SailorJack Posted December 5, 2018 Author #101 Share Posted December 5, 2018 The Lerwick Town Hall - stone of course. As another example of the openness of the town the Town Hall is open to all visitors. In fact the sign outside actually invites visitors to come in to look at the building - at no cost of course. The Hall was completed in 1884 and sits on the highest point in town. It is a popular venue for marriages, concerts and wedding receptions. The building was replete with beautiful stained glass windows. The room where the town does its business. The Hall was completely open - there were no restrictions. Don't know what would have happened if the council had been in session, but we enjoyed the visit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasperdo Posted December 6, 2018 #102 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Sailor Jack, Haven't been on CC for awhile and have just now found your latest adventure. Haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'm sure it will be terrific as always! (Boy, has the interface here changed since last time I was here. I'm totally lost...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 6, 2018 Author #103 Share Posted December 6, 2018 8 hours ago, Jasperdo said: Sailor Jack, Haven't been on CC for awhile and have just now found your latest adventure. Haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'm sure it will be terrific as always! (Boy, has the interface here changed since last time I was here. I'm totally lost...) Welcome back to CC. The interface has changed dramatically. I am now just getting use to it but still cannot figure out how to edit a post after previewing it. I guess I will figure it out eventually. Hope you like the review. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 6, 2018 Author #104 Share Posted December 6, 2018 At the tourist kiosk near the pier, we were given a map of Lerwick which included several recommended hikes of various lengths. We decided to take a one mile hike to see Clickimin Broch - one of the top tourist attractions in Lerwick. The hiking path skirted the border and was inside the rock wall you can see in the background. It was an easy walk and the scenery around every bend was delightful. We have arrived at Clickimin Loch. Believed to have been first settled in the 7th Centrury BC, it probably started out as a farm with the rock walls keeping in the livestock. It was built inside Clickimin Loch and probably had some form of drawbridge to the mainland. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 7, 2018 Author #105 Share Posted December 7, 2018 This was the entrance to the Broch. Either people were really small back then or the entrance was designed as a defensive measure to restrict invasions. Even bent nearly double, I whacked my head both coming and going. A sign describing the inner stronghold. The inner stronghold. Over the years, local residents helped themselves to many of the stones that were used in building the stronghold. It is estimated that at its height the stronghold was over 45 feet tall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 8, 2018 Author #106 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Some last pictures of Lerwick and the Shetlands. This was a great port to visit. The people here were friendly, there was a lot to see within walking distance of the port and the scenery was really quite nice. Next stop - Iceland! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 9, 2018 Author #107 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Our first view of Iceland. Visiting ports in Iceland was one of the reasons we took this cruise so we are pretty excited to be here. The port of Akureyri lies at the end of a fairly long fiord, so it took us a while to get there. Here you can see us starting our entrance. Once the sun came up, Iceland's dramatic scenery became visible. Our first real glimpse of Akureyri. This is our first of two ports in Iceland and Akureyri is Iceland's second largest urban area - with a population a little under 20,000 people. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingos Posted December 9, 2018 #108 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Thanks for the new photos! I am waiting anxiously for next week when they release the 2020 cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 10, 2018 Author #109 Share Posted December 10, 2018 We were not the first ship to arrive in Akureyri. Holland America's Zuiderdam was ahead of us. Actually we were not even the second ship in port. The Princess ship, Pacific Princess was also here. As it turns out, we were not even the third ship to arrive. The AIDA Cara was already here also. This was one popular port. Assuming an average of 2,000 passengers ( I think the Pacific Princess held less) we added about 50% to the town's population that day. Of course our ship made number 4. All these ships in at the same time. You can imagine the crowds in town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 10, 2018 Author #110 Share Posted December 10, 2018 19 hours ago, flamingos said: Thanks for the new photos! I am waiting anxiously for next week when they release the 2020 cruise. Hope it has your itinerary. I just got today Viking Ocean's 2020 schedule and they are not doing the TA this year from Bergan to the USA with stops in Iceland and Greenland. They are still visiting those ports but now they are round trips from Bergan. Batter luck with RCI. Jack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 11, 2018 Author #111 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Thinking about flying into town,? The runway runs right into the water. Apparently Lasagna is very popular in Iceland. As expected - there were crowds from the four ships in harbor everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 12, 2018 Author #112 Share Posted December 12, 2018 This is the visitor center. It was located just outside the port area and had all sorts of maps and info. Also, the private tours all had their busses and vans in the parking lot here. Good place to find relatively inexpensive tours as opposed to those from the ship. As opposed to the tourist part of town, there was nobody in the business district - like this bank. Of course it was just in the processing of opening, but still..../ If we were going to be here for dinner I definitely would have eaten here just because of the name. On second thought, I saw the posted menu and don' think I could have afforded it! Maybe