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2019 Europe Trip

July - August 2019
August - September 2019 Read more
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  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    1
    Day 13

    Days 12 & 13 Cruising the Denmark Strait

    August 12, 2019, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Two days at sea here and a change of plans. Today we were supposed to be viewing Prince Christian Sound in Greenland. However bad weather meant that wasn’t possible and nor were either of the planned Greenland ports. So a few phone calls and renegotiations later and we are visiting a different Greenland destination - Tasiilaq on the South East of Greenland (Ammassalik) . However that is tomorrow’s story....

    We have two sea days to report on before then. There are some photos of the ship attached, but before that an indication of what a typical day at sea looks like... Breakfast can be challenging as everyone tends to go at the same time meaning getting a seat in the Terraces cafe can be a mission but we usually manage it and tend not to stay long as breakfast for us is usually just cereal and fruit, rather than the full three course event that some make it. Then it’s off to Horizons bar for various games (golf putting; cornhole - it has various names but it’s a throwing game trying to get a bean bag into a hole - and of course bingo!). Combine that with lots of reading and its soon lunch time.

    Same deal at lunch and it’s usually easier to go to the main dining room as the buffet area again gets packed at peak times between noon and about 1.30.

    Ordinarily it would be pool time after that, but as this is a cold weather cruise it’s more reading and further games in the afternoon before Trivia in the late afternoon. All of these activities are in pursuit of Big O points. You get these for winning or placing in the various competitions and they are traded at the end of the trip for tee shirts/bags and other branded gear depending upon how many you have to spend.

    By then it’s time for happy hour in the late afternoon and whale spotting. We’ve seen quite a few today and hope to encounter more close up on a tour we have later in the trip. The evening is taken up with dinner about 7 - 7.30 followed by late night trivia or a show (although we’re not big on those as they tend to be show tunes or the like which neither of us are keen on).

    Photos attached show Our cabin; Horizons Lounge; Our cabin from the other end!; the Nautica lounge (where all the shows take place); our quiz team (I’ve named them the Undertones which they are a bit non-plussed about) in order the people are Kent and Lynette both former biotech doctors from just north of San Francisco, Donna and Malcolm from Chilliwack in Canada; Glenda and Andy (he’s a former naval dentist) from San Diego; one of the officers on board who looks disturbingly like Boris Johnson    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 16

    Day 14 Tasiilaq, Greenland

    August 15, 2019 in Greenland ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Today we visited the substitute port of Tasiilaq part of South Eastern Greenland. Greenland is now it’s own country with appropriate representation and governance although it still retains Danish currency and close economic and militate you ties. The population is mainly Inuit and they have their own language although most have some Danish and some English as well.

    The township itself is about 2500 strong and is as you might imagine fairly basic. There is a small supermarket, a couple of other souvenir/tourist shops, a post office and bank. They have a decent size hospital and school, a couple of churches and a largish port (the main industry being fishing). It takes about an hour to do a loop of the township and see the sights such as they are. The day was an absolute cracker, cool - about 9 degrees - but clear sunny skies after the morning fog had lifted and no wind. the harbour is quite small and there is a lot of loose sea ice floating around (photos attached).

    We left the ship using tender craft to get ashore about 10.30 and were ready to return about 12.15 but very worthwhile despite the short stay.

    A sea day tomorrow as we make our way to Reykjavik where we now have 3 days instead of two due to the other cancelled Greenland port.

    Trivia update - a somewhat frustrating 3rd place today but still regularly featuring in the top three so still happy enough...

    Photos attached - Sea ice; Sea ice and fog!; Tasiilaq; more ice; 3 shots of err downtown...; the local bar (closed when we called in); the Red Church; Nautica at anchor in Tasiilaq harbour    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 17

    Day 15 Reykjavik, Iceland Day 1

    August 16, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    This was the day in Reykjavik we weren’t supposed to have... Following the forced abandonment of a day in Greenland due to weather we arrived back in Iceland a day early for the first of now three days in the capital. We didn’t bother organising a tour and spent the day exploring the city. The local council put on free shuttle buses and we arrived in the city centre about 10.30 am and spent about four hours wandering the streets. It’s a pretty enough city, dominated by a large church at the top of a hill which can be seen from almost everywhere.

