I have been away for two weeks on a glorious Cruise around the Fjords, The Faeroe Islands and Iceland. Due to the cost of using the Internet on the ship, which was £2.50 every time you wanted to connect, it was 35p a minute after that. Seeing as they have the line open anyway for their own use and anyone else using it doesn't cost them anything, it's another way for P & O to make a total rip-off profit out of the general paying public to keep in touch. The "Cyberstudy" was empty every day on board and that must tell them something.
We travelled with 2 other couples - Dave Pateman and his g/f Val and Den and Gill. We know Dave and Val well and have been on holiday with them before, and Gill and Den who are from Totton we've met before and are a really good laugh and one of us. They had 9 pieces of Luggage !
So - for the virtual experience :-
4/6/13. 2:30 pm
Arrived on board with an easy and quick check in at the Mayflower terminal in Southampton. The sun is shining and the gin tastes fabulous. Dave and Val arrived an hour after us and joined us for drinks.
It's lovely and warm. Food was great and we got to know our Wine and Food wallahs for the duration of our trip. Dave's term for waiters is obviously a Wallah. A rare picture :
Dave said to me if I'd got any ice in the room yet, I said where to you get that from, he said the Ice wallah. All the crew are Indian !
5/6/13
We took breakfast mainly on Deck 12 called the Orangery which is an enourmous buffet. We are en route to Stavanger in Norway which will take 2 day's steaming. Wandering round the ship you get to find places comfortable for relaxing. We decided that the Crystal Pool bar upstairs was nice and quiet so nicknamed it the Steam Room as it was hot and humid, but very pleasant and you just had to show your cruise card and the gin wallah was there taking orders.
Looking at the bulletin for the day (we found in our cabin the night before) I decided to start a Watercolour Artist's course, run by a very good painter called Robert Newcombe. (www.robertnewcombeartist.com). Having not painted since school I was interested to see how it was done. For £20 you got 3 brushes, a pencil, an eraser, a box of 10 watercolour paints and some special paper. You start with a grid and then it's easier to draw the picture. We painted our first one in monochrome and then made it a bit more interesting with other colours. Here is my effort :
Dress code tonight is the old Monkey Suit - black tie. Bill has never worn one (we went to M&S before we left) and when we met up with Den, Gill, and Val, apparently the swearing that went on from Dave was non-stop whilst he was getting dressed. So there we are in our suited and booted regalia.
It's the Captain's night so we are a staggered entry into the Crows Nest bar on deck 13 and if you want to spend £9.95 you can have a photo taken with him. We didn't. Here we are all dressed up :
Note : Dave hates his photograph being taken so unless I can catch him off-guard you won't see much of him. After we finished the captains reception, we had to go downstairs to the Restaurant on Deck 7 but as the lifts were full up on top deck decided to walk down the stairs. Dave managed to run down before us and push the stop buttons all the way to the restaurant level so the occupants of the lifts had to stop at every level ! Someone caught their jacket in the lift doors and an argument ensued whilst we giggled like children ! Gill and Den were in the lift and told us how irritated the passengers were in the lift so Dave had his desired effect.
Decided to go to the disco and have some fun. Got Dave up to dance with me to "stardust" and Val and I did our bit jumping and jiving to old records. There is a picture of Dave on the dance floor which Val has on her camera which I will post later. Left disco quite late - about 1am.
6/6/13 Woke up in Stavanger to a lovely sunny day and walked round the town, but apart from a couple of interesting buildings not much to do.
Back on board for drinks and lunch, the smoked mackerel and fish cakes were a hit with Bill and Val and Daves curry looked appetising as did my chocolate eclair. So now we are off to the crystal pool bar to people watch again.
Had a lovely dinner with Jill and Den in the evening after Andersons for drinks. There is a mincy gay beer wallah there ! It was quite apparent at midnight after dinner that it was still daylight.
7/6/13 So woke up this morning having arrived in Flam. We didn't book the train trip as it was overbooked we took a coach ride to a viewpoint high up one of the mountains. The hairpin bends are the worst I've been on and even Val looked a little concerned. The viewpoint itself is man made bathing platform type of structure, built into the mountain with a platform sticking out. It has clear glass at the end and it took all my nerves to look over the edge. Worth the drive though, the town below looked a 100 miles down.
So back for some late lunch on the boat and back to the "steam room" on deck 12 which is a lounging place with a swimming pool and jaccuzis below. On good days the roof opens up as the sunlight is quite strong now and when the sun is out is it very hot. There is no night time, so you never know what time it is.
8/6/13 Arrived in Alesund this morning. Overcast and drizzly, but we went ashore to the fishermans museum which unfortunately all the artefacts were in Norwegian but we didn't pay any entrance fee of 50nok because there was no-one around, so we looked at them ourselves and made up stories. Big fishing fleet for cod at the turn of the 20th century, herrings, barrell making and cod liver oil presses. Alesund is a big fishing port and we looked at some purse seiners.
Wanted to go to another museum about the fire in 1904 and the rebulding of Alesund but it was closed. Had a coffee in a bar (coffee dreadful) 3cups and a pint of beer nearly £20.
It started raining quite badly so back to the ship for lunch. Presently in the steam room again. I had a swim and jacuzzi and Val had a facial nearby, wrapped up like a mummy.
