nothing to do this morning – since we had managed to return the car yesterday. The Silver Cloud was scheduled to depart at 8:45, which was a change from our original itinerary - we were supposed to leave 2 hours later. That would have been much better for us, as we could have kept the rental car overnight were that the case, and we could have stayed out much later yesterday. Oh well.

 

We slept in, had a nice breakfast in the Panorama, and relaxed after all of the driving yesterday on the wrong side of the road. In the morning Dr. Peter Crimes had another lecture - Iceland, Part 1. We were interested to hear what he had to say about Eskifjordur because we'd never been - but no luck, he hadn't either! So we enjoyed the recap of all the neat things we've previously visited around Akureyri, and looked forward to visiting Grimsey after seeing his pictures.

 

Today they served a pub lunch in the Main Bar which was quite tasty, and the beer selections weren't bad either. We thought we would be smart and eat small portions, but that backfired on us when we were hungry again very shortly, and went back for seconds at the lunch buffet in La Terraza... :o

 

There was a future cruise presentation that didn't really include anything new that we didn't already know, so the afternoon was pretty slow. After some pre-dinner drinks and dancing in the bar, we headed over to Le Champagne for dinner. Very nice as always, and the included wines were great.

 

We decided not to get the lobster thermidor; though it's very good, we wanted to try something different. Chris had the Dover Sole and I had the breast of forest pigeon. Both were quite tasty, and we ended up feeling very stuffed!

 

Tonight the show was one of the Silversea singers doing a solo act. We didn't go because we have a busy day planned tomorrow. We have a rental car reserved, and we're going to try to hit as many archaeological sites as possible on Mainland (the very imaginative name of the particular Orkney Island where Kirkwall is located).

 

We have both been super excited to see the sites/sights here since WesW posted information about them on our roll call many months ago. And this National Geographic issue from a few months back just heightened our anticipation even more! Can't wait for tomorrow!

 

[jpalbny]

patnlcc - I didn't know that! Thanks for the info. I just Googled it and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atholl_Highlanders

 

Love these fascinating bits of history.

[jpalbny]

Friday 8/8 – Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

 

 

Up early and ready to go! Busy day planned, beginning with a car rental in town, then we'll try to visit as many archaeological sites as possible over the course of the day. We were the first ones off the ship - we had docked today, so we were about 2 miles out of town in an industrial section. Luckily, there was a shuttle bus, so we hopped on, he left shortly, and we were in town early.

 

As an added bonus, the driver asked what our plans were for the day and we mentioned that we were renting a car. He asked, "What agency?" so we told him. He replied that he'd drive right by there after he stopped at the dropoff point, so we stayed on the bus and had door-to-door service! How nice.

 

Our car was ready so we headed out post haste. We had purchased Orkney Explorer passes online, which allows us entry into all of the sites managed by Historic Scotland. That pretty much covered everywhere we wanted to visit, so the race was on.

 

Everything is pretty much open access except Maes Howe (the large burial chamber) - you need a reservation for that because you have to visit by guided tour. We stopped by to see if they had any openings, and they did - but not until 6PM! No good there as we leave at 5PM. So we went to the Standing Stones of Stenness:

 

Theses stones are tall! On the right, I tried to duplicate the Nat Geo cover shot:

 

 

Next up was the ring of Brodgar:

 

 

Nice setting, and pretty impressive stones here!

 

 

Time to see what's next! We're just getting warmed up... I hear there's a well-preserved Neolithic village around here.

[patnlcc]

I'm hoping you'll get to see the Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel. Orkney is fascinating.

[duct tape]

Slick!

[TLCOhio]

We walked back to the ship and got ready for our dinner at Hot Rocks. We had a really nice dinner tonight, with delicious rib eye steaks and prawns the size of our hands. I can't believe the size of this one prawn!

 

 

Last time we had done this, we let the steaks cook too long so we basically seared them for a few seconds and took them off the hot rock. As we cut our pieces to eat, we seared them individually to our liking. The sauces that they include are quite tasty as well. It was really a nice meal and we are very happy that they continue to offer this dining option - even though the smoke is pretty intense at times!

 

 

 

Appreciate these great pictures and details for the Hot Rocks experience on the Silver Cloud. This is a new dining setting for us since last being on the Cloud in July 2010. Looks like fun, especially since our planned Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Silver Cloud Amazon River-Caribbean combo back-to-back sailing over 26 days will have more warm weather than yours going up to Iceland. We like outdoor dining, seeing the sights, water as we travel. Keep it coming!! Great to be traveling along with you during your adventure.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 158,066 views. Nice to be hitting this high of a level for viewership. Appreciate the interest and follow-up questions/comments!!

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[jpalbny]

patnlcc - no, we went totally in the opposite direction to look at more Neolithic sites. Next time!