    The bus dropped us outside the new Harpa which is a large concert/conference venue on the waterfront. We roamed the historic centre of the city, now dominated by the usual array of pubs and souvenir outlets and which gave us the opportunity to finally upload some blog content. We had been relying on the ship’s wifi alone for the last few days since leaving Isafjodur and which does not have enough enough oomph to upload anything containing a picture.

    Observation - Reykjavik is expensive! Actually Iceland in general is expensive, the meal we had at the Sweet Pig gastro pub (that is the english translation, it has an Icelandic name which I won’t attempt to replicate here) which was a burger for Christine and a pulled lamb dish for me plus a Prosecco and an on site brewed “Orange Blood Pale Ale” (very nice) cost the equivalent of about $110 NZD!!

    There are loads of pubs and craft beer venues, and “happy” hour beers come in at about 1000 ISD which is approx $12.50 NZD - the “ordinary” price is approx double that, so not an especially happy hour...

    I also visited the Iceland Punk Museum which is a tiny little place dedicated to detailing the history of punk music in Iceland and run by one of Iceland’s original pioneers of the genre, really interesting.

    Otherwise we saw the town hall which sits on an artificial lake (pond), the Parliament, several pretty cool sculptures and art works before returning vis the local Vinbudin (Govt run wine, beer and spirits store) to purchase some local beer and wine for responsible in cabin consumption over the next few days. The other interesting thing we came across was the brand new Scenic Eclipse which is a new commercial super yacht run by an Australian outfit and is (after much delay) leaving for her first ever voyage from Reykjavik.

    Photos attached show... The pub we had lunch at; flowers celebrating Gay pride week which starts tomorrow; part of the historic district; me with a street monument; the church in the background of almost everything you see; a loo!!; two downtown shots.    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    1
    Day 18

    Day 16 Reykajavik, Iceland Day 2

    August 17, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Another day, another change of plans. Today was supposed to be the day we took a flight over icefields and active volcanos, however there have been extremely high winds in Reykjavik today and the tour had to be cancelled due to adverse flying conditions for the small plane being used. Tomorrow’s whale watching expedition is in jeopardy for the same reason but i guess we’ll come to that when we get to tomorrow....

    Unfortunately that’s just how things roll in this part of the world where adverse weather is a part of everyday life even in mid-summer. That said apart from the high winds (which wouldn’t rate much of a mention to anyone who has spent much time in Wellington - “a bit breezy” by our standards...!) it was fine and sunny with temps about 15 degrees.

    So with time on our hands we decided to knock off a couple of things we hadn’t managed the previous day in Reykjavik and visited the Northern Lights experience centre which gives information and picture/video representations of the Northern Lights from all over Iceland. For those wondering if we have seen the lights for ourselves... no, this the wrong time to see them as they usually occur in winter between late October and late March although there are occasional sightings from early September through to late April

    After that we headed back through the city and up to the main Church featuring an impressive organ/pipe set up. Of more interest was the assembling of the gay pride parade floats and the parade route was packed.

    Otherwise we occupied ourselves in a couple of local pubs sampling some further local beers (for me at least) before returning to the ship about 3 pm in time for pre dinner happy hour...

    Photos show the Northern Lights (not live..); inside of the Harpa concert hall; the Scenic Eclipse about to embark on her maiden voyage from Reykjavik; the waterfront bar we had a drink at; Reykjavik harbour and public exhibit in the background; Hallgrimskirkja Church which dominates the skyline; the harbour again; another public art piece    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    2
    Day 19

    Day 17/18 Reykjavik and at sea

    August 18, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Well the last Reykjavík day was supposed to be the day we finally went to go whale watching.... But, you guessed it, the weather gods simply will not play ball and it was cancelled (again) due to high winds and rough seas. Having explored most of Reykjavík in the previous two days and the alternative tours on offer not being that attractive, we opted for a day on board.