just coffee al fresco at " Kaffi Ummmm" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 13, 2018 Author #113 Share Posted December 13, 2018 This is the church that overlooks the town. It had amazing windows and is noted for the model ship that hangs from the ceiling. It is one of the main stops on the city tour. There is no entrée fee which is pretty much standard in Iceland. The steps looking down into town with some of the ships in the harbor. There really were great views from up here. From this point the steps do not look that daunting, but..... Looking up they are quite intimidating. And there was no wheelchair access. There were roads leading up the hill, but they also were very steep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 13, 2018 Author #114 Share Posted December 13, 2018 On 12/4/2018 at 12:05 PM, Baatman said: Great review...again. When do you sail again. Glad you like it. We are off to Hawaii for a 15 day roundtrip out of LA in early February. Looking forward to getting out of the cold! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNance Posted December 13, 2018 #115 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Looking forward to THAT review!!! I'm guessing there will be hula skirts and coconuts in the 'screen saver'??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 14, 2018 Author #116 Share Posted December 14, 2018 The houses on the island were immaculate. These houses were on the road up to the JC and most had the year of construction proximately displayed on them. This one dates to 1928. An even earlier one - 1926. I couldn't find a date on this house, but it was quite nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 15, 2018 Author #117 Share Posted December 15, 2018 Just a short walk from the pier is the Junior College. The signage tells of the history of the JC, but what we found most interesting was that the college was pre-fabricated in Denmark and then shipped to Iceland for assembly. The path to the left of the sign was known as the "Road to Destruction." The path went from the college down to a dancehall that "respectable" students would never visit - hence the name. As part of the college's tradition, upper classmen would take new students on a tour of the town and at the end of the tour they would use this path to go back up the college. They then called this the "Path to Education." So, going down led to destruction and going led to education. The sign also noted that if you were going up the path you could not look back down as it could lead to failure on exams. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare h20skibum Posted December 15, 2018 #118 Share Posted December 15, 2018 On 12/13/2018 at 2:00 PM, SailorJack said: We are off to Hawaii for a 15 day roundtrip out of LA in early February. Looking forward to getting out of the cold! We did that trip last year, except we left from San Francisco. Be prepared for the first couple sea days to be cool, and seas a little rough. Most people don’t realize that, thinking warm in CA, warm in HI, and they forget cool weather clothes. It willbe the same on the return trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 16, 2018 Author #119 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Clearly, the biggest surprise we had at this port was the botanical garden. We just did not expect this. Beautiful shaded pathways. Notice the lights strung along the trees. It must have been very nice walking at night. Grassy fields for kids to play and gazebos to get out of the weather. And small fountains surrounded by benches where one can stop and rest. Even though we were in late fall, thee were still blooming flowers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 16, 2018 Author #120 Share Posted December 16, 2018 On 12/13/2018 at 1:39 PM, BigNance said: Looking forward to THAT review!!! I'm guessing there will be hula skirts and coconuts in the 'screen saver'??? LOL I forgot about that one. I'll have to go back and see if I still have it! Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 17, 2018 Author #121 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Some last photos of the Botanical Gardens. We were just so pleasantly surprised to find this park and garden. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevea36 Posted December 17, 2018 #122 Share Posted December 17, 2018 RCI Just released the 2020 version of this trip. It will be on Brilliance of the Seas, 15 nights, from Amsterdam to Boston, Leaving on September 2, 2020. Itinerary is: Amsterdam Sea Bergen, Norway Geiranger, Norway, Sea Akureyri, Iceland Reykjavik, Iceland (overnight) Sea Cruise Prins Christian Sound Qaqortoq, Greenland Nuuk, Greenland Sea Sea Sea Boston. I was able to book a 2B Hump balcony this morning, with a refundable deposit, for 3852 pp (less any C&A Discount you may have). This compares to over $8000 pp for the lone remaining balcony on the 2019 version. Sailor, how does this itinerary compare to yours? Dropping canada is no biggie for me as I will be doing a canada/ne cruise in October 2019. My biggest issue is that I will need 16 nights to get to Diamond and their changing this to 15 is "forcing" me to take another cruise. (maybe I can talk the DW into doing an 8 night in a JS to get us Diamond before this sailing 🙂 ) Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevea36 Posted December 17, 2018 #123 Share Posted December 17, 2018 3 hours ago, SailorJack said: Some last photos of the Botanical Gardens. We were just so pleasantly surprised to find this park and garden. Great Pix ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingos Posted December 17, 2018 #124 Share Posted December 17, 2018 BOOKED for 2020!!!! Brilliance of the Seas, sailing September 2. AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS CRUISING BERGEN, NORWAY GEIRANGER, NORWAY CRUISING AKUREYRI, ICELAND REYKJAVIK, ICELAND REYKJAVIK, ICELAND CRUISING PRINS CHRISTIAN SUND(CRUISE) QAQORTOQ, GREENLAND NUUK, GREENLAND CRUISING CRUISING CRUISING BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJack Posted December 18, 2018 Author #125 Share Posted December 18, 2018 I don't know what it is about Scandinavian countries and trolls, but they were on big display here in Iceland as well! A last look at our port as we sail to our next one. This is sort of what my preconceived idea was about Iceland. I guess travel is broadening. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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