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

[jpalbny]

After some fortification against the cold, we set out to try to see the waterfall. We passed by a coffee shop - I can imagine that you'd need a cup that big to stay warm here in the winter!

 

 

But not all was grey and dreary today.

 

 

We got to the stream and hiked up along the banks. We picked up a canine companion along the way, who tried in vain to lead us further up the hill. But there wasn't really a trail, so we figured this was far enough:

 

 

Besides, if I zoom in, maybe it looks like we made it!

 

 

We wandered back to the ship, and the dog followed us the whole way back. Someone in the shops at the pier obviously knew the dog, and called him over as we arrived. So we didn't have to explain to the Captain why we brought him back with us...

 

Sailaway tonight was grey and cloudy, as the rest of the day had been.

 

 

The mist closed in behind us as we left.

 

 

So, not bad for a small place without much to do, and no tourist infrastructure. It's neat to visit these places off the beaten path, but we are ready to get back to civilization.

 

Slow night tonight for us - leisurely dinner, then some dancing, though the quartet is only so-so. We didn't go to the show tonight; it was Allan King the CD doing "Allan King Presents" so we decided to skip it.

 

We have a very busy day planned in Akureyri tomorrow. We had visited once before, about 5 years ago, and at that time we had driven to the major sights. We didn't leave ourselves enough time to get to Dettifoss, which is billed as the largest (most powerful) waterfall in Europe, and we were really disappointed at the time. In fact, it's bothered us for the past 5 years! Tomorrow we stay in port until 11PM, and we have a rental car reserved, so we are going to get there no matter what! Lots of driving planned, so time to rest up.

Edited September 25, 2014 by jpalbny

[brimary]

Thanks for great photos and reports which bring back many memories of a wonderful cruise,much appreciated!

[jpalbny]

brimary, thanks. And feel free to fill in any details that are missing!

[CruisinPashmina]

WOW! What a treat to revisit the Orkneys! Skara Brae is one of the most memorable places we've ever visited...this entire area really spoke to us. GREAT photographs!

You are so very generous to take the time to take us all along. Thank you!

 

PS. You are the most energetic travelers I've ever "met". Hope to be able to sail with you one of these days.

[jpalbny]

Thanks, CruisinPashmina. I have to get disciplined and finish this review before we leave on the next cruise in 3 weeks... I can't believe all the things we were lucky enough to get to on this trip - makes me tired again just writing about it!

[jpalbny]

Addendum: I mentioned that we'd met Marcia and Hathaway at our Meet & Mingle; there were leading a group from Signature Travel (I think) and on the Torshavn day, they had arranged a galley tour for their small group. They invited us along and it was a great time - there were only 10-12 in the group, and we had a personal tour with the Executive Chef Jerome. Very nice!

 

Monday August 11 - Akureyri:

 

 

Akureryi lies at the base of a large fjord in the north of Iceland. It's a beautiful city surrounded by some amazing displays of nature - the mighty waterfall of Goðafoss (pictured on the Chronicles, above), Myvatn (a lake with volcanic islands and other interesting features), numerous geothermal areas that remind us of the American West, and great volcanic formations - tephra cones, weird lava flows, all sorts of great stuff here! We've visited on a previous stop and hit the highlights, so we've reserved a car and we're trying to go further afield this time.

 

We disembarked right at 9:00 and walked to the Europcar kiosk but they weren't here yet, so we had the staff at the Visitor Center call them. While we waited, we enjoyed the view of the harbor - I don't remember this statue from last time:

 

 

Soon we were driving the ring road, up the mountains along the fjord (Eyjafjörður) - the view is very distracting! Luckily, I'm driving and Chris is taking the pictures!

 

 

And it gets even prettier once you cross over the first mountains, and enter the interior:

 

 

We passed through some interesting lava formations, and made our first stop in Húsavík - a small, picturesque town on a peninsula sticking out of the north of Iceland. Their claim to fame is whale watching during the summer, and there were plenty of boats offering trips. We had other places to go, but we stopped for some pictures; in the morning sun everything looked very photogenic - here is the harbor:

 

 

And here's a couple of nice-looking ships - wonder if we can charter one?

 

 

There's a whale museum in town but we didn't spend time there. Also, a quaint wooden church, some nice looking cafes along the harbor, and a grocery store. After a stop at an ATM, we grabbed some snacks from the grocery store and pushed on northward. We want to drive the perimeter of this peninsula for the ocean views before we head back inland to try to (finally) see Detifoss!

