Relaxing in Ft. Lauderdale

Once we got ourselves together, we went for breakfast at our favourite spot in this area, the Harbour Café. We should have called ahead for a reservation! Boy, was it busy, and the food was just as good as before. Once we were finished we decided that we needed to work some of those calories off, and headed to the Galleria Mall to wander around a little. The Black Friday crowds had thinned out considerably so it was an easy walk around, but we discovered that the one or two things we wanted to price were actually cheaper at home!

We headed back to the hotel to relax at the pool and on the terrace for the afternoon, and watch the cruise ships go out before meeting Susan and Byron for dinner.

 

 

A couple of hours at the pool, with a cool drink in between, and a quick dip in the ocean and it was time to get ready for dinner. We had skipped lunch in preparation for dinner, and finished the rest of our cheese and crackers on the terrace.

Oasis of the Seas on her way out

The Eurodam, sister ship to the one we will be
sailing on

We had a wonderful dinner with Susan and Byron, and managed to surprise him with a bag full of Tim-Tams that we brought along from home

.All in all, it was a lovely day and put us all in the mood for cruising!  This afternoon we’ll be on board. More to update later!

Out to Sea again

Hi, everybody!

Well, we managed to get the four of us down here without any delays or issues. In fact, everything went so smoothly that we got to the hotel about an hour before we had expected we would!  We are staying at the Lago Mar, right on the beach and just a little way up from the cruise port. Last time we were here we had a pool view room (check out the blog from February 2012) but couldn't see the cruise ships, so we asked for beach view rooms this time. And this is our view:

Vision of the Seas leaving port - but we're getting a little ahead of ourselves

One of our rooms was ready so we settled in there and went to the hotel restaurant for lunch. The service staff was just as friendly as we remembered and the food just as good!

Mom's chicken wings

Renate with her lobster and crab cakes

The rest of the afternoon was relaxed, getting Mom and Renate settled into their room and then sitting on our terrace with a drink. After Vision of the Seas went out, Renate and Monica went for a short stroll along the beach - at least it was supposed to be short. They ended up going all the way to the channel entrance for the port and back.

Mom and Renate's room from the beach. Ours is below and to the left

Our living room. There's a separate bedroom, ensuite and main baths,
and a kitchenette.

A couple of beach chairs down by the surf

The view from the terrace

Tonight we're having dinner at the hotel restaurant, Acquario, with Susan and Byron, so we have to keep an eye on the size of breakfast and dinner. More updates later!

Out of the Cold...

Hi, Everybody!

Sorry to have left you all hanging after Reykjavik, but there really wasn't much to see after that point...In fact, it was nothing more than dark, cloudy skies and rough, grey, windy, wavy seas for SEVEN whole days! After finally leaving Reykjavik after that beautiful sunset - the high winds kept us on the pier for an extra 5 hours - we ran smack into the remnants of Hurricane Lesley and spent the next 5 days literally bobbing around in the North Atlantic. We got a bit of a break when we reached Newfoundland, but by then we were so far behind schedule that our port stop in Halifax had already been cancelled. Too bad - the nicest day we had on the second half of the trip was the one we should have spent there. As we sailed by the Halifax area at 5:00 p.m., there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was a gorgeous 20 degrees C!  Ah, well, the cruise staff and guest lecturers managed to put together enough presentations that our day programs were full and interesting.

So much for the last cruise - now we're setting up for the next one again. This time we're travelling into the western Caribbean on Holland America's Niew Amsterdam along with Mom and her friend Renate. It should be a great time - everyone's been looking forward to it since the summer.

Of course, we can't go on vacation without the required 'cat shot'. At least this time Franklin is starting to co-operate...

 

 

...even though he doesn't look overly pleased.

 

 

We will be spending a couple of days in Ft. Lauderdale before boarding the ship. The cruise is for 1 week and will take us to the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Honduras. Shore excursions have already been booked, and we're sure everybody's packed and ready, so, here we go!!

