Greenock, Scotland

Hello from Greenock, Scotland!

View from the ship

Needs a second picture to get it all in

View from my balcony on the other side of the ship

Towards the front of the ship

This morning we finally had a decent time for a sunrise. After weeks of 2-3 AM sunrises (and sometimes no sunrises because the sun never set) we finally have a picture taken close to 5 AM.

4:58 AM

Today's original plan was to get away from the city and visit some Scottish Lochs on a ship tour. But it was one of those they took me off of because of the whole wheelchair/scooter issue so I had to go to a backup plan. Roam around the city taking pictures of a variety of things, of course.

 

Of buildings and their architectural features

 

Of street signs

Dual carriageway means divided road I think

I really liked this sign until I looked closer
and noticed someone had vandalized it

Of inclines I did not climb

And of lilacs I tried really hard to smell. Stuck my nose in deep enough I was afraid I'd get stung by a bee. Oops, it was a butterfly bush. No wonder I couldn't smell anything.

No bees. And no smell.

In my exploring I wound up at the mall where I did some window shopping and picked up some bling for Scooter. The mall then led to the grocery store where I did some potato chips/crisps shopping. After my unsuccessful attempt to taste paprika potato chips in Grundarfjördur, Iceland I explored different flavors here in Scotland. The unique flavors of crisps were plentiful. 

Since I gave up red meat a few weeks ago I decided to settle on something to whet my appetite as well as my taste.

Didn't do the trick

I also strolled the Esplanade along the waterfront. Unfortunately I found it somewhat dirty and run down so I didn't go but a mile or so. (Later I heard someone describe it as depressing.) I guess I was expecting more based on what I'd read.

Pretty across the water, just not on the walkway

At least the seagull didn't look troublesome

When I got back to the cruise terminal I realized how close the grocery store really had been. It wasn't marked well so I originally had passed it by without knowing it was even there.

Grocery entrance was right across the street from the stoplight

I took an unexpected nap when I got back to the cabin and decided to call it a day long before the real end of the day. Tomorrow is a sea day and then we'll be back in Southampton on Wednesday for yet another turnaround day. Most of the folks will be leaving and we'll have a whole new bunch joining us. See you then!

Reykjavik, Iceland

Hello from Reykjavik!

Not much of a view from the ship

It's windy but foggy out there today

Almost looks like a chalk outline of a dead body, doesn't it?

Nope, just follow the walking man to the city

I had definite plans today and they included taking the free shuttle bus into the city. It's the same bus I took back on Jun 5 when we were here last. The blog post about that visit is here.  But when I looked out to see how long the shuttle line was I decided to wait for a while.

You'd think it was a ship tour with how many people were waiting

When we were delivered to the Harpa Concert Hall I knew I wanted to go behind the building to get a picture with boats in the foreground and the building in the back.

Exactly the picture I was looking for!

And then I again wandered for a while, winding up in some of the same places as last month. It's now the busy summer tourist season and the city was much more packed with crowds than six weeks ago. While I had no plans to have a Pylsur hot dog the line this time was just a little bit different than last.

June 5

Today, July 21

When I was here in June it was the first day I was out and about after having Covid. I was feeling weak and unsure of myself and remember trying really hard to make sure I wasn't too rough on the scooter. I took some pictures today of some of the same pavements we scootered on then and realized Reykjavik walkways were pretty easy in comparison to what I've seen since. Boy, how far Scooter and I have come!

Okay, maybe this one wasn't so easy. But the rest were.

Can't forget the sign

The plans I had for the day requiring the shuttle bus ride involved fish and chips. Here on the ship I'm doing a terrible job of eating my meals. For breakfast I have the same scrambled eggs stuffed with veggies and crispy bacon on the side. No toast, no bread, no muffins, and no potatoes. 

And since everything still tastes like toilet water (including those morning eggs) I usually skip lunch and wait for dinner. This is where I wind up having the same thing most every day. Fish and chips. It's not because I like fish and chips but because I like the texture combination the fish and chips provides with the crunchy batter, tender fish, and salty fries. (Here's a weird one - I usually don't eat the fries but lick the salt off of them because I can occasionally taste salty things.) But I'm tired of fish and chips. Sometimes the batter is soggy and sometimes the fish is tough. Plus the grease? Bleh. So I wanted my long standing fish and chips streak to come to an end in a big way. On land, though.

My first restaurant choice was one Ed and I had been to years ago but it's out of business. My second restaurant choice had three big steps to get into it so it was out. Third restaurant choice? Two steps. Maybe I should try this one with their tasting menu instead?

I could eat puffins, whales, and horse all in the same meal?
Yeah, probably not.

I felt like I was going around in circles trying to find a place serving fish and chips where I didn't have to carry the scooter into it or wasn't so busy I couldn't even get through the no-step door. I almost thought I was going to have to settle on something else. 

Swiss chard or?

On a whim (always, right?) I headed down to the hotel where Ed and I stayed years ago. 