[RachelG]

Catching up on your posts, and really enjoying them as we have been to most of these ports before. They are some of our favorites.

[jpalbny]

From Husavik, we pushed northward to circumnavigate the Tjörnes Peninsula, where there was supposed to be some nice scenery. We stopped at a few overlooks; the sea cliffs were pretty and we could see some nesting activity from the cliffs. Here's the scene from near Voladalstorfa Lighthouse:

 

 

And a little further along, the water looks almost turquoise - are we sure we're still in Iceland, and not the South Pacific? I guess the puffins swimming down in the ocean below give it away. This is Öxarfjörður Bay:

 

 

Next order of business was to head back south, and further east to Jökulsárgljúfur National Park. We wanted to try to hike to Ásbyrgi canyon before heading down to Dettifoss. This canyon is in the shape of a semicircle, though others say it's a horseshoe. Legend says it was formed when one of the hooves of Sleipnir (Odin's 8-legged steed) touched the earth, leaving an imprint. Must have been some huge horse!

 

It's raining steadily by now and I can't keep the camera lens dry, and the glare is terrible - but maybe these pictures give you a sense of the scale of the canyon and its overall shape.

 

 

The walls are almost 100 meters high in places. We only climbed partway up to try to get an overview, but you can actually hike all the way to the top, and around the entire circumference of the walls, if you have the time. The terrain is pretty rugged here.

 

 

In the middle lies the small lake Botnstjörn, a former waterfall pool but an earthquake changed the course of the river so there isn't a waterfall any longer. The mist here leads to some great color from moss growing on the rocks.

 

 

Beautiful here but a bit mysterious as well. It's so perfectly shaped that you wonder if it really is a natural formation. And the legends also say that the Huldufólk (Elves) have their capital city here; they supposedly live in the cracks of the rock walls. No time to go looking for them though; we have to head south.

 

Further south into the park, about 15 miles along a long dirt road paralleling the Jökulsá River, is Dettifoss - we hope! After Dettifoss, we have another 25 miles to go before we get back to a paved road.

 

Five years ago, we got to the southern entrance of the dirt road towards the end of a long day of touring, and decided that it would take too long to slog 25 miles there and back. We were short of time then, and didn't want to risk missing the boat if the dirt road slowed us down more than expected. But today no problem, as we're in port until 11PM. Off we go!

[UKCruiseJeff]

You had a wonderful trip ..... still think you're batting way above your weight there .........:D

 

It is a joy to see how you had been enjoying your adventures as much as you clearly have.

 

You must really be looking forward to your next adventure. Hope you have enough time to spend some time each side in both Istanbul and Athens as they are great places to get to know under the skin a bit and linger. Just lovely places to idle.

 

Jeff

[jpalbny]

Waterfalls along the Jökulsá River

 

Dettifoss was easy to find and the dirt road wasn't all that bad. The 15 mile ride took just under 30 minutes, though most of it was over a washboard dirt road. There were tons of cars in the lot but we found a spot, and hiked down to the waterfall in the light misting rain. It's a powerful waterfall, and the wind is whipping the spray around so much that you can barely see the east side of the canyon wall! Glad we're on the west side; if we were on the east, I think we'd be covered in spray!

 

 

A close-up:

 

 

A bit subjective of course, but given the volume of flow (almost 200 cubic meters per second) and the height of the waterfall (45 meters), some call it the most powerful waterfall in Europe. It sure looks powerful from here!

 

As impressive as the flow looks today, it's a pittance compared to the flooding that created the landscapes that we see today in this canyon. The Jökulsá á Fjöllum River's source is glacial flow from the Vatnajökull glacier. When the volcano underneath the glacier erupts, there is a sudden surge of meltwater called a Jökulhlaup (glacial flood). We have seen evidence of past flooding in the south (remember Eyjafjallajökull, anyone?) but that was a small one. The largest floods are believed to have occurred here; one of them formed Ásbyrgi canyon and it's estimated that the peak flow of that Jökulhlaup was 900,000 cubic meters per second! That's 4-5x the flow of the Amazon river. The scale of such a flood boggles the mind.

 

There's a hiking trail upstream from Dettifoss which leads to Selfoss. This is only about 10m tall, but it's very wide so the flow is dispersed over a large area. This makes it easier to see:

 

 

Up close it looks pretty impressive too!

 

 

Lastly, a little downstream lies Hafragilsfoss, a 27 meter waterfall in a beautiful canyon. I think the different colored rocks make it more picturesque than the others:

 

 

Here's an overview of the canyon. Off to the right, you can see a little bit of clear blue water mixing in with the very silty water from the Jökulsá.