Iceland Outback

The evening of our first day in Reykjavik stayed nice and clear; we had a beautiful sunset and hoped that Mother Nature would be nice enough to provide some night-time colour in the form of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. The astronomer who had presented on the Queen Mary 2 told us that the sun is in a particularly active phase, which means there is a greater possibility of seeing them, but it still needs certain amount luck…

Monica with a hot toddy in the new Palm Court. Nice sweater, eh?

As it turns out, we didn't see them, although we had a great opportunity to check out some constellations that aren't usually visible from southern Ontario.

Wednesday began with fairly calm winds and bright sunshine, but the forecast was for a new weather system to move in – just in time for us to leave that evening. We hoped that the tour would stay ahead of the weather, and we set out on our 4x4 Adventure and Lobster Lunch.

The whole tour group fit into four customized 4x4 off-road vehicles. We climbed into the biggest one, at the front of the line. Good thing, because the tour guide was in our car and we could hear all of her commentary quite clearly; some of the people in the other cars had some trouble as it was broadcast to them via the inter-vehicle radios. We also had 'the Boss' as our driver – he had built our vehicle himself, out of a Ford F-350 truck (the front half) and a Ford Expedition (the back half) with an interior from Harley-Davidson. And a REALLY BIG engine from we know not where! Here's a photo of Larry and the truck:

As we left the city, we passed the local golf course. Our tablemates Suzanne and Jim were supposed to be playing, along with about 20 other guests and the golf pro; we found out later that they heard the weather forecast and 'wimped out'. But it looked rather intriguing, nonetheless:

We really didn't have to go that far outside of Reykjavik to reach the lava fields since virtually all of Iceland is an active volcano. After a short drive on a well paved highway, we turned off onto a dirt road and shortly found ourselves driving along the shore of a lake formed by an ancient volcanic eruption. According to our guide, the lakes depth rises and falls with the local volcanic activity. It is currently at a low, leaving a large beach which we were about to explore. By way of a short drive off what appeared to be a cliff!!! Here is what it looked like from the beach!

After driving back up onto the road, by way of an almost-beach-level access we had actually passed on the way in, we headed for our next stop, the local hot springs. The land mass of Iceland sits on top of a constantly bubbling pool of lava. Ground water seeps down to the lava, is vapourized and escapes as steam that pops up randomly above the surface. The name Reykjavik actually translates as "Bay of Smoke" in the Norse language that the Icelandic language derives from and steam clouds can be seen everywhere as you drive along. This particular hotspring is one of the largest near the city and has a series of paths and overlooks so you can get up-close-and-personal with the bubbling mud. And the smell, a result of the naturally occurring sulphur that is a by-product of your average volcano. Think of "egg salad sandwich day" at your high school cafeteria. Times ten!!

'Bubble, bubble, toil and'.. horrendous smell!

Another interesting thing about the hotspring is its location in the Rift Valley. Iceland is actually part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which divides the North America tectonic plate from the Eurasia tectonic plate. The really interesting thing is that these two plates are moving in opposite directions, which means that one day in the distant future Iceland will become two separate islands. If you look in the background of the picture below, you will see the valley and a line of low hills in the distance. Those hills are on the Eurasia plate, while where we were standing is on the North America plate, making Iceland the only place where you can travel from Europe to North America without a passport. Something we did several times over the course of the afternoon!

After leaving the hot spring, we headed toward the coast, still driving among the lava fields, to visit an old church, known as the Strandakirkja, or Beach Church. It was built on the beachfront by some sailors who, after their ship ran against some rocks and sank, promised God they would put up a church on the spot where they might safely reach the shore. The original church was destroyed a time or two in its history, but has always been rebuilt in a similar manner.

The beach in front of the church at low tide

The church interior. Most village churches in Iceland have ceilings
painted blue with stars.