The sun has come out and it's very warm now, people are walking outside on the prom deck. We leave port for Iceland soon but won't be there until Monday. The captain has just announced that there is a change of plan and we now leave tomorrow morning for the Faroese, so our Iceland trips are delayed for a day. We will still be back as scheduled though. My painting day is still on tomorrow and I now have 3 days on the way home to paint some more !!
We saw a comedian in the evening who was very funny doing regional accents.
9/6/13 Went to the art class this morning with Jill and Den and drew a picture of a sailing yacht with mountains in the background, then the next sea day will be spent painting the drawing in monochrome. On our way to the Faroese and will arrive in the morning.
Done very little since and we are all a bit bored, but then everyone else looks the same. Black tie dress tonight, much to Dave and Bills regret ! Here's Bill in the Cabin in his aye-up Hat.
10/6/13 arrived in Torshavn - not much to see in the town and Captain Mick was right there are no trees. Very barren but stunning scenery with little villages strewn here and there. Took a taxi ride for an hour (£60) but between 4 of us not too bad. He took us to a ancient Viking village that was just a few grassy humps and there were no bars ! In fact we had a job to find a bar in the town centre but eventually did and a round came to £18. Had to pay by card as they didn't take euros. We haven't spent any of our euros apart from the taxi driverr's 10 euro tip.
Grassy Humps of an Ancient Viking village
Another rare picture of Dave with a bit of Bill's encouragement.
I think if Bill hadn't had his hand on his shoulder Dave would look like a puppet !
11/6/13. Day at sea again towards Iceland where I had my art class and successfully painted my first picture. Jill and Den have a similar one too. Sat in crows nest bar with a G&T with Dave and Val discussing booking a trip on arrival in the first port in Iceland. Black tie again tonight, still only one more of that rubbish to go then it's all over with the dressing up.
It's comic night again tonight.
12/6/13. Got up to the most spectacularly scenery ever in Alekyrui in Iceland. All the on board trips were full but we managed a private one in a minibus on the quay with Johann and we saw all the things the trip would have taken us on for less than the onboard price, so it was good value. Saw some wonderful waterfalls. Half way through this Jill and Den text to say that their coach had broken down and they were in the middle of the mountains to wait for another. Johann gave us some very detailed info on the history here, we went on an old trawler that is a sort of museum but was closed due to works but they let us on anyway. Nice stroll around a lovely harbour and then back on board for a late lunch. Got a couple of souvenirs, Chilli jam and a t shirt.
Casual dress tonight and there is some entertainment we may go to later. It's still sunlight at 00:30.
Scenery here is something else. Whales are supposedly reported at the mouth of the Alekyrui fjord so we will look out for those.
13/6/13 Arrived at Isafjordur this morning to fog. After breakfast decided to go ashore via the tender as we are at anchor. We lost Dave and Val and as at 5pm back on board they have not been seen. Lovely little town, then we read the brochure after we got back aboard and should have done loads more things ! Still we have been on the stern deck for the last 2 Hours in hot sunshine and I had to put sunscreen on. Everyone is sunbathing. Incredible !! There is no night and it's still daylight at midnight and we hope to see the midnight sun tonight as its very clear of clouds. Lovely dinner again tonight with a lot of banter about Jill and Dens eating habits it's five a day meals. Saw a vey good sax and clarinet player last night at the show doing jazz songs with the Aurora orchestra.
14/6/13. Woke up in Rekyavik this morning to a bit of a cloudy day. We are all booked on the Blue lagoon excursion which ended up only Val and I actually went into the hot pools. It was absolutely lovely - a brilliant experience not to be missed. Dave and Bill sat in the bar, killjoys, said the pools looked like a nuclear experiment. They actually had a bar in the pool so Val and I drank a glass of wine whilst floating about with our mud on our shoulders. Must have been in a hour or more.
Had a look around the harbour on our return to see the biggest trawlers Bill has every set eyes on, plus 2 Whaling boats, steam driven.
This is the Opera House in Rekyavik
Sun has come out and it's very hot so sunbathing outside on top deck. Climate very strange as its so hot seeing its so far north.
Back on board ship now for the 3 days to Southampton hoping we are not all going stir crazy, well I have more art classes to go to and I will try my hand at doing some works myself from the pics Ive taken. . Just set sail now leaving Rekyavic towards blighty for Tuesday 18th.
15-17 June days at sea are pretty boring but I have my art class and Bill is going to the daily talks on History and today was about the battle of Trafalgar. Dave got a bit pissed last night sitting in Andersons Bar. I haven't heard from Tania as to her impending birth and am waiting eagerly for the network phones to kick in to ring her and ask how things are. So, our final black tie night of the cruise and we took some pictures again.
Our wine wallah Jay who delivers our wine in the evenings has just invited us all on board on 5th July and he will be organising a free pass. We get to see the behind the scenes of how the ship runs which should be interesting and lunch on board.
Well a successful holiday - although Bill said cruising isn't for him, rather do it in our own boat.
Note : I complained many times about the piped music in the Crows Nest bar, which was too loud, and is a place where people go to sit quietly and look from Deck 13 forward at the scenery from the top of the ship and read books. I'm sure it's for the Staff. Well, I'm a paying guest. I did mention it in the on-board questionnaire.
Scratching a Troll !
and I thought these houses in Stavanger were very pretty
And of course, my final watercolour of an Icelandic church.
More to post next week - come back !
Chrystianne
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