 

 

The ride further south was more of the same. But we got a nice surprise near the end - the last 5 miles or so was paved! So even though the southern way out was longer than the northern way in, it didn't take any longer to drive it.

 

Off to the Krafla area now, to see an area where there was a recent (1980's) eruption. There are supposed to be some nice hikes in the area.

[jpalbny]

Rachel - thanks. I hope you post some pictures from your recent trip on Silver Explorer. Would love to see that part of the world!

 

Jeff - right on all counts.

 

We have been to Athens a few times (before the riots) so not much time planned there. Just an overnight before flying home the day after we disembark, and our main goal this time is to see the "new" Acropolis Museum. It was supposed to be open on our last visit but was delayed quite a bit. Other than that, we'll relax and enjoy. Hoping to catch up with a former colleague who lives a few hours away.

 

Turkey pre-cruise, on the other hand, will be crazy busy. We are spending a few days in Cappadocia, mostly touring independently. Hoping the weather cooperates for a balloon ride and some good hiking. We didn't leave much time for Istanbul but we've had a little time there on another cruise. Choices, choices.

[UKCruiseJeff]

The new museum is .... er ... very clinical and very new;)

 

I think one of the most missed bits around the Acropolis is the Agora. Very few people seem to wander around there even though it is right there and it is so much more engrossing in my view than the Acropolis. It is very atmospheric. You've probably already been round there anyway. Across the train track from there are some great places to have some gyros and pitta. And wine. And Metaxa. And ouzo. And olives if you must!

 

:D

[CruisinPashmina]

Gotta jump in! The new Acropolis museum overwhelms. We went white marble blind within an hour of visiting. Sounds crazy but we loved the museum's cafe..a lot. The Greek Salad and an order of Gyros were terrific. We had to take the long way back to the hotel to recover from the huge portions.

We stayed at the Grande Bretagne in a nice but nothing special room. That was forgotten as soon as we were seated on the beyond fabulous roof top bar/restaurant. The view of the lighted Acropolis was one of the most fabulous things we both have ever seen. Unforgettable! Even if you stay elsewhere do try to dine and/or drink up there.

Glad you'll be visiting Cappadoccia. It's a fantastic place. Other worldly. And the history of very early Christians hiding, terrified, in small caves, really was poignant. Hope the weather cooperates and that you get to go ballooning. We had to miss out.

PLEASE promise to chronicle this upcoming adventure...and take some wonderful photographs!

[Emtbsam]

Gotta jump in! The new Acropolis museum overwhelms. We went white marble blind within an hour of visiting. Sounds crazy but we loved the museum's cafe..a lot. The Greek Salad and an order of Gyros were terrific. We had to take the long way back to the hotel to recover from the huge portions.

We stayed at the Grande Bretagne in a nice but nothing special room. That was forgotten as soon as we were seated on the beyond fabulous roof top bar/restaurant. The view of the lighted Acropolis was one of the most fabulous things we both have ever seen. Unforgettable! Even if you stay elsewhere do try to dine and/or drink up there.

Glad you'll be visiting Cappadoccia. It's a fantastic place. Other worldly. And the history of very early Christians hiding, terrified, in small caves, really was poignant. Hope the weather cooperates and that you get to go ballooning. We had to miss out.

PLEASE promise to chronicle this upcoming adventure...and take some wonderful photographs!

Don't miss the buffet breakfast on the roof. It is wonderful.

[RachelG]

Cappadocia is great for hiking. You all will love it.

 

I am not the great photographer you are, but I am going to try and figure out how to post a few pics.

[jpalbny]

Thanks all for the info on Athens and Cappadocia. And we will post a full review of that trip (assuming I can get around to finishing this one first...)!

 

Krafla - this is a geologically new region, shaped by eruptions from the late 1970's to '80's. It's still very active underground, and there is a large power plant along the way. The rainy weather continued as we drove up the road to this region, but maybe the weather was letting up?

 

 

We set off to do the Leirhnjúkur Crater Hike, which was a 2+ mile loop through an area devastated by the lava flow. The sights were other-worldly! The colors were incredible, and we think the barren landscape is beautiful in its own way. This lake looks like it's made of some substance that sure isn't water:

 

 

And these hills, constantly emitting sulfur vapor and steam, look surreal:

 

 

Here is one site of the eruption - you can walk up to the lava vent, but not into it. That's good, I guess...

 

 

And it's only 50 degrees out today, so there is still snow here - so weird to see snow in an area of intense geothermal activity. What an amazing place!