    Consequently there is little to report apart from our stash of “O” points which you get for winning various games, reaching levels that might enable us to buy the ship when we get off!

    We enjoyed both Reykjavik and Iceland generally, I can report that I bought back to the ship a few examples of locally brewed beers (aside from the ones I sampled on land) and they are uniformally excellent. Even the local lager (Polar Beer) is passable and the other boutique beers are really good.

    We are now en route to Derry, Northern Ireland and we’ve attached some photos of things around the ship to give an idea of the facilities on offer on this small 700 passenger vessel. Tonight we have an invite to Drinks with the Captain for a couple of hours before we due at the specialist Italian restaurant on board “Toscana”.

    Photos - the Grand Dining Room; the crew undertaking a safety drill on the wharf in Reykjavik; the Nautica lounge (the bloke at the lecturn is Shaun our cruise director); Horizons lounge at the front of the ship; a sample of the cruise daily showing the sort of things that happen on a sea day!    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 21

    Day 19 Derry, Ireland

    August 20, 2019 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We arrived in Northern Ireland today. Well sort of, the port we used for Derry (Londonderry to some - depends on which side of the religious divide you sit) is actually in Greensgate which is across the inlet in Donegal, Republic of Ireland, about a 40 minute drive from Derry itself.

    We had decided to take one of the ship’s tours today to Dunluce Castle and the Giant’s Causeway which is a UNESCO world heritage site of uniquely shaped hexagonal rocks. On the way to the causeway you pass through both the seaside towns of Portrush, site of the recent British Open Golf tournament and Bushmills, home of Ireland’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery. It is a fascinating part of Ireland and also in the area is a famous rope bridge and the dark hedges, although due to time constraints we didn’t get to see those....

    As we didn’t arrive in Greensgate until midday (its a long way there from Iceland) this was an afternoon/evening tour and we got to the causeway about 4 pm after a two hour drive and had a couple of hours to look around. That was after a stop at Dunluce which is a castle ruin on the cliffs overlooking Portrush Bay (see photos).

    You could take the bus down to the causeway but we chose to walk (down at least) to the rocks. It is one of the most popular spots in Northern Ireland and there were hundreds of other visitors on the day we were there. You can clamber all over the rocks and there are unsurprisingly a lot of accidents as people slip or fall on the uneven terrain. During the time we were there and although we didn’t see it, a lady (who was not part of our group) fell from her wheelchair badly injuring herself.

    We had two hours there which was enough time for us to see and walk around the causeway and have enough time left over for a drink at the local pub.

    After the trip back to Greensgate we decided to visit another local hostelry for a drink before returning to the ship about 8.45pm before an 11 pm departure.

    Photos attached show... light and dark hexagonal rocks; Dunluce Castle ruins; causeway rocks; the organ pipes (cliffside rock formation); me in front of rock face; the Nook, a local pub we visited; another bar in Greensgate we went to; Portrush Police station and it’s surrounding perimeter fence, a reminder of the sometimes troubled circumstances prevalent in this part of the world.    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 22

    Day 20 Belfast, Ireland

    August 21, 2019 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Really interesting day today. We arrived in Belfast quite early and wanted to go to the Titanic Centre which is (unsurprisingly) in Belfast’s Titanic quarter and was back at the turn of the last century, the world centre of shipbuilding. The centre itself stands on the site of the slipway that launched many ships including the Titanic.