 

TLCOhio - we really like Hot Rocks. In fact, yesterday we made an online reservation for this venue on our next cruise, next month! :D Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

[jpalbny]

Orkney - Skara Brae Neolithic Village:

 

From the Ring of Brogdar we pressed onward and soon caught up with a tour bus, heading to Skara Brae. This is quite a gem; a Neolithic village that was buried and preserved for 5000 years - yes, it's older than the Pyramids of Egypt! It was "discovered" in 1850 after a huge storm tore up the coastline, exposing the edge of the complex. The excavation then commenced.

 

You can't enter the dwellings but they have built a nice replica that you can enter. Here we are, heading inside:

 

 

And here's an overview of the site - you walk around the periphery and can peer down into the dwelling structures:

 

 

This was some nice beachfront location back in the day!

 

 

This particular dwelling was featured in the Nat Geo article. It's very well preserved and has a nice beach view:

 

 

Here's the Skaill House, which belonged to the "discoverer" of the village, Laird William Graham Watt. It's a small museum now, and entry is included in your ticket to Skara Brae. A pleasant enough detour, but a little too modern compared to the ruins... It's not even 400 years old:

 

[patnlcc]

Really enjoying your posts. Thanks for sharing.

[jpalbny]

Mainland, Orkney - the Brough of Birsay:

 

Next stop was the Brough of Birsay, which is an offshore, part-time island, connected by a causeway that is only accessible for a few hours around low tide. We had checked the tide tables prior to leaving home so we knew that we could get here between 11 - 1, so we hightailed it out of Skara Brae at 11 and drove to the parking area. We joined a throng of people walking the causeway - including the ticket checker, who was so busy lugging the "open" sign across to the island, that he didn't bother asking for our tickets!

 

The island has some Viking-era ruins and a few earlier Pictish remnants where the causeway enters the island, and further on there is a lighthouse and coastal views. We decided to do the tour backwards, so we left the crowds behind and walked up the hill further to the lighthouse - which wasn't much to look at, but the sea cliffs had some nice rock formations:

 

 

As we walked down from the top, we had a great overview of the ruins - mainly a bunch of foundations, with nothing really standing more than a few feet tall. You have to use your imagination... This shot shows the ruins, and the causeway beyond - that whole area is underwater at high tide.

 

 

We spent some time wandering the ruins - here's a Viking longhouse, and another building - you can see the causeway beyond, with lots of visitors crossing...

 

 

Here is a Norse sauna - looks a little different from the one on Silver Cloud! Supposedly this one had ductwork under the floor like a Roman bath.

 

 

With that, it was time to head back across the causeway to our car, and head out to our next stop!

 

[jpalbny]

Mainland Orkney, continued - last of the Neolithic sites:

 

We headed over to the Broch of Gurness which is in a very nice setting along the northern coast. The broch is a large structure set in the middle of smaller dwellings. Not much is known about who lived there but it's thought to have been a small group. We pretty much had the place to ourselves:

 

 

Here's the entryway into the main structure - The Broch. And the restroom...this must get cold in the winter!

 

 

And a view from the center of the complex, showing the smaller dwellings surrounding the central broch:

 

 

Since we were doing well with regard to time, and we'd missed Maes Howe, we decided to try to find another burial chamber to tour. We set course for the smaller, less-known, Unstan Chambered Tomb. It was so inconspicuous that we had to drive by a few times to find the entrance. In fact, it looked like someone's driveway, but there was a sign for the tomb, so we headed in. Just past someone's house, there it was:

 

 

This was a neat place but quite small - you have to let yourself into the tomb by unlatching the grate that covers the entryway, and there was no one taking tickets, or even watching the site. It was a little creepy letting yourself into the burial chamber, and I wondered what would happen if the grate slammed shut and locked us in... The place didn't look quite as comfortable as our nice suite in Silver Cloud!

 

 

But we made it out safely, and turned back torwards Kirkwall. Time to put some gas in the rental car, return it, and spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around town. There are a few spots to visit there as well.

[jpalbny]

Kirkwall, Orkney Islands:

 

We had about 2 hours to wander the town so we headed for the cathedral. There was a funeral service going on so we decided to start at the Earl's and Bishop's Palaces instead. These are the ruins of two castles which lie near St. Magnus' Cathedral.

 

The Bishop's Palace is older and was originally built at the same time as the Cathedral, and was the residence for the first Bishop of Kirkwall. It was rebuilt during the 1500s but since has fallen into disrepair. The structure itself isn't much to look at; just some walls and a tower. But the rocks they used in the walls are actually pretty, with lots of nice colors:

 

 

And the view from the tower is pretty nice - here's St. Magnus' Cathedral:

 

 

Across the street lies the Earl's Palace, built in the 1606 by the Second Earl of Orkney, after he decided that the Bishop's Palace wasn't good enough for him. He sounded like a pretty unpleasant person; most of the building was done using forced labor. Shortly after the building was completed, he was in so much debt that he had to give up the Palace to the Bishop (1608), and then he was imprisoned by the Scottish King (1609). The Earl's son led a revolt against the king, and took the Palace by force (1614) but the King's forces soon retook the Palace, and both the Earl and his son were executed for treason in 1615.