 

 

This landscape is fascinating! We wandered around enjoying the views until we'd had enough sulfur fumes, and then headed on towards Myvatn. There is a volcanic cone here that we looked at last time - this time, we want to try to hike to the top!

[jpalbny]

Akureyri - Myvatn and Hverfjall:

 

It was almost 5:00 PM when we finished hiking around in Krafla and we'd been running around like crazy people all day. So we stopped for a late lunch outside of Myvatn in a cute little place called the "Cowshed Café." It was a farm restaurant, attached to a cowshed, true to the name!

 

After a sandwich and some ice cream (which wasn't all that creamy, unfortunately), we decided to look for the tephra cone called Hverfjall. We'd seen it years ago from Dimmuborgir but hadn't had time to climb it. It's a symmetrical cone, over 1km in diameter, and probably 150m taller than the surrounding terrain.

 

Here we are, at the base of the trail - time to burn off the calories from that ice cream with a good climb!

 

 

A few minutes later, we were at the crater rim looking in - neat patterns in the tephra rock as it's fallen down from the rim, back to the center of the crater:

 

 

It looks like a barren lunar landscape! But turn around, and the view of Myvatn was worth the hike! Is that the sun trying to break through the dense cloud cover?

 

 

We circled the whole crater, enjoying the shifting panoramic view, as the landscape changed from lake and green vegetation, to barren lava fields, to geothermal steam vents, and back. It's challenging to capture everything in one frame; even a panoramic shot isn't enough, but this may give you an idea of the scale of things here:

 

 

You can see the weird formations at Dimmuborgir from our vantage point, and we saw a hiking trail down an even steeper side of Hverfjall that leads there. We've already done Dimmuborgir so we pushed on, finished the hike back down the cone, and to our waiting car. Even though it was almost 7:30PM now, it was still quite light out, and people were still arriving to start the climb. Love these endless summer days in Iceland!

 

Well, we'd managed to tick every box on our checklist for Akureyri, and there is still time to spare! Time to drive home and see what happens when we get back. Along the ring road home, there is a stunning view of Goðafoss that we discovered last time. I like this view even better than the close-up, so we stopped at a turnout and enjoyed for a few minutes:

 

 

Finally, we got back to Akureyri around 8:30 - 11+ hours on the road, and 250 miles later... The twilight view of Eyjafjörður was beautiful:

 

 

All-aboard isn't for another 2 hours, and there is still daylight to enjoy. We filled the car up with gas using our chip-enabled visa (and PIN) to pay at the pump. And then we drove to downtown Akureyri, to try to see the Lystigarður Akureyrar - the Botanical Garden of Akureyri, which is open until 10:00.

Edited October 1, 2014 by jpalbny

[spinnaker2]

Spectacular! Thanks so much for sharing.

[jpalbny]

spinnaker2, thanks.

 

This is the picture I meant to post of our approach back into Akureyri, with the sun still trying to peek out into Eyjafjörður :

 

[jpalbny]

Akureyri - late evening, wrapping up in the Botanical Gardens:

 

We made it in plenty of time to have a leisurely stroll through the (small) Botanical Gardens. After hours of barren lava rock, it was nice to see something so green! They had some pretty water features:

 

 

And another fountain:

 

 

We really liked these flowers. So did the local bees, but the poor things were huddled up inside the blossom, too cold to move!

 

 

Finally we made it back to the dock and dropped off the car. It had been a long day - almost 9:30; we'd put nearly 400km on the car. Time for a rest!

 

 

We knew that the onboard restaurants all closed at 9:00, so we dragged ourselves back to the suite, poured some wine, and sat down with the room service menu. Before we could order, our butler came knocking to see if we needed something to eat, because he somehow knew that we'd been out all day!

 

Great service - we ordered a nice room service dinner (steaks) and he found us a tasty bottle of Cabernet-Malbec to go with it. Service was fast, and soon we were ready for a well-deserved snooze. Tomorrow, Grimsey, and a chance to stand on, then walk beyond, the Arctic Circle!

[jpalbny]

Tuesday, August 12 - Grimsey

 

 

It's the last day before disembarkation already, and today we're visiting Grimsey. This is a little speck of rock with the claim to fame that it's the only part of Iceland that lies above the Arctic Circle. In fact, the Circle runs right through the northern part of the island, so you can walk on it! We've been north of the Circle before, but only on the ocean, not on land. So this is our chance. No specific plans today other than to walk around as much of the island as we can.