Looks like a new company owns the hotel now

I knew there were some restaurants in the area and I came across one serving fish and chips. After a quick Google search I saw it had great reviews, but...UGH. I was going to have to carry Scooter up two steps then over another big threshold to get inside. At this point I was already on the umpteenth choice of restaurants so I had to go for it. While it was difficult to get into, out of, and navigate inside of, Kopar did the trick.

Delicious sourdough bread with a flavored butter I couldn't taste. But the bread was chewy and the green butter looked pretty. And they served the butter with salt on top of it - on top of a rock. Interesting.

That's a rock under the green butter

Then there was the fish. Huge pieces of cod with a super crispy batter. Oh, my. 

The inside was light and flaky and oh-so-tender.

The combination of the batter and fish and fries and bread and butter was the best texture combination a girl could ask for as her last fish and chips of the summer. I couldn't even eat half of my meal so the rest is sitting in my refrigerator waiting for dinnertime. (Or the trash. Cold fish and chips? I'm not sure on that one.) It's probably stinking up the refrigerator anyway. I can't smell so I wouldn't know it but it probably stunk up the shuttle bus on the ride back, too.

Speaking of the shuttle bus...the driver told us the fog is actually volcano fog. The Fagradalsfjall volcano is erupting about 20 miles away from here. No one seems too worried about it, but if you're interested you can watch a live view of it erupting from the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service at https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-07-11-live-streaming-from-eruption-387597. It's quite fascinating to watch. I know if it was 20 miles from my house I'd be a bit concerned. Oh, wait, it is.

We have a couple sea days ahead of us and then on Monday the itinerary tells us we'll be in Glasgow (Greenock), Scotland. I'm guessing it means we'll be docking in Greenock and Glasgow will be a long bus ride away. I'll see you then and will let you know!

Grundarfjördur, Iceland

Hello from Grundarfjördur!

View from the ship

Another view from the ship

Last night as we crossed the Arctic circle we sailed through the same waters where we unexpectedly had to navigate through an Arctic Ice flow last month. You can see those photos here. I figured in July we wouldn't have the same issue but it didn't stop me from looking outside each time I got up to use the bathroom. Nope, no ice. But I did see minke whales swimming along like I did when we were headed to Honningsvag, Norway. As they are super quick I didn't get any pictures. I also didn't get any pictures of the pod of orcas I saw jumping and splashing off my balcony as I waited for my 6:15 alarm to go off. They reminded me of the day we saw humpback whales breaching as we left Glacier Bay, Alaska 10 years ago. You can see those photos here.

A planter box in Grundarfjördur today shows a bit of what I saw this morning

We had face to face immigration with Icelandic officials and, well, it was interesting. They were stamping all passports so it was taking much longer than the quick UK look at the passport/look at you/look at the passport and send you on your way routine we've had the last couple times. Usually the line has shortened by the time I'm finished with my breakfast but not this time. Not by a long shot. They started at 7 AM and by 9:30 it still stretched almost the entire length of the ship.

It took me a full hour to finally get to an official. I renewed my passport before I left for this trip so I don't have any stamps yet but she flipped through my pages again and again. She was looking for a stamp showing I had entered a Schengen country so she could stamp me as exiting a Schengen country. Since I had not flown internationally I didn't have one of those stamps. When she finally asked me where I had embarked and how I got here (Los Angeles, May 11, by this cruise ship only) she handed me the passport and sent me on my way. With no stamp. Huh. So no one has record I was even in a Schengen country, I guess?

With my passport tucked back into the safe, I headed to get my tender ticket and get myself to shore. And today, like I do a lot, I just wandered. I followed crowds; I didn't follow crowds. It's a small town so I covered a lot of ground in a short time. I strolled the waterfront and snapped a clear picture of green-as-can-be Mt. Kirkjufell.

I rolled through the town, checking out homes and cars and flowers and yards with tall mountains in the background.

I contemplated making my way to the church on the hill. I decided to go for it, dragging scooter up it with me.

I decided to stop in the grocery store which was packed with cruise ship passengers. Yesterday I saw paprika potato chips and wished I had bought a bag to see if I could taste them. Paprika is a strong flavor, right? Nope, not for me.

Couldn't even smell them

I encountered all kinds of driving surfaces during my adventure, some better than others.

When I made my way back to the tender dock I saw lots of people pointing to the water and taking pictures. It didn't take me too long to see what had them so excited. 

Puffins! 

I tried to get as close as I could but all my photos taken with my phone looked like this:

Where's a decent zoom when I need it?

But I had an ace in the hole. The benefit of being on the ship so long is you make friends with people who work here. For the last two months the wheelchair assist guys have helped me and Scooter make our way up and down the gangways in every single port and every single tender port. As I was up above taking photos of puffins one of my buddies was down at the tenders (at water level!) taking photos and was kind enough to share with me. And I'm sharing with you.

Bye, gotta go!

As these were my first real live sightings of puffins in my life I made sure to stop at the little kiosk at the dock and pick up something to commemorate our visit. I was able to separate the pen from the puffin so I now have a pen and Scooter has a puffin.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun soaking up the rays.

Afternoon view from my balcony

Tomorrow we're in Reykjavik for the second visit of the summer. See you then!