After that, we headed for our Icelandic Lobster lunch. Our drivers took us to another small town, and to a beachfront restaurant – you try to pronounce that name! In true European fashion, everything was served family style; tomato, cucumber and lettuce salads – and then the waiters came around with these big bowls filled with lobster tails and boiled new potatoes. Looked yummy, and tasted really good, too! The lobsters are very small, almost the size of a jumbo shrimp, but also very sweet.

Attack! And that wasn't his first helping!!

Lunch break over, we climbed back into the trucks and headed out to where, as our guide said, 'the adventure really begins!'. But nicely visible in the distance we could see the three largest volcanoes of Iceland, including the one that erupted a couple of years ago and caused all the aviation chaos with its huge, thick ash cloud. Don't ask us to even try to spell its name, never mind pronounce it. One of the volcanoes is in the background of this photo of the Icelandic Horses. The horses themselves are quite interesting. Horses were originally brought to the island by the Vikings. No one else ever brought any others, so all Icelandic horses are directly descended from the Viking horses. The rules about these horses are so strict that, if ever a horse leaves the country for any reason, it cannot come back. These horses are in no danger of extinction, either. There are over 100,000 in Iceland; some may do some work, but most are owned as 'pets'.

Another village church

After a short drive from the town, we turned off onto a dirt track and our guide told us to make sure we were "buckled up". Good thing we were! For the next twenty minutes we raced along, across, over and right down the middle of a stream!!

One of the other trucks racing by to give us a
bit of a car wash.

Bounding out of the stream our driver made a bee line for what appeared to be yet another cliff, but instead of going around it, he went straight up the face. Or at least he tried to. Much like climbing a hill in a snowstorm, we slowly ran out of speed and slid backwards down the hill while the other vehicles raced past and up to the top. After fiddling with his gear shift, our driver commented "might work better if it was in four wheel drive", at which point we rocketed up the hill and over the top! And found ourselves on a plateau in the middle of a wind storm! Our guide announced we could get out, but when she opened her door and her short hair stood straight up in the air, we decided to pass on that opportunity.

Heading back down off the "mountain" we headed for our final stop at the new thermal generating station. As we mentioned earlier, Iceland sits on a vast lava pool and the Icelanders make use of this by tapping into huge pools of underground hotsprings and using both the steam and the hot water. We visited one of seventeen different thermal "wells" supporting this new generating station. The water comes out of the ground at 380C degrees and is piped about five kilometres to the generating station through massive copper pipes, losing only about 2C degrees along the way. The steam is used to generate electricity and the "waste" water is then piped to Reykjavik, over 50 kilometres away, where it arrives at 98C, or just below boiling point!!!!! It used to be pumped straight into the water system at that temperature, but they realized very quickly that doing so was not a really good idea as it came out of household taps at just about the same 98C. While it might be convenient to be able to make tea with your tap water, it is not a really good idea when taking a bath! They now mix it automatically with cold water so it comes out of the average hot water tap at a mere 40C, which is still awfully hot!!!! An interesting side note to the thermal springs. While we did not see them, there are apparently a large number of thermal hot houses in a couple of towns in Iceland where they grow bananas, as well as other tropical fruits, 12 months of the year!

The primary vent pipes

The new thermal generating station

On the way back to the ship, the weather finally caught up to us. We had been told to expect a change, and by the time we reached the ship the wind was howling and the temperature had dropped significantly. We were scheduled to depart at 5:00, and Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas was bobbing around off the harbour waiting for our parking spot. Unfortunately, there was little manoeuvring room where we were docked and the wind, now blowing very hard directly from the right, would not let the ship come off the dock! The Captain announced that he planned to wait until the wind decreased, but finally at 10:00 they had to call in the tugs to pull us off the dock and we were on our way. Never did see Brilliance, so we're not sure where it went, but if they had been bouncing around like we were soon bouncing around, we're betting they were really happy to see us finally leave!!!!

Next Stop, Iceland!