 

We tendered today but our usual trick didn't work this time. For tender ports, SS has a habit of launching the first one without a general announcement, so that they can get the passengers who have signed up for ship's tours off first without a mob of independent passengers in the way. Usually, we go down to the loading zone a few minutes before the "published" arrival time and ask if there's room for 2 more, and they have always accommodated us. This time, the tender was leaving as we arrived, so we had to wait for the second tender. We still had an early start, though, as we arrived onshore by 7:30.

 

We came ashore and got our bearings; you can see the Arctic circle here as the red line crossing the top part of the island:

 

 

And after a bit of a walk (almost a mile), we were there. Because the walking tour group had a head start on us, we had to hustle to beat them to this spot so we could see it without a bunch of people posing for pictures. We did, but they were nipping at our heels as we arrived at the Arctic Circle monument. So no time to pose now - Northward!

 

 

The sea cliffs were pretty as we continued on:

 

 

And as we got closer, we saw that the cliffs were full of nesting puffins! We were lucky that they hadn't left for the open sea yet - they overwinter somewhere at sea, and return to land for breeding season. It would happen any day now, and it (apparently) when it happens, they all leave at once. I saw a review of a following voyage where their "puffin tour" saw exactly 3 puffins. No shortage here!

 

 

We set off further north, and in the distance, we saw a welcoming party. I hope that they let us pass! We didn't bring anything to bribe them with...

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

JP, thanks again for your posting efforts. They are lovely.

 

I was particularly taken with the bridge in the Japanese garden. Is that not the most perfectly formed and designed garden and bridge to instil tranquility in an untranquil world?

 

 

[jpalbny]

Thanks, Jeff - it was a great way to end a very long day!

 

Grimsey, continued - Icelandic Horses up close and personal!

 

We continued northward along a dirt path along the coast. We had to cross near a nesting area for arctic terns first, which was part of the adventure. For those who have never done this, these birds are very territorial, and they will dive-bomb you if you get too close to their nests. In the past we've had hiking poles, and you hold one up like a lightning rod so the birds dive at that, and not your head.

 

As hundreds of them circled overhead squawking at us, we wondered if they'd attack. Luckily, I'd thought ahead and brought an umbrella, just for this purpose. I opened it up, and we walked on unscathed.

 

Soon we got close to the herd of Icelandic Horses (note - they are not ponies). Here's a fine specimen that reminded us of Sleipnir (Odin's 8-legged steed - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleipnir). Were they posing like that on purpose?

 

 

I'm partial to the ones with the lighter manes:

 

 

Chris likes the ones with the darker coats:

 

 

Here's a nice pair approaching us:

 

 

They approached our path but didn't quite cross it. We moved slowly and quietly by, enjoying their presence but hoping we wouldn't spook them and get trampled. I grew up with horses and then can get a little aggressive at times, and we didn't know how domesticated they were. They seemed more curious than aggressive, but you never know:

 

 

But they were more interested in breakfast than they were in us.

 

 

We ran the gauntlet by them without any trouble, and headed for the northernmost part of the island. They are really beautiful creatures, and it was awesome to be that close to them without a fence in the way.

[derbylane]

Just a great picture adventure you have given. Beautifully presented with great commentary.

[jpalbny]

Thanks, derbylane. Iceland is a special place and one we like to visit as often as possible.

 

More of Grímsey (forgot to spell it with the Icelandic í in the last few posts):

 

After the horses let us go by, we continued up the West Coast of the island, headed for the northern tip - the peninsula called Eyjarfótur. We found a small hillock to climb and enjoyed the view of the North Pole from here. On the left, we're looking south at both coasts of the island - we've approached from the right hand side and you can barely see the Silver Cloud above the island. On the right, the view northward. You can see my Arctic tern protection device...

 

 

It's a beautiful but desolate place. The clouds never broke and the sun never shone very brightly. The wind was intense at times and the temperature was below 50 degrees (10C). Eyjarfótur is very narrow and you can see both coasts; we took a look down the East Coast and decided that those sea cliffs should be next on our agenda:

 

 

The surf was churning down below the cliffs. We didn't see any other people out this far; just a few sheep. Unlike the horses, the sheep ran away as soon as they saw us.

 

 

There were birds everywhere along this coast. Here are a few representative shots of one of the cliffs, Almannagjá:

 

 

After hiking about halfway down the island along the coast, we turned inland to get back to "town" so that we could have a photo op at the Arctic Circle, and then see what the village has to offer.

Edited October 3, 2014 by jpalbny