    It is a huge building and the number one tourist destination in Ireland (or Europe if you believe their publicity). We left the ship early to try and beat the masses arriving just after it opened at 8.30. That proved a good decision as when we left about 11 am it was getting pretty packed. It’s very well done and well worth a couple of hours of your time if you are ever here (see some of the photos). There is also a smaller White Star Line Ship, the Normadic, in one of the adjacent slipways that you can walk through, although we didn’t take up that part of the tour as we only had one day in Belfast and many things to do.

    We had been hoping to speak to one of the curators as we had been given copies of letters written by the Titanic’s Quartermaster in the aftermath of the sinking to have looked at with a view to donating the originals (owned by a friend of Christine’s who is his grand daughter). However they were all off site, so the best we could do was get the email address of one of the lead curators and put Dee in direct touch with her.

    After a quick trip back to the ship to drop off the enormous amount of shopping and souvenirs that had been purchased (Christine is mad for the Titanic) we took a couple of hour trip with the taxi driver that had dropped us back there into the Shankhill/Falls Road area of Belfast. Like many drivers in Belfast he specialises in providing independent tours of the area to see and learn about the areas and people that shaped this very divided city.

    He grew up and still lives in Shankhill but nevertheless gave us a rounded overview of both the Protestant (Shankhill) and Catholic (Falls Road) perspectives of the history and key events that still dominate the areas today. It is pretty confronting to see and learn about the atrocities that have been committed by both sides in pursuit of their particular view of how Ireland/Northern Ireland should exist.

    After that we were dropped into the centre of Belfast and that co-incided with the weather packing in. It had been mild and overcast to that point but from about 1 pm it started to rain and get colder and that got progressively worse as the day wore on. After a walk through through the centre of the city we went to the nearby Robinsons Pub for a drink and lunch. Reputationally it is the site of the most bombed pub (it’s actually two pubs joined together) in Belfast and that’s saying something considering the amount of trouble that city has seen over the years.

    We bumped into Dave and Lesley two friends from the ship at the pub (surprising as we were the only non locals there) and had lunch with them before walking to take a look at the Belfast City Hall which is a really impressive building with lots of stained glass marking various Belfast events and information about the many famous people that were born in or lived in the city. By now it was about 3.30, raining and pretty cold so we decided to call it a day and head back to the ship on the double decker buses they had put on to ferry us from the port to the ship and back.

    Photos show... The Titanic Slipway (with our ship in the background...); the main staircase of the ship as depicted in a virtual walk through; a replica Titanic lifeboat; the Titanic Centre; the Normadic; a Protestant memorial wall; our driver and me looking at the exterior of a Shankill house; one of the 47 walls that still separate the Protestant and Catholic areas; Robinsons Pub, downtown Belfast; Belfast city hall    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 23

    Day 21 Dublin, Ireland

    August 22, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Home of Guinness, Temple Bar, the world renowned Trinity College and many (many) churches. It’s a great place but one we had visited previously and seen all the aforementioned things and a few besides. So we decided to make our way into the city, take a wander around and see what took our fancy.

    So after a walk from Merrion Square where we were dropped off about 10.30 am what took our fancy unsurprisingly turned out to be a visit to one of the hundreds of pubs for lunch (the Oliver St. John Gogarty Bar in Temple Bar in this case) which was pretty good. Lucky we were there by 11.45 as from soon after mid-day, every pub was packed with lunch goers. We then went for a stroll up Grafton Street the main shopping drag, through St. Stephens square, the Irish Parliamentary complex and ended up at the Natural History museum which was small but really comprehensive in it’s displays of Irish wildlife.

    By then it was mid afternoon and time for (you guessed it!) another visit to a local pub (Kennedy’s in this case) before walking back to get the 2.45 pm bus back to the ship. Well that was the plan... Turned out the bus had left early as it was packed and the next one wasn’t till 3.30. So we hooked up with another couple of passengers and caught a cab back alongside the river Liffey, arriving back at the ship just before 3 pm.