After leaving Dublin, the itinerary called for two days at sea before our next port stop in Akureyri, on the northeast coast of Iceland, but as the old saying goes about the best laid plans…….

As a quick aside, on the first of our two expected sea days before Iceland, we had arranged a dinner at Prego for some of the Cruise Critic people as well as Jim and Steve. A couple of people couldn't make it, and instead we were joined by John Loesser. Here's the photo of all of us at the table:

From left: Steve, Jim, Larry, Monica, (the other) Larry, Nancy & John

After an uneventful Saturday spent sailing northward, things began to get just a bit rougher Sunday morning. Of course, we had been warned. At his morning update Saturday, Captain Zander said that the wind would come up and waves would grow as we headed north. That evening, at the Cruise Critic cocktail party he told us that the forecast for Akureyri was not looking good, with strong winds and 30 foot waves, meaning we might have to cancel.  Sure enough, at the Sunday update he announced that due to forecast winds of 50 MPH, waves of 30 – 40 feet and SNOW, he had decided to cancel Akureyri. Good plan!!! All we need to tell you, to describe how rough the seas were Sunday and Monday, is that we are on Deck 10 and about10:30 Monday morning a wave washed our balcony door! It looked like someone threw a bucket of water at the door. Scared the heck out of Monica who was quietly sitting in the cabin knitting! She even dropped a stitch!!!!!!!!

First view of Iceland, before the clouds and fog rolled in

How the verandah looked AFTER the wave!

On Tuesday we arrived in Reykjavik about 4 hours before our original schedule, so we had a little more time to explore the city. It was a pretty day, nice and bright and about 7 degrees C, but with the strong wind it felt more like 1 or 2 degrees. Since we were in no particular hurry to go ashore, we thought we would take advantage of the room service breakfast option before we set out on our day.

It turned out to be a good thing that we'd packed some extra warm stuff for the whale watching we were supposed to do in Akureyri; at least we still got the use out of it. There was a shuttle bus service running all day, so we decided to do some exploring and maybe a little souvenir shopping.

Our first stop was the Hallgrimskirkja, the main church in Reykjavik and the biggest landmark in the city. It took 40 years to build and was opened in 1986. It is quite an impressive structure from both the outside and the inside, and is a great example of minimalist design. The statue outside is of Lief Ericsson, acknowledged to be the founder of the Viking colonies in Iceland.

It is also only one example of modern architecture around Reykjavik. For some reason, we don't think of a country as remote as Iceland to be as progressive and modern as its equivalents in Europe or North America, but it is a very interesting mixture of traditional and new. It is in a way just a representation of the country's culture – the people mix a firm basis in tradition, such as their own language that has stood since the Vikings and which they don't want to lose, with new technologies and uses for the geothermal energy that is abundant everywhere due to the volcanic nature of the landmass. (We'll go into that a little later.)


One of the other traditions is the folklore around trolls and elves. Elves are the 'good guys' who are there to help if anyone asks, and the trolls are the mischievous ones who like to make trouble, so the elves keep the trolls in line. In this way, the Viking tradition was carried here from Norway. And into downtown Reykjavik!

Larry and his new friend!

On our way out in the morning we bumped into another couple we know who were already on their way back. They commented that there was nothing to see and their first impression of Reykjavik was correct "grey with a little grey thrown in for colour." We're glad we didn't take their advice. After visiting the church, and doing our bit for the Icelandic economy on the main shopping drag, we decided to just wander about and see what there was to see. And this is what we found;

After all that sightseeing, it was time for lunch, so we set off in search of a restaurant and some authentic Icelandic food. Found it!!!

Monica's lobster salad and Larry with his lobster sandwich

As we had a tour scheduled for Wednesday anyway, after lunch we headed back to the ship and a leisurely afternoon of high intensity relaxation. But we did pass an interesting boat along the way.

A sylized depiction of a Viking ship on the waterfront