• Eric Johnstone
  • Eric Johnstone

North Europe Cruise

A 28-day adventure by Eric Read more
  • Trip start
    September 11, 2024

    Reykjavík, Iceland

    September 1, 2024 in Iceland ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    They have some nice buildings in Reykjavik. I noticed this building has the balcony completely enclosed in glass so that you can enjoy the balcony in the winter.

    On the last picture, I came across this veterinary clinic with the poster of the cat getting struck by lighting. I am a little concerned about cats in Iceland.Read more

  • Nanortalik, Greenland

    September 4, 2024 in Greenland ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Greenland felt like the frontier of civilization. If it is to hot in Austin for you, you could move to Greenland where the high was 40 in September. Most of the local people I saw looked more like Eskimos then European. The icebergs just float up to the shore in town.Read more

  • The Maintenance Man

    September 11, 2024 in Iceland ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    I had the most amazing conversation with the maintenance man. I noticed the bathroom door in my cabin was hitting the plastic smoke detector mounted on the ceiling. When I showed this to the maintenance man he said the bathroom door is suppose to hit the plastic smoke detector and that the smoke detector is the door stop for the bathroom door. I then said I am concerned that the bathroom door will knock the smoke detector off the ceiling when the bathroom door swings from the ship movement. The maintenance man then said, yes please keep the bathroom door closed or the swinging of the door from the ship, could knock the smoke detector off the ceiling.
    I then moved on to talk about the metal rod attached to the top of the bathroom door, which the maintenance man called the "door closer". I showed the maintenance man that the "door closer" does not close the bathroom door. The maintenance man then said the "door closer" is not suppose to close the bathroom door. I then asked, if the "door closer" is not suppose to close the door and is not suppose to keep the door from hitting the smoke detector, what does the "door closer" do? The maintenance man did not know what the "door closer" was suppose to do or why it is installed on the door in the first place. But the maintenance man was 100% sure everything was in full working order and everything was exactly as the ship designers intended.
    After talking to the maintenance man, all I could think of was, I remember having very similar conversations in the early days of Mt Playmore.
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  • Ulvik Norway

    September 13, 2024 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    This area started off as an apple growing area and they are still growing apples to this day. If you are going to pick a place to grow apples, this is a great place to pick.

  • Oslo

    September 15, 2024 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    First picture is the opera house.
    The second to last picture with the green mound, is a green tarp covering salt. Now that is a lot of salt. The white silo next to the green tarp is used to load the salt onto trucks.
    The last picture is a huge, over night ferry that runs from Norway to Germany where you stay in a cabin for the night. I realized that people where taking ferries from Norway to Germany before airplane.
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  • Stavanger

    September 17, 2024 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    1. Houses near the port.
    2. What looks like an a ship built a long ago for someone very wealthy.
    3. A super yacht which was right next to the old ship.
    4. Norway is still hiring for the off shore oil platforms.
    5. Model of an off shore oil platform.
    6. This is a box they lower down onto offshore gas pipe lines to make repairs. Once the box is in place they pump air into the box to displace the water and allow people to work on the pipe. The box also picks the pipe off the sea floor during the work.
    7. This shows how there are a number of concentric pipes that go down to the oil. The outer pipe goes down 500m, then they install a smaller pipe that goes down the first 500m then another 500m to a depth of 1,000m. They keep repeating this with smaller diameter pipes until they reach oil. I think they do this to keep the earth on the sides of the hole from collapsing into the hole.

    I feel like Norway wants to be this environmentally friendly country but does not want to give up on the money from the oil and gas industry.
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  • Ísafjörður, Iceland

    September 22, 2024 in Iceland ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    There is a tunnel you drive thru to get to the water falls. I think the tunnel is the longest in Iceland and it has an intersection in the middle of the tunnel. It is like three tunnels that meet in the middle of a mountain. I think it took us about 10 mins to drive thru the tunnel.Read more

  • Edinburgh Castle

    September 27, 2024 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Do you know what the difference is between a castle and a palace? A castle is build for defense and a palace is built as a residence.
    In the second to last picture is a banquet hall inside the castle for official guest. It is also the hall George R. R. Martin saw when he came up with the red wedding scene.
    In the last picture, George R. R. Martin used the Edinburgh sigil for the Lannister sigil and just switch the colors.
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  • Airplane Museum

    September 29, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    1,2 Is a double deck water plane that flew from England to Australia making many stops along the way.
    3. Is a fighter plane cockpit with to many buttons.
    4. A Spitfire plane.
    5. Early jet engines were based on a turbo design. Some of the fighter plans during World War II had turbos for piston engines so they could fly at higher altitudes. Then the engineers greatly increased the size of a turbo to make the first jet engines.Read more

  • Liverpool

    October 5, 2024 in England ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Liverpool is a nice city but I thought London is better choice to visit. Lots of people on the ship where talking about wanting to seeing "The Beatles", so I keep my eye on the ground looking for beetles and I did not see a single one.Read more

  • Ijmuiden, Neatherlands

    October 7, 2024 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    1. German World War II pillbox.
    2. German artillery mount.
    3. I think these are giant spools that had the under sea power cables for the off shore wind turbines.
    4. The smallest car I think I have ever seen. It looks like the car was cut in half.Read more

    Trip end
    October 8, 2024