 

Despite their unpleasant history, the ruins make for an enjoyable tour, as you can climb through most of the palace and get an idea of how nice it must have been in its heyday:

 

 

This is a slightly different angle, showing how close the ruins are to the Cathedral:

 

 

And the great hall of the palace:

 

 

After finishing, the funeral services were still going on so we ducked into the Orkney Museum (free) for a bit. Some nice artifacts from the Neolithic sites we've seen earlier today were on display. After that detour, we were able to visit inside St. Magnus' Cathedral.

 

 

We caught the next-to-last shuttle home which ended up being a private shuttle for the two of us, and set sail for Torshavn tomorrow. We really enjoyed the day in Kirkwall and wish it had been longer. We probably could have squeezed in a few more sights...

 

The evening was quiet for us. There were two shows tonight; one pre-dinner and one after dinner but both of them were done by the onboard singers (one solo, one duet) much like last night. We didn't bother. After dinner and a little dancing we retired early, after a long day!

 

We don't have much at all planned for Torshavn. We've been there twice before so we've covered the town pretty well, and we've been to the major sites out of town. So I found a hiking map online, and supposedly there's a decent trail up a mountain outside of town. We'll try to do that for some views - if it's not raining and/or too foggy to see!

Edited September 24, 2014 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Saturday, August 9: Torshavn?

 

 

We'd had a great day in Kirkwall so Torshavn was going to be quiet. We'd looked into renting a car, but as it was a Saturday, we couldn't find a location in town that was open. We were only scheduled to be there from 8-2, which made it even more challenging. We eventually found a hiking map that listed some options starting in town, so that was our plan.

 

It was rough seas overnight and we awoke a few times because we were getting tossed about. As we were getting ready in the morning, we heard an announcement just after 7:00, and we knew that it could only mean one thing... Yes, the seas were too rough and the Captain was canceling the stop in Torshavn. We would just continue today on to our stop in Eskifjörður tomorrow.

 

Well, if we had to miss a port, this was the one, we thought. Torshavn is a nice place but we've been there and we've done the big sights. So we eagerly awaited a revised Chronicles, which they promised would have some new activities to keep us occupied as we bounced along to Iceland.

 

Dr. Peter Crimes' final lecture was moved to 10AM, and this was an overview of Reykjavik and the surrounding area (the Golden Circle). We then had a cooking demonstration with the executive chef, Jerome, which was a lot of fun. Nothing like champagne and canapes as an appetizer for lunch!

 

In his afternoon slot, Dr. Crimes gave a bonus lecture about his research into what "really" happened on the HMS Bounty. Was Captain Bligh really a tyrant? Is that why the mutiny occurred? Dr. Crimes doesn't think so, and gave a compelling argument that this was not the case. He thinks it was a matter of the sailors not wanting to leave their Tahitian lovers...

 

We went to the afternoon movie, Out to Sea, with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. And we booked dinner in La Terrazza for tonight, which was delicious as always, but very filling. In the last year I found a recipe for duck ragu, which I've made and it is similar to what they serve there, but it's so much easier when someone cooks it for you! The motion of the ship was more than usual tonight so the restaurant was only half full; some people didn't last for the entire dinner.

 

Tonight the clocks move back an hour. Even though the UK and Iceland both use GMT, Iceland does not use Daylight Savings Time. So during the summer, they are an hour back. That made for an early night; though the motion doesn't make me sick, it does make me tired!

 

Sunday August 10 - Eskifjörður

 

 

This is a tiny fishing village in the remote Eastfjords region of Iceland. There is not too much that we could find online about this village, and absolutely no car rentals available unless you can get to Eggilstaðir, about 30 miles away... A little too far to walk, and there's only one bus in and out each day. We decided we'd walk around and see what there was to see.

 

It's in an area of great natural beauty. Most Eastfjord villages are set at the base of a large fjord, surrounded on 3 sides by verdant mountains. The constant mist and the wetness makes for innumerable waterfalls cascading down the walls of the fjord:

 

 

Here's the mountain that they used for the cover of today's Chronicles, without the snow. In the foreground, there is a monument to sailors who have been lost at sea:

 

 

They had a Mariners Museum which we didn't go to:

 

 

And a few attractions the needed to be posed with:

 

 

You will notice that we're dressed a little more warmly than before... It's become colder as we go further north, and today was barely 50° (10°C). We didn't see anything warmer than that for the rest of the week!

[jpalbny]

Eskifjörður continued:

 

We walked along the coastal road out of town for about 2 miles. Glad things were well signposted!

 

 

Lots of colorful houses, and views of the fjord:

 

 

As it was getting chilly, we decided to head back to the ship for some boullion.

 

 

We wanted to try to hike to a waterfall that we could see on the other side of town