The Mystery Cruise

We sailed for two days, headed for Greenland. Sort of. We never got to Greenland at all and ended up on the very north end of Iceland, in a town called Akyreyri. A little ways out of town is a beautiful waterfall called Godefuss, meaning Gods Falls. Story is that when the island turned from "heathen" to "christian", the town fathers threw all the statues of the heathen gods into the falls.

 

Then, a visit to the local botanical garden. This was a place where we could have spent hours, but only had a limited time. Such a variety of plants, all imported.

On to Reykjavik! We had taken the Great Circle Tour before, but went again because it was so neat. First to the Gullfoss Falls:

Then, we went to see...guess what?

Actually, it's a whole field of geysers, hot pools, and bubbling cauldrons. One of them spouts off fairly regularly:

Next stop was Eskifjordur, Iceland. The wind the howling. Captain Aris tried very hard to get the ship on the dock, but the wind was having none of it. This being missed port stop number five (hence the term Mystery Cruise. We never know where we'll end up), we set off for the Faroe Islands, and oh boy did we get a ride. It looked like "victory at sea" outside. Huge waves, screaming winds, lots of strange bumps and bangs. It turned out that one of those bangs was a huge, thick window in the main dining room being broken in by the water. Everything and everyone got soaked. What a mess! Seawater everywhere.

We made it to Torshavn (pronounced Tor-shawn) in the Faroe Islands. They have their own government but are under the protection of Denmark for military and security purposes. Took a scenic ride, mostly through dense fog, around the island. The fog cleared on the western end of the island enough to enjoy the views.

So, now we're heading for Kirkwall in the Scottish Orkney Islands, and hoping for better weather.

Finally Floating!

 We had an early airplane out of Chicago, headed for New York. The plane was on time, which was a minor miracle in and of itself. In New York, we spent the night at the famous Plaza Hotel on Central Park. We would have loved to go for a walk in the park, but discretion was the better part of valor and given the crime situation there, we stayed in. That said, the Plaza is sumptuous:

We set sail the next afternoon for Martha's Vinyard.

The weather gods were not on our side. Martha did without us, as we couldn't get the tenders launched. Onward to Boston, with the weather following. Rain. So much for Boston, we stayed onboard. No biggie, we'd been to Boston before. So onward once again, this time bound for Bar Harbor, Maine, where the weather was lovely. We visited Acadia National Park and enjoyed the beautiful views from the top of the tallest hill.

It's not a joke, they all pronounce it "Bah Hahbah". Even the people who aren't from there.

On to Canada. Next stop, Saint John, New Brunswick. We went on a "Foodie Tour" and ate our way through the downtown area. We ate cupcakes, smoked salmon, goat cheese and pecan pizza, beaver tails (pastry, not real beaver tails), a seaweed called "dulse", and drank wine. We didn't need lunch. Here's the inside of the most popular bar in town, at 11:00 a.m. They closed at 4 a.m. Resident and visiting DJ's...and they only play vinyl.

Next stop, Halifax. Neat town. We visited the Halifax Citidel where we walked the ramparts and watched the changing of the guard:

A walking tour of Sydney took us through the oldest and most historic part of town and then back to the pier, which of course displayed its own symbol:

Corner Brook offered a hiking adventure similar to the one we enjoyed on our first visit, four years ago. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the ages-old, wooden water pipe again, but the hike was still enjoyable.

Then was to come the exciting part: icebergs and the Christiansund passage through Greenland. Nope. Too many icebergs for Cappy's liking and weather of an unfriendly sort once again. Now it was a day at sea and a visit to someplace French! A little cluster of islands called St. Pierre. We were welcomed warmly and lots of people hiked into town to see...not much. We stayed on board and watched the horse, who watched us, along with every car that went by. Apparently they don't see a lot of cruise ships in St. Pierre.

By the way, June 21 was the Summer Solstice. The sun never set.