Nautical Norway
After editing no less than 800 photos I finally can write all about my amazing experience to Iceland, Norway and London.
It was my first cruise on Crystal, first time to Iceland and first time to Norway!
The flight to Iceland was forever long – my sister and I were so tired that I hit the bed and immediately fell asleep, but then I awoke and was utterly confused and thought it was daytime, but no it was still night we embarrassingly found out! This is what to expect when visiting the land of the Midnight Sun!
On our first day we got to ride the most adorable horses ever – Icelandic horses are fuzzy, short and even tempered. They don’t gallop but have a unique gait that no other horse in the world has...it was such great fun! Visit Laxnes Horse Farm www.laxnes.is. After our two hour ride we were off on the Golden circle tour where we witnessed Gulfoss, or the separating of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. This was an amazing sight to behold! Finally we witnessed the Geysers and got back to the ship just in time for the muster drill.
Iceland has a very well educated populace – there are many writers who hail from this country. The buildings are modern, except in the historic sections, and the first person to “discover” the Americas came from Iceland! The country is an adventure lovers dream – filled with extraordinary activities such as taking an open lift deep down (several hundred feet) into a humongous lava tube, glacier hiking, diving in the caves, lounging in the blue lagoon plus so much more. The water is so fresh and pure that I commented on how clean my hair felt! And the country is rich in power as the entire country is powered by thermal energy! All in all I would highly recommend a visit to this remarkable country...
Next we were off to the Faroe Islands for the day – home of puffins. Our great adventure was the RIB boat – our attire was warm and I felt like the kid looked on the Christmas Story – Help I can’t get up! We had to climb from the dock onto the pontoon type boat with (2) 250 HP motors. At one time we got up to 50 mph. But the entire ride was calm, seas were super calm – we toured around one of the 17 outer islands – saw a little village, with big whale jaw, sheep, lots of birds and of course puffins (which the locals eat like quail). When you visit these remote islands you just keep asking yourself what do these people do each and everyday? Fortunately the coast of Norway is only 1 ½ day’s sail away...
And our first stop is Aleseund, which is a pretty charming little town with cobblestone streets and lots of canals with beautiful wooden sailboats. The little park we visited had tulips, azaleas, daffodils etc. There is a little train that offers sightseeing tours up to the park that overlooks the entire town with water surrounding it on many sides. It is here I found that the exchange rate is $1 = 5.90; paid $2 for a postcard that equates to $11.80Krone (Norwegian money). The tour we went on was wonderful! It was unique and different. We learned that many parts of Norway are connected via under mountain tunnels (which just so happen lie under the ocean). We visited both islands of Giske (where our captain is from, and is known for their charming little stone church that dates back to 1150AD. This island is where the Viking chieftain Rollo was born – this shrewd warrior vanquished what is now known as Normandy but Rollo is more well known for one of his descendants William the Conqueror.
The next morning we awoke quite early so we could view the magnificent Gerainger fjord which has been classified as an UNESCO World heritage site. Around each bend we were greeted with majestic scenery, waterfalls everywhere, precipitously perched abandoned farms several hundred feet above the sea. And as the sky begins to clear and the clouds roll over the mountain tops snow capped peaks and meadows are revealed. Gerainger is with out a doubt the reason you visit the fjords of Norway and on this magnificent day we had sunny weather and actually got a suntan! Our adventure today was a RIB boat ride up the fjord to witness up close and personal the famous waterfalls!
The next day we were blessed with another fabulous day filled with sunshine as we arrive in Bergen Norway. Today is our vacation vignette tour. Everything ran smoothly and our guide Inger from Bergen by Experts was simply superb. We visited a Stave Church (wood church which was rebuilt using traditional Viking shipbuilding skills). After a visit to the church we went to Edward Greig’s home, the grounds were gorgeous, overlooking a beautiful little lake. After our tour we stopped at the UNESCO World Heritage site Bryggens whose buildings date back to about 1350 and were part of the Hanseatic League of merchants. Another fabulous day in Norway!
Today we embarked on an all day journey via bus to view Skykkjedalsfossen the nation’s tallest waterfall (almost 1000 feet). Our first stop on the tour was at the Nature center where we watched an amazing 20-minute panoramic helicopter journey of Norway. This film was fantastic and actually made you feel as if you were in the helicopter – this was a terrific show! Next we are off to the Fossli Hotel and Skykkiedalsfossen where the vistas were amazing - in the distance the valley views with hanging clouds were quite picturesque. At the top of this waterfall is the Fossli Hotel, which has been open since 1891. After we visited the waterfall we climbed aboard our bus to visit a farm, Edvard Greigs composer cottage and the fabulous Ullensvang Hotel. There are so many hikes in this region that you could stay weeks and not see them all! In fact the Queen of Norway is coming in August to commemorate a 5KM hike that is one of her favorite routes for cross country skiing and walking while visiting this area. For those of you who like to farm/garden it was quite interesting to see the technique the Norwegians use for farming. The farms here are not very large and so space is at a premium, they plant trees within 1 &fract12; feet of each other, and scrape the tree trunk in a spiral manner so that the roots don’t grow too big and thus the trees naturally dwarf. I love gardening and was very interested in this technique as were other gardening enthusiasts!
Today is our last day visiting Norway – it was cloudy and misty as we went on a scenic boat tour of the Lysefjord to witness the Pulpit rock that sits 1800 feet above the sea level. Of course a day is not complete with more tasting of local delicacies and in our case we had a snack of Norwegian waffles, strawberry jam and coddled cream with tea. We felt quite adventurous as we sat on the top deck in the wind and slight rain as we soaked up the scenery one last time – as our visit to Stavanger is our last in Norway. As a side note, Stavanger’s main economy is oil production and fish farming (we saw salmon and mussel farms in the fjord). Tomorrow we cross the North Sea and head to Southampton...
It is interesting to note that while at sea you would see hundreds of windmills and oil derricks everywhere. There was never a moment where you didn’t see anything polluting the sea – it was built up and busy!
All in all my first cruise on Crystal was very enjoyable – we met fabulous people, visited places that were incredible and went on amazing adventures. I highly recommend a visit to both Iceland and Norway – there are many ways to visit these areas – each are unique and different!