    As I type this we are just about to depart (6 pm) and have a sea day before concluding the trip in Southampton. So barring a huge win at bingo or one of the quizzes there will likely be little to report until we get to London on Saturday.

    Photos attached show.... Pearse Rail Station; the River Liffey (with our ship in the far background); Hapenny Bridge; the Temple Bar (located in Temple Bar); the pub we had lunch at; the Natural History Museum; two shots from inside said museum; Grafton Street.    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 24

    Day 22 Cruising English Channel

    August 23, 2019, English Channel ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    This was the last day of the cruise portion of the trip before 5 days in London to finish. As is typical on a last day at sea there are several rituals to observe. Firstly there are the many goodbyes you have to make. A small ship like the Nautica means you get to see and spend time with a lot of people and crew over the course of the 20 days.

    Secondly as with all cruise lines they are super keen for you to (positively) review the trip and the crew by means of a survey that each line conducts after every cruise. Then you need to decide to which of the crew you might tip that little bit extra (even though all gratuities are included there is still an expectation that some tipping will take place). Most importantly is the cashing of the credits (O points) that have been won for playing/winning/participating in various games or quizzes during the trip.

    We had a staggering return of over 300 (360 to be exact) which enabled us to get lots of “free” branded gear -socks/hats/shirts/jackets and the like.

    Lastly (after packing of course) we had dinner with our quiz team who had all grown really close over the course of the trip (we ended up finishing second overall in number of points won by any of the 12 or so quiz teams during the voyage if anyone is wondering) and ended up finishing the evening up in the main bar about 11pm.

    Early start tomorrow so that’s it for today’s update. Photos attached show...

    Our O ;points collection!; sunset over Dublin as we pulled out; the final crew show of the trip (virtually the only one we went to over the whole trip); “baggo” - one of the games regularly played on board; Bingo!! - more lost than won I’m afraid; a video of some lumpy weather between Greenland and Iceland in 4 metre seas.    Read more

  • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
    Day 25

    Day 23 Southampton - London

    August 24, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Off the ship for the final time this morning about 8 am. We arranged to get a cab to the rail station with a couple of friends we made on the ship and disembarking was so easy we were off the ship and at the station within 25 minutes which meant over an hour’s wait for our 9.30 train to Waterloo station in London.

    That all went smoothly enough and we arrived about 11.15 and picked up a black taxi to our hotel/apartment in South Kensington. You know how Londons cabbies used to do “the knowledge” (which was a test that meant they had to memorise every street and the quickest direction to it in central London)? Our cabbie was obviously a complete failure at the knowledge as after 40 minutes in his taxi we were further away from where we wanted to be than when we started.

    We had done this trip a few times before so I knew he was completely lost and following a few increasingly heated exchanges we parted ways, settling on a ten pound (out of the 45 on the meter) as fair exchange for his uselessness. I imagine he can still hear the very colourful language I used as I left the cab and hopefully my parting advice to him about choosing a different career path comes to fruition.

    Anyway ten minutes and one driver who did actually know his way around later, we were at the Collingham apartments. We have stayed here about 4 times previously and they really look after us. We have been given a split level balcony apartment and there was a bottle of wine and chocolates awaiting us on arrival.

    London has a reputation for cool cloudy weather, well not today! Almost 30 degrees with more just like it forecast for the next few days. It was a very hot and sweaty journey by tube out to Camden Town Markets for the afternoon where we were met by every other person in London who also wanted to be there on a Saturday afternoon - jeez it was packed!

    Made a few purchases and made our way back to Kensington about 4 pm. After a quick stop at one of the local pubs and a bit of supermarket shopping we decided to call a halt to the day about 6 pm.

    I had intended to get to a local football match (probably QPR) but the time it took to get to our apartment and the crowds at Camden Town put paid to that. A quiet night in cooking for ourselves in preparation for another day in the London heat tomorrow.

    Photos show... The Collingham Apartments; several shots of the inside and balcony of room 122...    Read more

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